Manchester City will assess the potential of a few of their rising youth talents during their 2021/2022 pre-season tour.
After a disappointing end to last season which saw Manchester City fall short against Chelsea in the Champions League final, pre-season is as crucial as ever as they look to compete on all four fronts after claiming the league title from Liverpool.
The English side also won the Carabao Cup for the fourth successive season, which is testament to the strength in-depth possessed by the squad.
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The Premier League champions will meet Championship side Preston in their academy stadium in late July, before they are scheduled to travel to France to play against Troyes, as reported by Sam Lee of The Athletic.
Interestingly, Manchester City will face Barcelona, who’ve signed both Sergio Agüero and Eric Garcia from the Manchester side for free, in a friendly in the latter stages of August, after the league season has begun.
Guardiola will be keeping close tabs on Liam Delap, Roméo Lavia, Luke Mbete-Tabu, James McAtee, Cole Palmer during the course of their pre-season friendlies, as the Catalan aims to integrate a few of City’s young talents into the first-team.
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Early pre-season preparations could yet again play a vital role in how Guardiola’s side fare at the start of next season, as a lack of pre-season hampered their beginning to the 2020/21 campaign.
Following their 2-0 defeat against Tottenham in November last year, City made their worst-ever start to a league campaign since 2008 – which turned out to be a significant moment in their season as a whole.
With the European Championships set to conclude in the second week of July, City’s youngsters have the perfect opportunity to impress Guardiola by starring in pre-season, while first-team players recover after a long and demanding campaign.
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