You're right, pre-season matches are used by clubs as a place for trials and due diligence, so that the manager knows how effective his strategy or team composition is. But seeing how Leicester lost to Palermo is another story, Leicester had everything to win this match, instead of at least getting a draw, they lost the match, this is what I call funny match. Next match is against Augsburg, Augsburg is a pretty strong team in the Bundesliga, if they lose this match I think it still makes sense.
I think we all agree that preseason is a game that is used to see how strong they are and also how deep their squad is. If someone overreacts to the results of preseason games, I will question it, because they don't play seriously and they are just experimenting with what they will apply in the new season. Many teams fail in preseason games, but they can play very well in competitions. There are also teams that are very good in preseason games, but they fail in real competitions. Actually, this can answer that preseason games cannot be a benchmark for a team's performance.
Manchester City has successfully won the treble winner. I can say Pep has successfully made City one of the strongest teams in Europe. There are rumors that Pep is trying to find a new challenge in another club. But I think it's just a rumor. Pep has won everything with the citizens. But does it make sense if Pep wants to leave because he feels bored? If Pep is an ambitious coach I think Pep can still try to get other records with City. Building another squad from scratch will take a lot of time to adapt and also requires a lot of money to get the desired players.
If we look at Pep Guardiola's past habits, we will see the fact that he will leave after being successful with the team he is handling. At Bayern Munich he did that and when he was with Barcelona he did it again, so I will not be surprised if next season he will leave Manchester City. His contract will also expire in 2025 and until now there is no sign that he will extend his contract with Manchester City. As a coach I see that he is not satisfied with what he gets, in other words he likes to look for new challenges. Although he is famous for the big teams he handles, it is still not easy to get great success. I wonder, if he leaves next year, which team will be his next destination? Will he stay in England or look for a new destination?