Pep Lijnders reveals insight into Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City future plans

Manchester City’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders has insisted that head coach Pep Guardiola remains as ‘hungry’ and as ‘ambitious’ as ever for success at the club.

The comments arrive at a time when City are continuing to evolve as a squad, with several new faces integrating alongside established leaders following a period of notable change.

Saturday’s emphatic FA Cup victory over Exeter offered another reminder of the depth and adaptability within the current group, and with Guardiola watching from the stands due to a touchline suspension, Pep Lijnders oversaw a performance that mixed senior authority with youthful energy.

That mindset has been echoed in recent weeks across Pep Guardiola’s own press conferences, whether discussing the relentless fixture schedule, injury challenges in defence, or the importance of difficult matches in shaping the squad’s progress.

Speaking to reporters following City’s 10-1 demolition of League One side Exeter, Pep Lijnders spoke to reporters on the importance of winning the first trophy as a largely new group of players following a year that brought plenty of change.

“You have players who won everything; Rodri, Bernardo [Silva], Ruben [Dias], all these guys. Gigio [Donnarumma] last year won the big one [UEFA Champions League]. It always helps when you reach finals, get into difficult games,” said Lijnders.

“We want to play as many games as possible, give us the most difficult because with this, we can improve,” he continued. “It’d be unbelievable to go to Wembley. I always feel, especially in the beginning of the season, it’s like a trampoline. Everybody’s playing, involved, everybody knows there’s a next game. Now it’s the [League Cup] semi-final and it’s one leg away, then we have to put ourselves in a good position to take them [Newcastle] here at home.

“There’s a long time between so that’s really strange, by the way. And then we want to go to Wembley because we all know that stadium, the history, the history of this club inside the League Cup as well, so we want to do that again.

“For players it’s always like this to gain confidence, it’s the big games, it’s going away to Real Madrid and win there, it’s going to Newcastle and try to get a good result. We will try that.”

Looking over to his colleague, Lijnders also stressed of the continued determination from Pep Guardiola to be successful despite his remarkable achievements at the Etihad Stadium as he said, “The ambitious ones, they don’t have limits, and he has passion and ambition now.”

Pep Lijnders’ words underline that Pep Guardiola’s future planning at Manchester City is rooted in the same competitive fire that has defined his tenure. Despite an era of unprecedented success, there is no sense of satisfaction or complacency, and only a desire to continue setting new benchmarks and pushing the squad to evolve.

With major fixtures on the horizon across domestic and European competitions, that ambition will soon be tested again. Progress in the League Cup, continued momentum in the FA Cup, and the demands of elite European nights will all shape how Manchester City’s season unfolds.

If Pep Guardiola’s motivation truly remains as strong as his assistant Lijnders suggests, Manchester City supporters can expect the club’s future to be defined not by reflection on past glories, but by a relentless pursuit of what comes next.