Man City hunt for seven trophies will expose issue Pep Guardiola warned about in Istanbul

Manchester City's 2022/23 season began 11 months ago in Houston, and some of those players have been playing non-stop ever since.

With the much-maligned June international break this week, City players have had the high of completing the treble, celebrating in Turkey, Ibiza and Manchester, and are now back in training with their national teams. When they wrap up next week, they will only get a couple of weeks to themselves before City recall them for pre-season training.

Last summer, players only had two or three weeks to themselves either side of the June internationals before pre-season, and they have since played 64 games plus a World Cup campaign. That is a game to prepare for every five days on average, and the outlook doesn't look much easier going into next season.

City's first pre-season fixture this season is in Tokyo when they face Yokohama F Marinos on July 23, less than six weeks since the Champions League final, and around a month since the end of the international break. With Euro 2024 following the club's campaign next summer, players could be in action for 51 weeks without a break.

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Pep Guardiola has regularly called upon FIFA and UEFA to reduce the amount of games that his players have to play, and he will look at the 2023/24 schedule as evidence that there are simply too many fixtures to fit in. As City have qualified for the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, they will compete for seven trophies next season, playing a maximum of 67 games next season if they reach all the finals.

However, they only have 68 opportunities to play them assuming that one game can be played each midweek. There will simply be no