Pep Guardiola will be unveiled to Manchester City fans on Sunday as the club aims to kick off a new era in style.
City have opened the doors to their City Football Academy training complex this weekend. On Saturday supporters were treated to tours of the site, football tournaments and guest speeches from club staff and former players.
But Sunday is the main event. As well as the official launch of the new home kit for the 2016-17 season along with its new badge, Guardiola will address fans to give them an outline of his vision for the club.
Tickets for Guardiola’s address sold out within hours of going on sale at the start of June, with Blues fans clearly excited to get a glimpse of their new boss.
And they will be wondering what he is likely to say. After a disappointing end to Manuel Pellegrini’s reign, a new era is set to begin at the Etihad Stadium and supporters have been invited to submit questions to the Catalan.
Here are five topics Guardiola could discuss as he speaks to supporters for the first time.
THE PHILOSOPHY
Much is made of Guardiola’s playing style and fans and media alike will watch with interest to see how he adapts to the English football’s exacting demands.
Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has backed the new boss to “transform” City, and while there is an expectation that his passion and commitment will take the club as a whole to the next level, that can only be achieved if there is success on the pitch.
“I love to attack,” Guardiola said on the day he was unveiled at Bayern Munich. “That is my footballing idea.”
There is no denying that Guardiola’s basic principles are to take the game to the opposition by playing high-tempo, attractive football, with City fans likely to be told exactly what to expect in the next three years.
But while some detractors insist the Premier League will be Guardiola’s toughest test to date, he will be well aware that he cannot try to impose a style that does not work.
“Barcelona players have different qualities to those of Bayern,” he said three years ago upon arrival in Germany. “I need to adjust, the system does not.”
SQUAD OVERHAUL
There can be no denying, though, that there will be changes this summer. Guardiola will be expected to get more out of several members of the squad that he inherits - as well as developing youngsters - but City are hard at work recruiting the kind of talent that will smooth the transition.
Ilkay Gundogan was the first through the door; he will be a key figure in Guardiola’s midfield. Nolito learned his trade at Barcelona and thrived in a high-pressing system at Celta, making him another ideal signing.
City identified a number of targets in the early part of the year to help initiate the first phase of the Guardiola era. Their interest in some – such as Aymeric Laporte – has faded but others – like Gundogan and John Stones – should be running out at the Etihad Stadium next season.
The common theme is that they are all supremely confident in possession. Some, like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Leroy Sane and Paul Pogba, would also bring speed and penetration. Not all will be signed, of course – interest in Pogba is said to have fallen away some time ago – but the fact these players have been pursued at some stage shows that Guardiola is looking to combine the metronomic passing of Barcelona with his more muscular Bayern Munich.
To make way, a number of City’s stalwarts over the past few years will be shown the door. Guardiola is unlikely to name names on Sunday but Al Mubarak hinted at a parting of the ways in his June interview and that tone is likely to be repeated.
MANUEL PELLEGRINI
Last season was a disappointment for City but the club’s ownership nevertheless showed their gratitude to Manuel Pellegrini with two expensive LS Lowry paintings.
Guardiola has always been extremely complimentary of the Chilean, too.
“I am a huge fan of Pellegrini,” he wrote in a recent Pellegrini biography. “I have learned much from him and his concepts.
“I am lucky to be a great admirer and a colleague of him. I feel as though I am a follower of him, of his game philosophy. One can watch one of his teams without knowing who trains them and one would immediately know that this is a Pellegrini team just by the way they play.
“He likes good players, those who control the ball and always play ahead.
“His teams play very well. I enjoy watching them. He is a coach whose ideas are very clear. I have faced him several times and I have suffered when he was with Villarreal or with Real Madrid while I was at Barcelona. The same with him now at City and with me here at Bayern.”
Guardiola is likely to find some time to praise his predecessor’s work.
BAYERN FAILURE?
Things were not all plain sailing for Guardiola last season, either. While no other coach is expected to win the Champions League for a third time before detractors stop calling them a fraud, he himself invited journalists to “kill me” if Bayern lost to Atletico Madrid in last season’s semi-finals.
He later admitted, somewhat reluctantly, that he would have to live with people branding his time in Munich a failure.
“If my work is judged on whether I win the Champions League or not, I have failed,” he said in May. “I need to accept that. If people think I have failed, I have to accept that. If you think that I have failed, you have to write it.
“Of course I wanted to win the Champions League with Bayern and I tried my best to do that - I've given my life for this team.”
It is clear there were some onlookers desperate to see him come unstuck in his last job - or perhaps some who were merely not on the same page as far as Bayern’s expectations were concerned.
For a proud man like Guardiola, that will hurt, and there may well be a sense of injustice coming through as he sets about his work in Manchester.
THE NEXT GENERATION
City boast one of the best academies in world football – and one the club’s fans will be able to see for themselves on Sunday.
Changes for next season are already being implemented. Academy director Mark Allen confirmed on Saturday that the Under-18s team will be made up of Under-17s players, while the Elite Development Squad – effectively the reserves, who can come up against big-name professionals returning from injuries - will consist of Under-19s. Anybody older than 19 will either be in the City first team or loaned out. There are high standards at the club.
A number of young players are living up to those standards, too, and Guardiola will run the rule over several of them during pre-season. Centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo, midfielders Manu and Aleix Garcia and winger Bersant Celina are among those who will be assessed in the coming months. Behind them, 16-year-old Brahim Diaz (above) is expected to make his mark at senior level in the coming years, while 10 prospects were handed four-year professional contracts on Friday.
“I’m going to shut myself up in Sabener Strasse so that I know everything about the club as quickly as possible, right down to the youngsters in the youth system,” Guardiola, who already knew everything about La Masia at Barcelona, said at his Bayern unveiling.
When he was asked about buying players for Bayern, this was his answer: “I need to see. I must speak with [sporting director Matthias] Sammer. I'm sure that Bayern have good young players. I got a little information about these players during my year in New York. I need to see. And after that I will make a decision.”
Youngsters will form a huge part of City’s future, just as they will in Guardiola’s speech.
- Goal