Manchester City will look a lot different when the 2025/26 season gets underway in August.
The 2024/25 campaign was a tough one for everyone associated with the Manchester club, and as a result, City will not want to experience this again with Pep Guardiola set to add four or five new faces to his squad this summer.
A revamp of his midfield is going to be at the heart of the rebuild at the Etihad Stadium with Man City closing in on Tijjani Reijnders, while the Premier League club have also begun talks for Rayan Cherki.
There have also been major changes to Guardiola’s backroom staff, with assistant coaches Juanma Lillo and Inigo Dominguez leaving the club this summer, and City may have finally found the perfect replacement for Brian Kidd after many years.
Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty ImagesPepijn Lijnders is the perfect Brian Kidd replacement at Man City
Man City have appointed Pepijn Lijnders to become the new assistant manager for Guardiola ahead of the 2025/26 campaign after the 42-year-old spent nine-and-a-half years in England with Liverpool across two spells.
The Dutch coach won everything alongside Jurgen Klopp at Anfield, and by appointing Lijnders, Man City may have finally found the perfect replacement for Kidd, who left the Etihad Stadium in 2021.
Similar to Lijnders, Kidd worked under one of the greatest managers the Premier League has ever seen in Sir Alex Ferguson at Man United, before joining the City family in 2009 as a Technical Development Manager, before becoming the assistant of Roberto Mancini.
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The Englishman would stay at Man City until 2021, having worked under both Manuel Pellegrini and Guardiola, achieving great success under both legendary managers.
The Spaniard labelled Kidd a “legend” upon his departure from the Premier League giants, telling Mancity.com: “Brian Kidd is a legend in this country. Not only for what he has done here at Manchester City, but at other clubs throughout his incredible career.
“He has been so important to me during my time at the club, and I am sure to Roberto and Manuel also. He has so much respect in our dressing room, from myself, my coaches and most importantly the players.”
If Man City can have similar success with Lijnders as they did with Kidd, the Manchester club will have got this appointment spot on, as City have been looking for the perfect replacement for the 75-year-old for the last four years.
Pepijn Lijnders has broken his Jurgen Klopp promise with Man City move
By moving to Man City, Lijnders is breaking a promise he made to himself after Klopp left Liverpool last year.
The Dutch coach stated that he would never assist another coach after the German, but that has now changed.
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“Yeah, 10 years of the club and my boys don’t know anything else, they are Scousers. I owe this club everything. They don’t owe me anything, to be honest,” Lijnders told Liverpoolfc.com.
“It’s 10 years full of dedication. I always said I will finish with Jürgen; the moment I will not assist anyone else, that’s the moment I will go and I will manage. That was always the case.
“So when we spoke, it was clear for me: OK, then I go and manage, and we end this project together [that] we started. But yeah, it’s not easy.”
Lijnders would have likely spoken to Klopp about this next role in his career, and the German would have certainly told him to go and learn from Guardiola, who is arguably the greatest manager in the history of the sport.