Manchester City: 5 Players Who Will Have a Breakout Season

Manchester City is not the sort of club football where a relative unknown is apt to burst onto the scene.

City as a club does all their bursting in transfer windows—and as the sarcastic among you might add, anytime they are called on to play a match in the Champions League.

So there would be precious little point in trying to con you into believing that Denis Suarez, John Guidetti or Abdul Razak is going to become a Sky Blue mainstay by the end of the coming season.

Instead, the five players I will discuss here are all well-established. By "breakout season," understand that I generally mean either "new to you" prominence as recent acquisitions or, in the case of a player like Sergio Aguero (pictured above), significant improvement over recent form.

And for one Citizen, the "breakout" may not be so pleasing.

Sergio Aguero

Sergio Aguero did not have a bad season at Manchester City last year.

It's just that, after he scored the goal that broke the 44-year title duck in the prior season's dying moments, everything that came after was likely to disappoint by comparison.

And sure enough, he experienced a multifaceted hangover in 2012-2013. He struggled with nagging injuries and was not helped much by former manager Roberto Mancini's often stunted offensive tactics.

But every development in the City program since last season ended seems tailored to bring out the best in him.

New manager Manuel Pellegrini has promised free-flowing, entertaining football. New signings Jesus Navas and Fernandinho are expected to provide Aguero with accurate, timely service while opening up the field for themselves.

Even better, after saddling him with unreliable running mates (looking at you, Mario Balotelli) in past seasons, the team signed legitimate supporting scoring threats in Stevan Jovetic and Alvaro Negredo.

Aguero was outscored by Edin Dzeko in Premier League play last season, but he almost surely will lead City in Premier League goal scoring in the coming year.

Jesus Navas

Speaking of Jesus Navas, there is a reason the Spanish winger was one of Manuel Pellegrini's first signings.

Pellegrini has promised to make City play like his prior clubs, i.e., fun to watch, offensive-minded and willing to stretch the pitch aggressively.

That would have been hard to do had Pellegrini stood pat with the likes of Gareth Barry and Javi Garcia in midfield.

Former manager Roberto Mancini favored those players for their ability to clamp down the midfield on those frequent occasions when City was defending a point or three in a tight contest.

Pellegrini's thought process seems to be that it will be much easier to defend a lead of two or three goals. As a result, Navas will feature prominently in Pellegrini's attack.

City has lacked both width and a midfielder (outside of Yaya Toure) who can advance the ball up the pitch quickly and without much help.

Perhaps above all, Navas will be comfortable surrounded by so many great players. His time on the Spanish national team has prepared him for this time with City.

If Navas has indeed overcome his homesickness issues, he is the early leader in the clubhouse for the guy whom the whole Premier League will be raving about in September.

Stevan Jovetic

Fiorentina is a fine club, and Serie A is a wonderful league.

That disclaimer is intended to throw all the Italian fans off the scent of the shots I am about to take at Stevan Jovetic's prior plight.

In 2011-2012, Jovetic led Fiorentina with 14 league goals despite only playing 27 Serie A matches. The second-leading scorer on Jovetic's team that season was Alessio Cerci—with five.

In 2012-2013, he again carried the scoring water for Fiorentina, posting 13 goals in 31 Serie A appearances. He got a bit more help last season, as Adem Ljajic chipped in 11 markers.

Still, you sort of wonder whether needing to be "the man" on an offensively challenged side like Fiorentina might get old.

Jovetic is probably not going to feel pressure of that sort at Manchester City. If he does not score, Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo or Edin Dzeko will.

Against some of the lesser sides, all four of them might.

Micah Richards

After missing most of a season with a serious injury and getting besmirched by management along the way, some players might approach the next season with circumspect resolve.

Micah Richards is not one of them.

Richards is already on record as saying that, no matter how fabulous Pablo Zabaleta was for the Sky Blues last season, he expects no worse than an even time share with Zabaleta.

"The main thing is to be playing. I know there are a lot of games and I don't expect to play every game but the season we won the title me and Zaba rotated really well together so if we can do that this season I'll be happy," he told Fox Sports.

He is fully fit now, and with his contract status beyond this season still in question, he projects to be highly motivated to re-establish himself as an elite defender.

Whether it is to be at the Etihad or elsewhere.

Joe Hart

Manuel Pellegrini's arrival at Manchester City is exciting news for the club, the midfielders and the strikers. Even the defenders, who now will be encouraged to stream up the pitch in support, have to be excited.

So everyone has to be psyched to play for the new manager, except maybe for one person. Joe Hart could be excused for being a bit terrified of what the new season may bring.

With Roberto Mancini running things, Hart ripped off clean sheet after clean sheet in the past few seasons. Sure, many of those clean sheets were draws, but you can't ask him to score, too.

Well, those days of comfortable, lazy afternoons at the Etihad are most likely over for Hart.

Pellegrini's beloved free-wheeling style means lots and lots of odd-man chances—for both City and opponents.

There is just no avoiding it. If you press upfield, sometimes you get caught upfield.

Hart has already seen a fair amount of this in the first three preseason friendlies, In particular, the lane through the middle of the pitch and to his left has been neglected by his field players.

Pellegrini will address this problem, but new and different gaps in the defense are going to be created by so much aggressive play far in front of Hart.

So he might in fact break out this season—in hives.