MCFC 2024/25 Season Review Part 1 of 2: What went wrong and who's to blame?

Dan Burke and friends look back on the 2024/25 campaign

The 2024/25 season is in the history books, and it was a strange old one for Manchester City.

After starting the season promisingly, City completely lost their marbles for about four months over the winter, bringing unwelcome memories of the Bad Old Days flooding back.

They got their shit together towards the end of the campaign and secured a third-placed finish and Champions League football for next season, but defeat to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final meant City finished the season without lifting a major trophy for the first time since 2016/17.

As always, I have enlisted the help of some solid Blues to reflect on the best and worst bits of the last nine months.

We’ll be releasing the season review in two parts, and in part one we’re starting with…

What went wrong for City this season and who’s to blame?

Richard Burns

Crikey. That's quite the opening question.

The passage of time is partly to blame. City have just lived their golden era. We've seen a level of success that is unprecedented in English football - 100 points, domestic treble, four-in-a-row, only Mancunian club to win the treble and so on, and so on, and so on.

So at some point, you sort of have to not win the league. And when you've been the best team to ever do it, anything less than the best feels disastrous. It had to end at some point and, as it goes, things didn't end too badly.

That said, an ageing team, a lack of sufficient transfer activity in necessary positions in recent years, teams realising City can be beaten and so being shorn of the fear factor that meant most opponents over the last four seasons were beaten before a ball was kicked - they're all huge factors.

And, obviously, losing the one player we simply couldn't afford to lose was pretty significant. All in all, pretty potent and disgusting cocktail.

Bob Toole

Oh man! A big question to start with. If it was as easy as me offering an explanation here, I am sure Pep would have figured it long ago. Alas, it’s complicated.

Caveat – it is absolutely fine to not win all the time. This team have been beyond exceptional so a slump was always inevitable, and that’s okay.

From my perspective, no one person is to blame. It’s been a perfect storm of loads of older players all looking over the hill at the same time, injuries and probably a fair amount of exhaustion, both physically and mentally. Some key players have had really poor seasons. Messrs Foden and Grealish spring to mind, but it seems like other factors are at play with those two.

As I said, a slump was always inevitable, but I don’t think anyone saw us not winning for about two months coming.

If I had to pick one person to blame, let’s say Matheus Nunes.

David Mooney

Where to start with this one... Everything and anything. It was a bit of a Tucker's Law season this season (Google it, it's too sweary for Dan's otherwise wholesome newsletter) -- and just when you thought "it can't possibly get any worse," it got worse. Ultimately, if we take Pep Guardiola at his word, then he's to blame for this season because he told the club that the squad didn't need as big a refresh as it's become clear it did.

The winter especially was a tough watch -- they were trying and fighting, but a combination of injuries and fatigue gave the team no chance of doing what they needed to do. Players were forced to play when they were in no condition to put their boots on again and when they needed to be rested, and this meant that players picked up injuries where previously they would have been able to have some time away. All of this after they lost the player that did most to make the team stable in Rodri.

The knock-on effect of that was all felt on the field at the same time. This is a team that's drilled to press high... but it couldn't press. This was a team that was drilled to keep the ball... but it couldn't under pressure. And it made them so incredibly easy to play through and exploited their biggest weaknesses: Running back towards their own goal and games played in transition.

Then, mentally, the players were shot of confidence and individual errors got worse and the whole vicious cycle began again.

And, as much as Guardiola could be blamed for telling the club not to address the squad rebuild last summer, he couldn't have seen the winter coming. Plus, in fairness to him, he's found a solution for the end of the season to be able to get the team performing without his key players and still get somewhere near to the type of football he wants City to play -- and he did it without all of the new signings from January because the solution was built around Bernardo Silva, Mateo Kovaçic, Kevin De Bruyne, and Ilkay Gündogan. Listen, fair play.

Alex Timperley

Felt like the inevitable follow up to four years of domination. Yeah, it wasn't great and a lot of the football was rancid, but I'd assume they're all pretty drained. Add injuries to that and you get too few players doing too much for too long - then all the issues which come with that. No one has ever done what those lads did, so I think it's fair to cut them a bit of slack.

As for who's to blame for the relative downturn... I'm sure the correct answer is probably a lot of people all sharing portions of it. Transfers, squad size etc. But that's how it goes sometimes and I'm sure we'll be better again in years to come. That's not a headline-grabbing answer, but I think it's a fairer one than lumping all the blame in one direction.

Ciaran Murray

It’s just not possible to pinpoint exactly what went wrong and condense it into one issue; it was a perfect smorgasbord of problems that all seemed to hit at once. Some we could have seen coming and were entirely avoidable; some were of our own making in real time; some were unexpected issues you couldn’t have foreseen and we paid a heavy price.

