Guardiola hoping Club World Cup provides fresh blueprint

After a sorely disappointing season, Manchester City have a chance to revive their fortunes with a new-look side

- Jamie Jackson

Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, 18 June, noon local time (5pm BST): when Manchester City wander out for their opening Fifa Club World Cup Group G game against Wydad AC, the 2025-26 campaign begins for Pep Guardiola.

The Premier League's opening day may be 16 August but if the Club World Cup exists in a no man's land of post-season, close season or pre-pre-season, for the Catalan the inaugural 32-team tournament fires the starting pistol on next season, an attempt to fix the wrongs of 2024-25, and a push to re-establish City as a relentless force.

As he says: "I'm pretty sure next season we'll be better."

What intrigues is the XI the 54-year-old will send out against the 22-time Moroccan champions.

Unlike the phoney war of summer tour matches, the Club World Cup is a competition Guardiola and City fiercely want to win, and offers the chance to arrive on Premier League opening weekend with the scars of finishing potless for the first time in eight years healed.

They may also have a fresh blueprint already proved (hopefully) via a competition that also features Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Flamengo and Palmeiras, and which may have Guardiola's men battle-hardened by seven matches should they reach the final on 13 July.

Imagine, too, how buoyant City will be should they end as victors; suddenly 2025 will be a successful year.

A glance at Group G points to victory in the final match against Juventus at Orlando's Camping World Stadium meaning swerving Madrid in the last 16 (if the Spanish giants claim Group H).