An impressive 3-0 win over Liverpool gave Manchester City a huge lift heading into the November international break, and they sit four points behind leaders Arsenal after 11 games.
With a third title race against the Gunners in four years in sight, and an unbeaten start in the Champions League, Pep Guardiola’s side will be pushing hard through to Christmas with a run that begins at St James’ Park on Saturday teatime.
The January transfer window is not far away now, several key players are up for new contracts and, as ever, there’s uncertainty over Guardiola’s future.
So what’s the truth behind the rumours? We put your questions to our City expert JACK GAUGHAN, and this is everything you need to know…
How big are the chances of Man City going for Antoine Semenyo? Do you think the club will make a move? (@Hermesito1303)
Are the club smelling blood in the Premier League in terms of genuinely going for the title or are they taking a measured approach? If we look good or are on top in January, will we strengthen should a market opportunity arise? (@FavelaFoden47)
No mucking about, straight in with the January questions. I’d expect it to be far quieter than last season, which ended up being an outlier in terms of a winter window. It was so busy that some staff were completely thrown by the level of business. This year the whole place feels more settled and there isn’t actually much numerical room within the squad for additions.
After Txiki Begiristain’s departure, we’re in a bit of an unknown territory with the recruitment set-up and that will only settle into a recognised pattern of working after a few windows. Hugo Viana may be more proactive in the middle of a season and want to shake things up more regularly.
Manchester City are keeping a watching brief on Antoine Semenyo, who has six goals and three assists in the league this season for Bournemouth
Director of football Hugo Viana (left) with club legend Mike Summerbee
If that came to pass, it’d be unlikely to take hold while Pep Guardiola remains in situ, with last January an exceptional circumstance for a man who likes the same group of players throughout the season.
As for Semenyo, the £60million price tag looks attractive to all of the Premier League’s top clubs and there is a little bit of a watching brief going on around the situation from City’s perspective at the moment. But there are undoubtedly rival clubs with greater needs who are further down the line with Semenyo, who has six goals and three assists in 11 Premier League appearances this season.
There have been questions sent in about James Trafford, Stefan Ortega and Nathan Ake too. It feels inconceivable that both goalkeepers will leave (and it should be remembered that Ortega turned down approaches from Fenerbahce, Sunderland and Burnley over the summer). Trafford doesn’t necessarily need regular games to make the World Cup squad as Thomas Tuchel’s third choice.
Ake seems to be in a similar boat, Ronald Koeman suggesting last week that as a member of the Netherlands’ leadership group, the defender is going to the World Cup regardless of the minutes under his belt. Ake himself though is frustrated after registering just one Premier League start so far.
Persistent injuries have seen him fall down the pecking order over the last 18 months and Ake is one to watch come January. His relationship with Guardiola is very strong and if Ake communicates that the time has come, the manager will respect that.
PS: There are at least two others who are weighing up their positions within the squad, but we’ll see how that develops over the coming weeks.
Is there a chance for Claudio Echeverri to move clubs in January because of his game time? How is his current situation viewed at the club? (@leafMCI)
City have the option to recall Echeverri from Bayer Leverkusen in January and are obviously not overly enamoured, let’s say, with how the loan spell has gone. Have I done a good job at underplaying that? Probably.
Echeverri has started one Bundesliga game and made three substitute appearances. His start, lasting 56 minutes, came at the beginning of the month after six weeks of not featuring in domestic competition at all.
City could recall Claudio Echeverri (left) from his loan at Bayer Leverkusen in January if they do not see an uptick in his playing time
Two of his three starts in all competitions have come against Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain. Ironically, he’s got more chance of playing at the Etihad Stadium when Leverkusen arrive next week than away at Wolfsburg on Saturday.
City had wanted the Argentine (who came on in the FA Cup final, remember) to spend the year at sister club Girona but his representatives chose Leverkusen. There will be a re-evaluation over the next few weeks.
As an aside, despite Girona’s campaign proving a real struggle (they’re in the La Liga relegation zone), fellow January arrival Vitor Reis has been given exposure to a top league and earning regular minutes.
What’s going on with new contracts for Phil Foden, Rodri and John Stones? (various)
City are expected to soon open contract negotiations with a resurgent Foden, who has 18 months left on his current deal.
Rodri’s expires in 2027 as well and the new contract being mooted for him last year was derailed by his long-term knee injury. It’s natural that City would wait to see how his full recovery goes before pitching where a new deal might land.
Stones – out of contract next summer – is beginning to prove his consistent fitness, which puts him in a better position to agree fresh terms. But it’s likely he’ll have to stay injury-free for a little longer before those begin.
