Even as the party anthems blasted out under sunny Manchester skies and the home fans showed their appreciation after a seven-goal thriller, the celebratory mood could not fully mask the undertone of disappointment at the Joie Stadium, for a club wondering what might have been.
On the season’s final day 12 months ago, Manchester City missed out on the title only on goal difference. This time, they finished 17 points off the runaway champions Chelsea. Worse still, City dropped outside the European places.
It is only the third time City have finished outside the top three in 11 years in the WSL. There can be no mistaking it – this season has been a failure for a club with greater expectations and, more worryingly, their third consecutive campaign without a trophy.
City have dropped 11 points from winning positions and, having missed out on Europe by one point, will rue the last-gasp equaliser they conceded at West Ham in March. There can be few arguments about the cause of their slump: injuries.
City enjoyed a run of 10 consecutive wins in all competitions between late September and mid-November when most of their first-choice players were fit,including a victory over the European champions Barcelonathat demonstrated City’s prowess at full strength.
However, long-term knee injuries to Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood as well as spells on the sidelines for the Khadija Shaw – who still ended up sharing the WSL’s Golden Boot despite only playing 14 of 22 league games – and Vivianne Miedema took their toll. Mary Fowler’s anterior cruciate ligament injury merely added to their woes. Their rivals have seen injuries too, and coped admirably, not least Chelsea with Sam Kerr out for the entire season – but City’s injury toll has cost them dearly.
“There’ll be a review process, a reflection process for the organisation and for the people involved,” City’s interim head coach, Nick Cushing, said. “There are many things that need to be fixed, but that process I’m sure will happen. I don’t know how it’ll happen or when it’ll happen or who will be involved, but there is a huge desire in the staff, in the leadership and in the players, to get this team back to competing [for] trophies.”
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Cushing returned to the club in Marchafter Gareth Taylor’s sackingand said on Friday that the club have had “no conversations” with him about next season. So not unreasonably he assumed Saturday’s game would be his last, although he will remain in post for the inaugural World Sevens Football event in Portugal later this month.
Asked about his future again on Saturday, Cushing added: “I’m contracted until 1 June, so once June 1st comes, I’ll be back where I was in December, January, February, I’ll be putting the bins out. I have a huge desire to have a team and develop that team into playing a really attacking style and compete for trophies. Where that will be, I’m really open to conversations.”
The club’s search for a new coach will soon be over. City’s managing director, Charlotte O’Neill, and the director of women’s football, Therese Sjogran, have a huge decision to make as the club seeks a way of responding to Chelsea’s dominance of the women’s game in England.
This City team undoubtably has potential. In Saturday’s 5-2 win over relegated Crystal Palace they rallied from 2-1 down at half-time to score a flurry of second-half goals, inspired by Aoba Fujino, whose arrival last summer shows City’s eye for a good player has not changed.
City also possess the best winger in the division in Hemp, who finished the campaign with the highest number of assists in the WSL despite playing in fewer than half of City’s league games.
They will now have to replace Laia Aleixandri, the gifted centre-half who bade farewell to City after the final whistle. She is understood to be on her way to Barcelona. A busy summer of investment in the squad is sure to follow. To have the strength in depth to challenge consistently the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, City will need it.