Ruben Dias on Manchester City's Ambitious Summer Signings
Ruben Dias says Manchester City’s summer signings are “desperate to win” and insists the dressing room has already thrown its weight behind new manager Enzo Maresca.
City ripped up and rebuilt huge chunks of their squad in a record-breaking window, spending a Premier League high of £458m. The headline arrivals include midfield trio Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi, recruited to refresh a side that has lost some of its most decorated figures.
Because the outgoings were just as dramatic.
Rodri, the 2024 Ballon d'Or winner and heartbeat of City’s midfield, has gone. So has former captain Bernardo Silva. John Stones, a pillar of the club’s recent success and an England international, has also departed. Sales brought in more than £300m, but stripped away years of experience in one summer.
Into that void steps Dias.
The Portugal defender, signed from Benfica for £65m in 2020, has long been part of City’s leadership core. Now Maresca has put the armband on him.
“In terms of the role I have, it goes down to trying to be the best version of yourself, and in terms of that, nothing has changed,” Dias told the Football Interview.
The cast around him, though, looks very different.
“So many people have left and so many winners have left, and now new people have joined with a lot of ambition and people that are desperate to win and that is also what makes the club keep on going,” he said.
He pointed to players “that have been here and have won so much here and can very clearly point the way of how to do it and the things that are the most important and undeniable”, with Enzo Fernandez among those he namechecked.
Then comes the blend City are banking on.
“The ambition from us that are here and still want to be here and keep on winning. They are joining and full of ambition and with all the dreams in the world. The mix of these makes it work.”
The upheaval has not been limited to the pitch. The most seismic change came on the touchline.
Pep Guardiola, the architect of a decade of dominance, stepped down at the end of last season after 10 years in charge at Etihad Stadium. His exit marked the end of an era and left City facing a question they had not had to ask for a generation: what comes next?
Maresca is the answer the club chose.
The Italian knows the building. He previously worked as Guardiola’s assistant at City before taking on the Leicester City and Chelsea jobs. That familiarity, Dias believes, made him the obvious successor.
He admitted Guardiola’s departure was not an “easy moment for the club”, but called Maresca the “perfect person for the job” because he “knew the house so well”.
Early signs back that up. City have started the season with four wins from four across the Premier League and Champions League. The first real measuring stick, though, comes on Sunday: a trip to Manchester United at Old Trafford, kick-off 16:30 BST.
Asked how Maresca has stamped his identity on the team, Dias pointed to the training ground.
“There’s obviously many things from training session to some details about the way we press, details about the way we defend and that make all of these Enzo’s idea,” he said.
The important part, in his eyes, is how it feels.
“I feel like everything is making a lot of sense. Everyone is buying into the idea. Everyone’s excited about it and there is a lot of joy in training, which is massively important.”
The speed of the rebuild has left Dias in a strange position: at 29, he is suddenly one of the old guard.
He has already played more than 250 games for City, collecting four Premier League titles, a Champions League and two FA Cups. From the 2023 Treble-winning squad, only four players remain – Dias, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Rico Lewis.
Last summer, Dias nailed his colours to the mast by signing a contract extension until 2029, with an option for a further year. He is not treating this as the end of a cycle. For him, it is a new one.
“I am 29, I am going to be 30 next year but I am excited about all of this and all the things with the club, the new manager, new players, the new challenge, guys that I was so close with leaving,” he said.
“It’s the circle of life, you can call it and it is just how things are. I am appreciative of all of it – I’m appreciative of the memories I have with all the ones that left and I’m excited about the memories I’m going to make with the ones that have just arrived.”
His motivation, he insists, has not dimmed.
“I am still very ambitious. I took the decision of being at this level because I feel like I have won so much but maybe the thing that would be my biggest reward would be to be here so many years playing at this level and having the consistency of being ambitious for so long.
“I am excited. I think excited is the word.”
New manager. New captain. New core. The trophies have set the standard; now City’s reshaped dressing room has to prove it can live there year after year.
