Manchester City’s goal heading into the 2025/26 campaign will be to regain the Premier League title from Liverpool.
Last season was very underwhelming for Pep Guardiola’s men, as they went from winning four Premier League titles in a row to needing to secure Champions League football on the final day of the term.
As a result, Man City went into this summer looking to add four to five new faces to Guardiola’s squad, a target they have already achieved; however, Liverpool have also added from a position of strength.
On paper, Arne Slot’s squad look like they are the team to beat again, as the Reds have done something that has left the Manchester club surprised behind the scenes.
Man City have been left surprised by Liverpool’s spending
Jurgen Klopp once said Liverpool could never spend like Man City, implying that the Reds would always be at a disadvantage to their Premier League rivals, and that is the view most people had of the Merseyside club heading into the summer transfer window.
However, having won the league last season, in addition to spending very little during recent transfer windows, Liverpool decided to go big this summer, with the signing of Hugo Ekitike taking their spending over the £200m mark ahead of the 2025/26 season.
According to ESPN journalist Rob Dawson, this has left people behind the scenes at Man City surprised, and the quality of players that have joined Slot’s squad will also have the Manchester club concerned.
“I mean, I mentioned before, you’re coming off the back of Premier League champions, that it would have been very easy for Liverpool to sit and say, well, we’ve actually got a lot of the pieces that we need here,” Dawson said on ESPN’s The Football Reporters podcast.
“Anyway, we only need like one or two tweaks. I just feel from the outside, particularly speaking to people around Man City and Man United, there has been a bit of surprise about just the amount of money that they’ve been able to spend and the quality of player that they’ve brought in.”
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Liverpool have beaten Man City in several transfer races this summer
The reason Man City are worried about Liverpool behind the scenes is a result of knowing how good the players the Reds have added are, as Guardiola had his eye on many of them.
Florian Wirtz was Man City’s top target heading into the summer; however, the German star opted to join Liverpool as part of an initial £116m deal.
Milos Kerkez was also on Man City’s list of targets, but once again, the Hungarian opted to make the switch from Bournemouth to Anfield. While on the other flank, Guardiola also had an interest in Jeremie Frimpong before the right-back completed his £29.5m move to the Reds.
Beating Liverpool to the Premier League title will be a tough challenge for Man City over the coming months, and although Guardiola’s team still have many weaknesses, there is no one better than the legendary coach to find a way to silverware this season.
