Manchester City: A Rollercoaster Season

Manchester City group photo | photo taken from @mancitywomen on instagram

A season to forget for Manchester City as they finished fourth in the league and will have no Champions League football next season. It started off hopeful for the blues with their first taste of UEFA Women’s Champions League football since 2020/2021 after being in the qualifying stages until this season. 

The side lost their long standing manager just before their quadruple header against Chelsea as Gareth Taylor parted ways with the club in March after nearly five years.

He signed a new contract with the club in March 2024 with many fans unhappy with his performances both prior to his departure and the games leading up to it. 

After a string of losses and bad presentations throughout the start of the season, the side sacked Taylor with Nick Cushing coming back to Manchester after his final match in February 2020.

He became Interim Head Coach with many fans taking a liking to the ex-boss, winning four games out of the 10 he managed and losing four.

Nick Cushing (top) & Gareth Taylor (bottom) | photo taken from @mancitywomen and @_garethtaylor

After a difficult and disappointing season, The cityzens finished in 4th (just outside the Champions League spots) with 43 points and one point behind rivals Manchester United.

City won 13 games, drew four and lost five throughout the league season but some tough fixtures included playing Chelsea four times in March. 

The side played the reigning WSL Champions in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Barclays Women’s Super League and the Subway League Cup Final. These were some difficult fixtures especially after losing the manager just five days before with Manchester United in the Women’s Super League at home in January, another important fixture. If Manchester City won against their rivals, it could have put them within touching distance of another season in the Champions League. 

Looking forward to next season, Manchester City need to look to appoint a permanent manager as soon as possible. This is pivotal so the squad are comfortable and can understand what the manager wants from the players. This is so during the summer, they can improve before the competitive season starts in September. 

Jess Park, Laura Coombs, Alex Greenwood and Kerstin Casparij | photo taken from @mancitywomen on instagram

What would be good next season for City would be to replace players quickly from the departing players. So far, Laia Aleixandri and Jill Roord have left the side permanently and with the squad still not replacing past players, they need to replace the losses quickly.

Their squad was heavily injured last season and although this was a difficult time for the blues, they could have changed this quicker and got more players in, rather than looking to include their academy players. 

Some top players this season for City would be Japanese internationals Aoba Fujino and Yui Hasegawa, Australian Mary Fowler and WSL Top scorer Khadija “Bunny” Shaw. 

Aoba Fujino joined in the summer playing 17 games and assisting five goals, adding a goal to her stats in the process. Her international teammate Yui Hasegawa won City’s Player of the Season and also assisted on three occasions. 

Prior to her ACL, Mary Fowler was unstoppable up front, playing 17 games, scoring six times and assisting on seven occasions. Despite being injured for half of the season, Bunny Shaw won the WSL Golden Boot in just 14 games. She helped the City side win important fixtures, scoring 12 goals and assisting once during this season. 

Next season, Manchester City looks to get back to winning ways, including winning a trophy and to get into the European spots. 

(L-R) Aemu Oyama, Yui Hasegawa and Aoba Fujino | photo taken from @mancitywomen on instagram