Rodri (left) and Phil Foden’s contracts expire in 18 months’ time – the Spaniard may have to wait for a new deal while he continues to fully recover from last season’s knee injury
John Stones may also have to prove his fitness for a bit longer before City are ready to offer fresh terms to the England centre back, who is out of contract next summer
A non-City fan here but I’m old enough to remember when they were a lot of people’s second team. But do you think City’s good name will be forever tarnished even if proven innocent of the charges? (@AndrewR70663747)
We were having a little fun about transfers and contracts and then bang, an existential question! I’ve looked at Andrew’s X account and he’s a Cardiff City fan (header photo of Ninian Park, which I regrettably never visited) and it’s a well-reasoned one to ask.
Everybody will have different opinions on this. If found innocent of all wrongdoing, I don’t think you can say that the legacy itself is tarnished.
Legacy and their name aren’t entirely the same thing though and I can’t see opinions changing on either side of this debate. Views are so entrenched that potential innocence won’t be accepted and potential guilt won’t either.
There will now forever be whispering, murmuring about this period of dominance (whether City care about that or not remains to be seen). That’s just a fact, you see it when experts talk about placing an asterisk next to titles.
We now have a status quo where both sides think what they think and are undoubtedly going to dig in even further when this judgment is finally handed down.
Ultimately, it’s hard to imagine Guardiola’s sensational teams being afforded the credit they deserve. To illustrate the point of entrenched views to an extent: look at the discourse around the 2012 title and the ‘conspiracy’ around the final minutes of that dramatic 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers.
This week, Mike Dean and Wayne Rooney have been talking up the perceived curiosities of QPR’s performance in the final moments. The theories are still running despite several QPR players giving detailed accounts of that day, Nedum Onuoha clearly still seething at Joey Barton for getting sent off.
Nobody is going to convince Rooney otherwise and that is going to be the case for the 115 charges, whichever way the case goes.
Conspiracy theories are still swirling about QPR’s defeat by City on the final day in 2012, no matter the evidence to the contrary
Do you think Erling Haaland can keep up his form and propel City to the league title and Champions League glory? (@CodeXII2)
Absolutely, he’s on one of those streaks when you wonder if it’ll ever end.
He’s become more complete as a footballer over the past year and has got to have eyes on the Ballon d’Or now. The bigger question is, what happens if he gets injured?
How are the new coaching staff being received at the club? And is it possible that Guardiola will leave at the end of this season? (@VladimirBa47485)
Do you think Pep will extend his contract beyond this season? (@KevRole)
The players responded positively to Pep Lijnders, Kolo Toure and James French during the Club World Cup and Guardiola has suggested that the tournament in the United States can act as a solid foundation for success this year.
Lijnders has become hugely instrumental behind the scenes, as you’d expect, and I wrote about his relationship with Guardiola last month – which includes a night out with Neil Warnock.
Will Guardiola leave at the end of the season? Nobody could say either way with great certainty – and there is decent evidence for that.
There lives this constant state of doubt around his future, much of it owing to his impulsive nature. You can point towards the fact he’s never broken a contract as a reason for him seeing out the two years but can also claim that doesn’t matter because doing nine years at a club is uncharted territory.
Guardiola has said he wanted to oversee the City rebuild and, from talking to people around the club, is enthused by what he’s seeing at the moment.
But what I learned to my cost in 2024 – when saying he was heading for the exit in summer 2025 – is the changeable weather. Even when he had it clear in his head that last season was going to be the end in England, his mind changed. And he admitted it himself.
Pep Guardiola’s new assistants Pep Lijnders (centre) and Kolo Toure (right) have both hit the ground running this season
Guardiola has said he wanted to oversee the City rebuild and, from talking to people around the club, is enthused by what he’s seeing at the moment
‘Since the beginning of the season I’ve been thinking a lot,’ Guardiola said after signing that contract last November. ‘I thought that (2024-25 season) should be the last one. But with the problems we had in the last month, I felt that now is not the time to leave. I would have let the club down.’
What I would venture is that there is now no perfect time for Guardiola to leave. Win the league this year and quit? A fairytale ending, but it puts the pressure on Viana to land a successor. Because while City will have a list of three or four they are monitoring as part of the planning, being able to secure them at relatively short notice is another matter entirely.
Did City want to sign Rodrygo before the start of the season or was it never going to happen at all, despite the Savinho news? (@ryanmcclain117)
They were definitely keen and that would have become more concrete, if Spurs had reached the financial levels required to sign Savinho.
As it was, they didn’t, and City’s Brazilian winger signed a new contract soon afterwards.
If Francis Lee hadn’t sacked him, how would Brian Horton have accommodated Georgi Kinkladze in a side with Paul Walsh? (@RobMcKay86)
I asked Brian if he fancied answering this, Rob. But, typical football manager, he came back to say that he’ll pass on any hypothetical questions. I did try!