Injury issues - particularly Rodri’s - played a massive part but then that’s on Pep and the board for operating with such a small squad and not going hell for leather to strengthen and find cover in vital yet vulnerable positions. The warning signs were there - remember that grim record last season of City results during Rodri’s suspension or other absences? It feels like almost every key player spent some time crocked this season and there just weren’t enough fit legs, bodies or minds available to cover them.

Other issues in the melting pot include complacency; an ageing, mentally and physically fatigued squad; some questionable purchases (and sales actually?) in the transfer market in recent times; finding the motivation to get back there after four seasons at the top; Foden’s form; the fitting Haaland into the system conundrum; inconsistency in personnel across the back; a hero’s return for Ilkay Gündogan that took a very long time to reap any benefits; Khusanov telling Pep that he’s a shampoo; John Stones descending ever further into his new role… as an NPC; a slew of progressive and forward-thinking managers throughout the Prem who’ve sussed Pep out to a degree coupled with his dogmatic, unwavering approach to his principles and sometimes odd decision making; losses breeding damaged confidence that spread like dry rot; the widening disconnect between fans and the board which has brought a wave of day-tripping fans, affected the atmosphere and led to apathy amongst the City faithful; and the curse of the Charity Shield win. Although at least we can say we won a trophy this season to be fair.

So who’s to blame? Noel Gallagher. That kit, that font, commentating on the Feyenoord game, dynamic ticket pricing and being too busy when I tried to book him to clean my oven. Okay that’s a different Noel Gallagher but the point stands.

Dan Burke

I think we all knew in our heart of hearts when Rodri went down clutching his knee against Arsenal in September that our season had just gone up the swanny, and it’s a little frustrating that we didn’t prepare better/at all for that inevitability.

But then again, if it was simply a case of going out and buying another Rodri, I’m sure the club would have done it, and there’s no use crying over spilt milk now.

I must admit I did find myself getting frustrated with Pep at times this season, and his stubbornness or seeming inability to adapt to the situation we found ourselves in.

That was probably incredibly unfair of me, but I felt that some of the heavy defeats we suffered against the likes of Spurs and Arsenal were black marks against his record, and could have been avoided if he’d been a bit more pragmatic in his approach to games. If you can’t win, at least make yourselves hard to beat.

I’ve noticed people don’t tend to like that word “pragmatic” when it comes to Pep, but to my mind, a big factor in our success towards the end of the season was that we started packing the midfield and kept the ball better, making us harder to play through and better on the transitions. If we’d done that in October, it could have been a different season, but that’s academic now I suppose.

When all’s said and done, a lesser team under a lesser manager probably would have completely free-fallen under similar circumstances to ours this season, so perhaps finishing third ultimately shows how good Pep and those players really are.

In order, who are your top three players of the season?

Alex Timperley

I had to stop and think for a long time here. Not for positive reasons. I suppose...

1).....Nico O'Reilly?

2)..............erm......Gvardiol...

3).........................................................Bernardo

Ciaran Murray

This is a very tough question and not in a good way. A damning indictment of the season that picking three consistently good players is such a challenge. O’Reilly was great and has so much potential but burst onto the scene a bit late in the season for me.

Therefore I’m going to say:

1. Joško Gvardiol

2. Mateo Kovačic

3. Bernardo Silva

Bob Toole

Tough question, as most players have been pretty crap and inconsistent throughout. I’ll go for:

1. Gvardiol – absolute class act. He looks so good down the left, but is perhaps better suited to centre-half.

2. O’Reilly – absolute class act. He looks so good down the left, but is perhaps better suited to central-midfield.

3. Marmoush – absolute class act. He looks so good down the left, but is perhaps better suited to centre-forward.

Richard Burns

Three?! God. OK then, Gvardiol by default. Far from faultless but probably the most consistent. As a young player with years left ahead of him at City, this season might actually do him some good - it's been incredibly plain sailing for him so far, experiencing this kind of fall and hopefully bouncing back will serve him well.

After that, I'm struggling. Nico O'Reilly for being a young player who made a big difference. And three? Erm. Erm. Errrmmmmmmm. Tell you what, not a vintage year at all but I'm gonna go with Bernardo. This doesn't feel like a vey good answer - perhaps even a Hot Take because he was rubbish for quite a lot of it but the fella literally doesn't rest. He played far more than he should have done and in doing so, set an example to the rest. "You learn who the real ones are," indeed.

David Mooney

This is the sort of season where the fans get the player of the year award. Nobody has performed consistently across the whole season, so with that in mind...

