Man City's season with £115m triple signing simulated as two huge trophies won
We simulated the 2025/26 season with Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, and Rayan Ait-Nouri at Manchester City to see what could happen
Manchester City are looking to get their transfer business done early, with Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders looking set for moves to the Etihad Stadium this summer following Rayan Ait-Nouri's arrival this week.
After suffering a trophyless season for the first time in eight years, City are looking to bolster their squad in the summer transfer window as Pep Guardiola's side looks to compete again next season. Kevin De Bruyne won't be at the club for the upcoming campaign after departing the club following the end of his contract, but City have wasted no time trying to find his replacement, along with a few other additions.
City have agreed deals with Lyon's Cherki and Milan's Reijnders, while Wolves' Ait-Nouri has now been unveiled as a City player, with the total cost for the trio coming in at around £115million. The three players should all be available to feature in the Club World Cup, but how could they perform under Guardiola throughout the upcoming 2025/26 season?
Let's take a look...
Man City's 2025/26 season simulated with Reijnders, Cherki and Ait-Nouri
To set up this simulation, we used Football Manager 2024 to sign Reijnders, Cherki and Ait-Nouri before simulating the 2025/26 season, and this is how the trio performed.
Ait-Nouri began the season as Guardiola's first-choice left-back, but with two attacking full-backs, they were leaking goals regularly. Hence, the defender struggled for game time in the second half of the season, with most of his appearances coming in cup competitions, while Josko Gvardiol moved back to left-back.
Reijnders struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League in his first season at City, while Nico Gonzalez started to thrive next to Rodri, with the Spaniard being preferred by Guardiola. By far the biggest success story of the summer transfer window was Cherki, with the Frenchman claiming the right-wing spot as his own.
Cherki made 48 appearances across all competitions, tallying 18 goal contributions in that time. Only Rodri (7.32) and Phil Foden (7.30) averaged a higher rating per game than Cherki (7.23). On the other hand, Reijnders started 14 games and appeared 12 times off the bench, with his average one of the lowest out of all the City midfielders.
At the end of the 2025/26 season, Football Manager 2024 put together an overall best Man City XI, based on performances, statistics, and other metrics. This is what it looked like:
Full City best XI: (4-2-3-1): Ederson; Nunes, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol; Rodri, Gonzalez; Cherki, Marmoush, Foden; Haaland.
Gvardiol beat Ait-Nouri to the left-back position in City's best XI, with Ait-Nouri averaging a lower rating per game (7.13) than the Croatian (7.21). Foden and Omar Marmoush joined Cherki behind Erling Haaland, while Matheus Nunes was the standout performer under Guardiola, with the transformed right-back averaging the highest rating per game in the City squad (7.76).
City's summer transfers gave them some of the best squad depth in the league, and this played a pivotal role in Guardiola's side winning both the Premier League and the Champions League in a colossal season.
25 wins, eight draws and five losses saw City pick up 83 points in the Premier League, with Guardiola's side beating Liverpool to the title by two points, though they had secured the Premier League trophy with a game to spare. The likes of Ait-Nouri and Reijnders appeared more in the Champions League than the Premier League, and the latter managed to get on the scoresheet as City beat Barcelona 3-1 to win their second Champions League trophy.
City came close to a treble as they reached the FA Cup final, but a 2-1 loss to Liverpool saw them miss out. Their Carabao Cup campaign was one to forget, with a rotated side crashing out of the competition in the fourth round following a shock 5-1 defeat against Southampton.
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