The Premier League kicks off this weekend and all eyes will be on Pep Guardiola's Manchester City after a difficult 2024/25 campaign. It has been a summer of change at the Etihad Stadium and here we look ahead to a season in which City will be determined to bounce back.
Prospects
Saturday evening’s friendly against Italian Serie B side Palermo hinted that Manchester City are back on track on the eve of the new season.
The club grabbed a 3-0 victory in Sicily against their City Football Group stablemate, with John Stones starting after months out with injury and summer signing Tijjani Reijnders scoring twice as a second-half substitute. Goalkeeper James Trafford, another recent recruit, played the first half and looked comfortable for the most part.
The clean sheet will be welcome and the age profile of the starting XI suggests City’s rapid rebuild in 2025 is nearly complete, but there are still some defensive gremlins to purge after their title challenge unravelled last winter.
City also have some injury worries going into the new season and a cluster of players apparently set to leave what is a large first-team squad by recent standards.
Ballon d’Or winner Rodri is out for now and Mateo Kovacic will be sidelined for a couple of months with an Achilles injury, leaving Nico Gonzalez as the only conventional defensive midfielder in the squad. Phil Foden is not expected to be fit for the start of the season, while neither Josko Gvardiol nor Claudio Echeverri travelled last weekend.
Jack Grealish has secured a loan deal at Everton, James McAtee looks likely to leave for Nottingham Forest, while Stefan Ortega and Kalvin Phillips may well depart, too. Savinho has been the subject of reported interest from Spurs.
Guardiola’s side will be a fun watch this season, but City will not be many people’s favourites to reclaim their crown, despite winning the Premier League title in six of the last eight years. Only time will tell whether they can get back to their best after the multiple setbacks of last term or if this will be a year of transition.
Last five finishes
- 2024/25: 3rd
- 2023/24: 1st
- 2022/23: 1st
- 2021/22: 1st
- 2020/21: 1st
First five fixtures
- August 16: Wolves (A)
- August 23: Tottenham (H)
- August 31: Brighton (A)
- September 14: Manchester United (H)
- September 21: Arsenal (A)
The manager
Pep Guardiola: Committed himself to the club until 2027 last autumn and refreshed his coaching staff in the close season, bringing in Kolo Toure and Pepijn Lijnders.
In an intriguing interview with GQ earlier this month, Guardiola said that last season’s downturn was a “healthy process for the club, because success can confuse you”, adding that “you can’t win every time”. He also made the point that the club finished third last term, which represented a drop off from the heights of previous years, but not as deep a dip as some have suggested.
Guardiola sounds philosophical and realistic on the eve of the new campaign. He is also one of the greatest innovators and problem-solvers the sport has ever known. With a squad comprehensively rebuilt in two transfer windows, he may feel his side is on the cusp of a return to the summit.
Star signing
Rayan Cherki: All the summer intake look capable of excelling, including Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves, Rayan Cherki from Lyon, Reijnders from AC Milan and Trafford from Burnley. Midfielder Sverre Nypan and goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli also arrived from Rosenborg and Chelsea respectively, but neither is expected to feature much.
Anyone who saw Cherki’s electric cameo in France’s 5-4 defeat by Spain at the Nations League finals this summer, will be aware of his capabilities. He made his international debut after a stellar season at Lyon, where he finished as top assist provider in both Ligue 1 and the Europa League.
City have to mitigate against the absence of Kevin De Bruyne this season after his departure to Serie A. Cherki, who turns 22 this month, is an incredibly gifted player who could secure the high volume of assists and goals the Belgian provided for a decade.
Key player
Rodri: The Ballon d’Or winner’s latest setback, a groin injury during City’s Club World Cup exit to Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal, is a reminder of how important Rodri has been to the side’s trophy-laden recent past and how much he is missed when unavailable.
He played 56 times for the club in the treble-winning 2022/23 season and 50 times the following term as well as in major tournaments for Spain. But an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained in last September’s dramatic home draw against Arsenal ruled him out until the final moments of the 2024/25 campaign.
City looked meek and vulnerable at times in his absence, particularly during the period from November to March. If Rodri can successfully recover from injury and return to anything close to his prior form, City could be unstoppable this season.
Hot prospect
Oscar Bobb: A fractured leg in last year’s preseason meant Bobb barely featured last term, a situation compounded by a secondary injury in April. Bobb will be familiar to many for his stunning piece of footwork in a De Bruyne-assisted winner away at Newcastle in City’s last title-winning season. He was expected to feature far more heavily last term before injury tore those plans apart.
Bobb scored against Al Ain in the summer’s Club World Cup and put in a good performance in Palermo this month, suggesting he may be on the cusp of a strong comeback at City.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
When Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi
Known as The Lady of Arabic Song, Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi on November 28, 1971, as part of celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. A concert hall was constructed for the event on land that is now Al Nahyan Stadium, behind Al Wahda Mall. The audience were treated to many of Kulthum's most well-known songs as part of the sold-out show, including Aghadan Alqak and Enta Omri.
The Freedom Artist
By Ben Okri (Head of Zeus)
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
'Operation Mincemeat'
Director: John Madden
Cast: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfayden, Kelly Macdonald and Penelope Wilton
Rating: 4/5
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Results
Final: Iran beat Spain 6-3.
Play-off 3rd: UAE beat Russia 2-1 (in extra time).
Play-off 5th: Japan beat Egypt 7-2.
Play-off 7th: Italy beat Mexico 3-2.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20OneOrder%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20March%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Tamer%20Amer%20and%20Karim%20Maurice%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Cairo%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E82%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Series%20A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Swiss fly direct from the UAE to Zurich from Dh2,855 return, including taxes.
The chalet
Chalet N is currently open in winter only, between now and April 21. During the ski season, starting on December 11, a week’s rental costs from €210,000 (Dh898,431) per week for the whole property, which has 22 beds in total, across six suites, three double rooms and a children’s suite. The price includes all scheduled meals, a week’s ski pass, Wi-Fi, parking, transfers between Munich, Innsbruck or Zurich airports and one 50-minute massage per person. Private ski lessons cost from €360 (Dh1,541) per day. Halal food is available on request.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
The specs: 2018 Infiniti QX80
Price: base / as tested: Dh335,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.1L / 100km