I'm giving third place to Matheus Nunes (hear me out). He's made some absolute clangers -- not least in the Manchester derby at the Etihad -- but he's a player that shouldn't have been brought to City if he wasn't going to be deemed good enough to play in his natural position, he's been pilloried by fans and has had the ignominy of Guardiola, in a press conference, saying he doesn't have the football intelligence to play in the centre of midfield -- and yet he's performed fairly well from right back to give City some consistency in the latter part of the season. He got the last-minute winner against Villa (and he deserves to enjoy that), he got a couple of assists in the spring recovery and when he was taken out of the team, City looked lost without the width from the fullbacks. He's battled and stood up to be counted and that should be recognised.

In second place, I'm going to go for Joško Gvardiol. In a similar vein to Nunes, he's had his brain-fart moments this season (going through spells of regularly squaring the ball to an opposition striker), but he's also been pretty much an ever-present throughout the season and never hid when the going got tough, even when his head must have been totally swimming with how everything was going for the team. He's popped up with a few important goals, too.

But I'm giving top spot to Nico O'Reilly. In the grand context of the season, he's barely played... But without him coming in at left-back and playing so well while out of position, Guardiola would never have solved the problems of this season. He's faded a little in the last few weeks, but let's not forget that he's very young and he's an attacking midfielder -- not a left back. Stepping inside, providing width, making driving runs into the box... He's been brave this season and credit to him for having the balls to do it.

Dan Burke

1. Gvardiol

2. Kovačic

3. Nunes

Gvardiol and Nunes for reasons already outlined by others above, and Kovačic for patenting the curious falling-over-while-shooting-into-the-bottom-corner technique, that won us a few points over the course of the season.

Who was City’s worst player of the season?

Ciaran Murray

Kyle Walker. He was beginning to unravel towards the end of last season but he was just a shambles in this one. We’d always worried what would happen when his pace went but weren’t quite prepared for what would happen when his brain went. He was at the scene of the crime for almost every fuck up or cheaply conceded goal. The performances just never seemed like they’d ever have any chance of improving and they seemed to rub off on the others near him. He was the super-spreader in the flu szn of City’s autumn / winter.

I can’t remember who it was against but he came off the bench in one of his last home games and refused to take the armband off De Bruyne who just glared at him completely bemused. The club captain refusing to accept the role then taking himself off to Milan when the troops needed leadership in the trenches. Just a really poor ending to a pretty glittering career at the club, although we may have to prepare for his return which is going to be difficult to get enthused about.

Richard Burns

I love the "And now, we move on to the liars" energy of this question. Tempted to say Grealish, an attacking player who went over a year without scoring a goal before getting a penalty against the League 2 version of Manchester United (there's a point coming soon where Manchester United are the League 2 Manchester United).

But, I'm gonna plump for an answer that I'm actually a bit uncomfortable saying - it's Phil Foden. The reason it's Foden is because the fall off is so stark. From the best player in the league to an absolutely ghost on the pitch. We've heard enough from him and Pep to know that all has not been right off the pitch, mentally, and I can only imagine what plying your trade in the public eye does to that.

All sympathy with the lad and I hope, first and foremost, he gets back into a good place quickly and, second, that he gets back to being the best footballer he can be.

David Mooney

I'm going to go for Kyle Walker. For a spell of about 300 years he was either directly responsible for or had a big hand in every single goal City conceded. Then, when the going got tough, he asked to go out on loan. He's been a great player for City and incredibly important in all of the success this team has enjoyed under Guardiola, but this was a season too far for him and it's difficult to see how he ever pulls on a City shirt again. That has also saved Jack Grealish's blushes because, honestly... Where they hell has he been? I love Grealish, but his position at City has surely become untenable.

Alex Timperley

I also had to think about this for a while because there was so much choice. They've been collectively terrible which makes it tough to single out one of them for special treatment. However, let's go with the player who annoyed me the most, and most frequently, before his departure mid-way through the year: Kyle Walker.

He's been a vital player for a long time, but this year he was appalling from the off and pound-for-pound the worst of a bad, bad bunch on the pitch.

Bob Toole

Matheus Nunes

Whilst I acknowledge he has looked okay at right back at times, the club should never have bought him in the first place. It was pretty damning when Pep said the midfielder he paid £50m plus for isn’t clever enough to play in midfield. I can’t quite get over his horror show in the home Manchester derby and have frequently said “Kill Nunes”* (very much in a Falconhoof way) in our WhatsApp group whenever I see him on the team sheet.

*I don’t actually want to kill him. That would be weird.

Dan Burke

Despite how bad the season was at times, I think Walker is the only player you could say was a complete liability when he played, so I’ll have to say him. Everyone else had patches of bad form, but ultimately redeemed themselves in some way.

