Manchester City players will start the Enzo Maresca era after the World Cup final as the new manager looks to get his squad ready for the coming season. While Maresca has already been hard at work, he will welcome players to start pre-season from Monday July 20 - the day after the World Cup finishes in the United States.
World Cup involvement delays returns
Many of City's players will either still be at the tournament or resting after their involvement. There were 17 Blues who went out representing their countries and so far Abdukodir Khusanov, Tijjani Reijnders and Nathan Ake are the only ones to have been knocked out.
FIFPro recommends that all footballers have at least four weeks off in summer and so it is likely that none of City's players at the World Cup will be back in Manchester by July 20, but there are others who will be. Gianluigi Donnarumma, Phil Foden and Rico Lewis are among those who have not been at the World Cup, and the group will be topped up with promising academy players.
Young players to feature on Asia tour
Maresca is expected to take plenty of young players on the summer tour to Asia, with City heading out at the end of July for three games in Hong Kong and South Korea. City's players from the World Cup are expected to file back into the squad as and when they have rested up, with a possibility that some come out for at least some part of the trip.
They then return ahead of a trip to Cardiff for the Community Shield with Arsenal in the week before the Premier League begins. A home game with Bournemouth is the first test, with the Blues playing the first game of the campaign at the Etihad for the first time in 10 years - a match that marked Pep Guardiola's debut with the club.
