Coronavirus may have brought a halt to football around Europe, but that won’t have stopped clubs planning for the future.
Football is going to return at some point, and the big clubs won’t want their plans for next season to have been ruined by the pandemic.
Of all the big clubs who need to plan ahead, Manchester City are towards the top of the list.
This season has been something of a disaster for Pep Guardiola’s side, who have looked far off the levels they’ve set in the past.
Many are predicting a significant overhaul in the summer and, according to Sport, there are three big decisions that Guardiola has to make.
They report that the Catalan boss ‘ponders modifications’ to his team during COVID-19 confinement and there are three particular areas he needs to focus on.
First is the problem at left-back. Manchester City started the season with three players in the position, Angeliño, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Benjamin Mendy.
Angeliño left for RB Leipzig in January leaving Zinchenko and Mendy, but neither of those are particularly sure-fire bets.
This season was supposed to be ‘Mendy’s consecration campaign’ say the newspaper, but instead, he has divided playing time with Zinchenko.
Guardiola expects more from him, and it’s undeniable the position is a problem for him. He now has to choose whether to buy a new left-back or bet on those two alternating. This, they say, is ‘the great unknown’.
Pep’s second problem is what they do post Agüero. The Argentine is set to leave Manchester City when his contract expires next summer.
He intends to return to Argentina to finish his career there and City ned to find his replacement. The idea was for it to be Gabriel Jesús, but he has not found ‘consistency’ during his time at the Etihad.
This season he’s managed 18 goals and nine assists, though, so Guardiola needs to decide if he is the man to bank on moving forward.
Last but not least is the captaincy issue. With David Silva leaving, the role is set to become vacant again this summer.
AS say ‘logic’ points to Fernandinho assuming the role but at 35-years-old he is also coming towards the end of his career.
Therefore it is ‘not ruled out’ that Guardiola offers the captaincy to a younger player, someone who ‘represents the philosophy and has the affection of the fans. Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne are considered as ‘real options’ in that regard.
