After tamely relinquishing their crown to Liverpool last season, Manchester City look set to launch another strong bid for the Premier League title in 2025/26.
Pep Guardiola's side closed out 2025 with eight straight wins in all competitions, a run that left them well-placed for a route straight into the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds and ready to contest a Carabao Cup semifinal against holders Newcastle United.
City's startling mid-season collapse in 2024/25 prompted a much busier January transfer window than has been the norm under Guardiola, while Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Rayan Cherki were all through the door in time for City's FIFA Club World Cup campaign in June.
An overhaul of the goalkeeping department followed, with James Trafford and Gianluigi Donnarumma arriving either side of Ederson's departure to Fenerbahce and, according to widespread reports, the overhaul is not done. Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo is set to move to the Etihad Stadium in a deal worth in the region of £65million.
MORE: Where would Semenyo fit best among the Premier League's 'Big Six'?
Semenyo scored when the Cherries beat City 2-1 at the Vitality Stadium last season and this time around he has been one of the Premier League's outstanding players, scoring nine goals and laying on three assists in 17 appearances.
But how will he fit into a squad packed with attacking and creative talent, while adapting to Guardiola's specific demands in mid-season?
Why are Man City signing Antoine Semenyo?
Release clause
Even though long-serving sporting director Txiki Begiristain left the building last summer, City aren't about to let go of their Release Clause FC status. Despite — or, more likely, because of – their standing as one of the most financially powerful clubs in world football, City have traditionally been reluctant to get involved in the bidding wars that tend to come with a player like Semenyo being on the market. If there was not an upper ceiling of £65m on the transfer, it is unlikely Begiristain's successor Hugo Viana would be at the negotiating table.
Lack of a consistent right winger
Insofar as he has one, the right-hand side of the attack is something of a problem position for Guardiola. Jeremy Doku and Omar Marmoush each strongly prefer to play off the left. The same could possibly be said for Savinho, who nominally plays on the right for City but produced his best performances for Girona on the left wing.
Oscar Bobb started as City's first choice right winger this season but has continued to bleed form and confidence after the leg break that ruined what looked like being a breakout 2024/25. Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki have all filled in on the right this term, but have drifted in-field to the central areas where they are most comfortable, leaving converted full-back Matheus Nunes to supply most of the width.
Semenyo is comfortable on both flanks but the right appears to be his most likely home at City, especially with Doku and Marmoush around. Bobb was linked with a loan move to Borussia Dortmund as the Semenyo story gathered pace.
Pep Guardiola's changing style
Several observers have noted that Semenyo's direct and hard-running style does not make him a natural fit for a Guardiola team, and not without good reason. Think of the job Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish did in City's treble-winning team, where a key part of their job was to help control the tempo, cherish possession and get the team up the field for the likes of Kevin De Bruyne to do damage through the middle.
Semenyo would have arguably have been a fish out of water in that City team, but this one is a different beast. Certainly during the first few months of the season, they were a side far more reliant on transitions than any of Guardiola's previous iterations, and Doku and Erling Haaland thrived. This has changed over recent weeks, with more evidence of controlled dominance in a team packed with central midfielders.
Nevertheless, Guardiola appears to have accepted that his ideal of 75% possession and minimal shots against is harder to achieve in the modern Premier League. That remains the goal, but a greater proportion of teams have the coaching expertise and playing talent to defuse a playing style that has defined much of the past two decades in football. City now have a collection of players who mean they can still win when they don't hog the ball.
In Donnarumma, he has a goalkeeper who makes saves and does little else; Haaland is a goal-scoring machine who has a moderate impact in overall play. Aside from those two obvious specialists, signings such as Doku, Nunes, Savinho, Marmoush and Tiajni Reijnders are all players who thrive as ball-carriers who can exploit transitions. Semenyo's signing continues this pattern, while the reality that Guardiola is closer to the end than the beginning of his tenure means that all of Viana's new signing must be made with one eye on life after Pep.
Dependence on Haaland
Semenyo is the third highest scorer in the Premier League this season but still has 10 fewer goals than Haaland. Any team with a player putting up such gargantuan numbers will be dependent on them to some extent. Barcelona and Real Madrid depended quite heavily upon Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo respectively a decade ago, and no one felt this was a huge problem.
Still, City felt dangerously Haaland-or-bust during the opening months of this season. Foden, Cherki and, more recently, Reijnders have since come to the party in terms of sharing the goal burden, but an injury-hit campaign so far for Marmoush means the wide attackers are still not pulling their weight.
For all his undoubted talents, Doku is not a player likely to run up vast numbers of goals. The same can be said for Savinho, as was the case with Grealish. Semenyo's signing might nudge Guardiola back to the times when he could set his watch by Riyadh Mahrez and Raheem Sterling racking up double figures every season.