I’m honestly a bit baffled by the Grealish situation. I know his goals and assists record leaves a lot to be desired, but I feel like he was pretty good every time he played, and didn’t deserve to be completely bombed out (although he did start the FA Cup semi-final, which was weird).

As delighted as I was when he came back last summer, for much of the season I couldn’t help but feel Gündogan’s return had been a mistake, but in the last couple of months he became a pretty important player again, and scored a great goal on the final day to avoid going the whole season without a league goal.

In the pure frustration stakes, Doku and Savinho seemed to be taking it in turns to do my fucking head in throughout the season. The optimist in me hopes there’s a couple of world class players there just waiting to blossom, but my patience is already running thin.

And despite him once again being our top scorer, I still find myself getting irrationally annoyed by Haaland quite a lot, and am still unsure whether he’s the right striker for this team. The jury’s still out on Marmoush for me too, to be brutally honest.

But yeah, there’s only one player I never want to see in a City shirt again, and that’s Walker. Stick to podcasts mate.

What was the best moment of the season for you personally?

Bob Toole

Probably Stones’s equaliser against Arsenal in the 2-2 draw at the Etihad. Haaland plonking the ball onto Gabriel’s head was hilarious. The whole “Stay humble” thing that followed was a joy to behold. Arsenal’s subsequent lack of humility in everything they have done since has been a great source of pleasure. Have you ever known such a joyless, overly serious football club as Arsenal?

Them acting like they’d won the league after they beat us at the Emirates was rather amusing given they were never in a title race. At least they were the best team in the Champions League this season, though.

United losing the Europa final was also a lot of fun.

David Mooney

I know everybody loves the John Stones goal against Arsenal (and the fallout from that, with Haaland bouncing the ball off Gabriel's bonce and the gaslighting from Arsenal fans suggesting they weren't time-wasting when they were).

However, I'd like to raise John Stones scoring against Wolves in the final seconds and everybody thinking the VAR was disallowing the goal... only to realise it had been disallowed by the referee and the VAR was awarding it. I think I celebrated that one about five times in the end.

Shout out to the Class of 92 all looking looking like they were attending a funeral as Salford City came off the Etihad pitch 8-0 losers and to Bernardo crunching Garnacho in the Community Shield before equalising and showing absolutely no remorse in his post-match interview.

Alex Timperley

United losing the Europa League final, no question.

Seriously though, the supporter protests. A moment of solidarity and collective resolve that reset the bar for what football supporters in this country have, and what we can dream of.

But also United losing the final. That was a very, very funny coda to the season.

Richard Burns

Easy one, this. My four-year-old son came to his first game - and his second. Seeing it all through his eyes, remembering back to my early days of going, how big Maine Road seemed, how beautiful the pitch was - it's incredible. And it's an overwhelming attack on the senses. He loved it and I loved taking him. Hopefully the greedy bastards don't further price me out of being able to do it regularly in future.

Ciaran Murray

I enjoyed Phil Foden’s guest appearance on the Christmas special of Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing. Haaland bouncing the ball off Gabriel’s head was amazing. Khusanov telling Pep he’s a shampoo obviously.

Best of all though - the fact that City’s season was so poor by our standards but Man United just about scraped 40 points, have an awful owner where the stories of his interference keep getting better, produced the worst and funniest duvet based banner slogan ever seen and lost a European final against “Lads, it’s Tottenham”. Rhymes with Amorim hope it continues to get worse for them.

Dan Burke

High points of the season for me would be; the 4-0 win over Newcastle, the 3-1 win over Chelsea, the 1-0 win at Spurs, the comeback against Crystal Palace, the late winner against Villa, and the wins over Bournemouth and Forest in the Cup. Maybe I’m forgetting some too.

But I think my favourite moment of the season was hearing the final whistle blow at Fulham, confirming that we’d got the job done, avoided the ignominy of playing Europa League football next season, and could finally put a disappointing season in the rearview mirror.

As much as City fans pride ourselves on our stiff upper lips, and as much as gallows humour got me through the tougher times this season, getting beat isn’t much fun, and it never was.

You can’t win ‘em all of course, and there has to be more to football than glory, but we’ve now reached a level as a club where anything less than first place isn’t good enough, and I have personally found it quite tough to acclimatise to being a bit crap again this year.

Thankfully, it could have been much worse, and hopefully we can learn from it and look forward to better times ahead now.

And if not, maybe being a bit crap will be a bit easier to stomach in future.

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Join us tomorrow for part two, when we’ll be talking about worst moments of the season, favourite goals, and predicting what the future holds.