Manchester City have had an undeniably successful season, although the FA Cup Final has reminded of the work that could be needed over summer
How much of the Manchester City team will be broken up this summer?
For the second year in a row, Manchester City made history. And for the second year in a row, they ran out of puff after winning the Premier League.
Last year they still had enough to get past United in the FA Cup Final, and then drag themselves to Champions League glory in Istanbul. This time they had the chances in the second half to win a double Double but could not recover from a sleepwalking start that gave Erik Ten Hag some polish for a turd of a United campaign.
There was anger from the players and manager at Wembley, followed by disappointment. This is a team that has been defined by hating losing so much that they go on inconceivably long winning or unbeaten runs to avoid those feelings; it was 35 games before Saturday.
That has driven Pep Guardiola and the players to unprecedented success, becoming the first team in English football to win four Premier League titles in a row. That is always the bread and butter, the standard that City aspire to every year to win the right over 38 matches to be called the best in the country; as the manager said after Community Shield defeat to Arsenal in August: “We lost three in a row! But we won the Premier Leagues.”
The fact that City have won the league again makes their season a success, and the fact that they have won it on the back of the Treble last year makes it even better. As well as significant injuries to key players such as Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, the mental toll of going again has been, in the words of captain Kyle Walker, “difficult” for different individuals in the squad to deal with.
Victories in the Super Cup and Club World Cup gave City two new trophies for their cabinet too, and the latter especially came at a crucial time in their Premier League campaign. Escaping a dreadful run of one win in six games, they returned with renewed focus and confidence and put together an unstoppable second half of the season.
Arsenal pushed them until the very last match of the Premier League campaign, and having been a picture of composure for so long this season Guardiola looked shattered as he came in for his media duties following the West Ham win on Sunday. When he said he had no idea how to motivate his players next season, you believed him despite all the evidence that he will surely come up with the goods when the time comes.
That doesn’t excuse Saturday’s FA Cup defeat, and for all the celebrations last weekend the players were adamant that there was no hangover from those at Wembley – they simply didn’t perform. At the end of a long old season and with the Euros on the horizon for most this summer, the FA Cup slipped through the cracks.
The challenge for City is that another summer of uncertainty lies ahead; Walker looks likely to stay but exits for Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva would require replacements and yet may not happen. Squad rebuilds have been expected before and haven’t happened because players have decided over the summer that they want to stay.
Txiki Begiristain and the recruitment team have been masters over the years at moving on established stars – from Joe Hart (eventually) to Fernandinho – and have big decisions to make in the summer. How much are they guided by what the players want and how ruthless do they want to be?
These questions will hopefully have been answered by the start of next season, even if the squad involvement at the Euros means another slow start should be expected. Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis will be in the starting XI when City return to Wembley in August to take on United in the Community Shield.
In what could be Guardiola’s final season, he will again hope to go deep in all four competitions – as well as the Club World Cup in the summer of 2025. The owners are still keen to muscle in on more Champions League success, but the Premier League will once again be the standard for what constitutes a successful season for City.
And, of course, the outcome of the charges!