Head coach Philippe Clement addressed the media on Friday afternoon ahead of Saturday's 2026/27 season opener against West Brom, giving details on injury updates amongst the squad and transfer news.
"I'm excited, it's the start of a new marathon season with a lot of games a lot of good teams.
"We all see that this Championship will be even tougher than the last one; a lot of teams investing a lot of money in quality players and there are three strong teams coming down.
"It's still a project here with a lot of young guys who, before last season, had never played at this level.
"It's now about confirmation and also growing in levels; there are so many players that we can say they have never been at their best now as they're only 19, 20, 21 years old, so they have a lot of margin to make it better.
"I see improvement in players every week."
After taking a knock during City's Carabao Cup tie, Mathias Kvistgaarden's availability was in doubt for the Sky Bet Championship opening day. Clement gave an update on his injury and others in the group.
"He had a few tough days afterwards but he is back in training, so he is fit to be in the selection.
"We will have another internal game this week that a few players will benefit from.
"Darlin (Yongwa) came into the building without a pre-season.
"He looks fit and he is doing well in training but he is going to need that game and probably several players who won't play a half of the game this weekend.
"Kellen (Fisher) was back full training, Papa (Amadou Diallo) was back full training, Gabe (Forsyth) has been training a lot.
"It's the first time since I've been here and in 18 months that he will play some game minutes, which is really positive.
"Jovon (Makama) is training individually but I expect him in group training next week. Little by little the injured players are coming back.
"Liam Gibbs' absence from the squad was due to fitness, he had a small muscle problem that is not totally gone but almost.
"He will not be in the selection now but I expected him back next week.
"For me, Liam played a really good pre-season; he is fit and every player in the world wants to play 90 minutes every week but how many are doing that in the world of football?
"I expect him here and we will see how things evolve as he is an important part of this group.
"I am working with the whole group, not just 11 players, to play 60 games this season.
"We need rotations for this many games, so it will not be the same 11 playing against West Brom that started last weekend."
City winger Matěj Jurásek was a topic of conversation in the media during the week after being linked with a loan move abroad.
"He is in Prague to do medical tests.
"I don't think it will be a problem as he has been training and he is fitter than he ever was.
"They contacted us to make a good deal, so we will see in the next 24, 48 hours.
"There are a few reasons behind the decision; firstly with what Andre (Brooks) is showing in that position, it is confirmation of what we were expecting and he is a different profile.
"The most difficult thing for Matěj at the minute is that we have a lot of really good players on the ball, so you need different kind of profiles up front with more runs and more depth in the game, more the type of Andre and because of that, we need to find a really good mix of players.
"Sparta Prague is looking for his kind of profile and I think it can be a good thing for him to play more minutes there than he would do for us and we can see at the end of the season how that goes."
On the challenge ahead at Carrow Road this weekend and throughout the season, Clement said: "This group needs to do one thing which is focus on the next game, that's the main thing.
"If you're only focused on the final result and not the performance, you will not get results in the long term.
"They just need to continue what they have been doing for the last seven months.
"We know we will not win every game, although it's our ambition to do that, as the challenge will be bigger but because of that, the excitement is also bigger.
"I've been really impressed with the training sessions, how everybody is growing and getting better.
"You've seen already some players have stepped up from last season, so at the end of this season we will be in the position we deserve."
On Saturday's visitors, Clement said: "We played against them three times last season and I saw them twice but with other managers, so I have seen the work that James Morrison has done with them and he saved them last season, I think, otherwise they would have gone down.
"They play good, positive football with a clear structure, so it's going to be different kind of game that we played last seasons.
"They have a good football identity, so it's already a promise if both teams show their identity that it's going to be a good game, as it's two teams that want to score goals and win games.
"I hope it's a full Carrow Road and all the people in the stadium for the Carabao Cup game enjoyed that and all the fans that weren't here will be excited to get back.
"They're going to see a team that plays attractive football, that fights for the badge that gives everything to win games."