Manchester City has got to change the narratives or risk becoming history themselves

Best club in the world at the moment and the first English side to win a treble since their city rival, United did 24 years ago in front of more than 90 thousand fans inside the Barcelona’s Stadium, Camp Nou, Manchester City have reached the climax but the velour of sustaining that status has become questionable very early into the summer.

It is not that English football had not seen a very good side capable of doing the treble since United, it is only due to the competitiveness of the teams, hence, clubs have learnt to sacrifice one competition for another.

In years past, since the start of the 2000s to be precise, top teams have settled for playing fringe and Academy players in domestic Cup games so as to not worn out their main players for the major competitions.

Fortunately for Pep Guardiola’s minions last season, almost every member of their squad is good enough to start in other teams, hence, their was no vast drop in performance whenever the manager rotates the squad.

Before City last season, United was the only English club to win both the league and Champions League titles in the same year, 2007-08. Verily, they were knocked out in the sixth round of the FA Cup by Portsmouth.

Despite playing the match with their best legs, it was obvious that fatigue had started to set in, and a Sulley Muntari’s penalty, 12 minutes from time condemned them to defeat, just less than 96 hours after they had beaten Lyon in the Champions League.

The level of competitiveness in the English top-flight has demanded that to maintain top status, there is the need to be consistent over a long period of the season – if not for the entire duration.

The above was the reason City themselves were able to beat Arsenal to the league title last season – the Gunners were never prepared to battle for the title and even after realizing how much it had opened up for them, there was no getting away with the shortcomings caused by their unpreparedness and inexperience.

City went on a run of 12 straight wins in the league between February to May and that was enough to leapfrog Mikel Arteta’s side to the first of their treble.

At the end of the season, seven years following the appointment of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City finally won the Champions League, and become only the second English side to win a treble.

Their main player in winning the treble might be Erling Haaland, who stole the headline for most of their success but in real sense, the Norwegian is just but one lucky star projected by several others.

It is the way Manchester City are set up thanks to Pep Guardiola’s genius, of which even Haaland is not really a major part. However, credits when due, the 22year old has mastered his own trade, to be very effective in tandem.

Players like Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Jone Stones, Manuel Akanji and even Goalkeeper, Ederson Moraes are integral in achieving the set-up at the club.

However, as good as Manchester City were in past seasons, they could start to suffer at the start of the next should they continue with the tradition of opening the doors for players’s exits upon request.

In past windows, the effect had not been too devastating but a glimpse of what could be was portrayed in Arsenal last season as only two players they let go ended up contributing so much, that a team, who finished out of the top four in the season before went toe to toe with them for the league title.

Now they are again showing no resistant as players seek exit. Ilkay Gundogan wanted to stay after being offered a new contract but the German move to Barcelona having not being satisfied with the duration of the contract tabled.

Now their former captain, Gundogan signed a two year contract, with option of one more at Barcelona. Who knows the how many years City offered that made him say ‘Thanks but no thanks’.

Bernardo Silva’s future is also unsettled at the moment. The Portuguese will most likely leave this summer and has offers from PSG and Barcelona. While clubs in the Middle East also continue to monitor his situation.

Aymeric Laporte is on his way out. Riyad Mahrez and Kyle Walker have given green light to suitors while Joao Cancelo is out of favour even before leaving the club on loan in January. He, also is set to leave this summer.

Kevin De Bruyne will be 32 this week and has become injury prone. The Belgian is currently out due to an injury sustained in the Champions League final and is not expected to return until after a couple of games into the next season.

Should all the expected departures materialize, City will have just ten outfield players with more than 30 first team appearances for the club remaining in the squad.

Albeit they still has the likes of Kalvin Phillips, but this is a player, whom despite his abilities hasn’t been convincing since moving to the Ethiad from Leeds United last summer.

Rico Lewis is also a good player that was integrated into the first team last season but there are limits to what he can contribute when the best players are not available.

New signing of course will come in but can you be certain of what they’ll bring or even if they’ll settle in upon arrival.

While rival teams continue to strengthen and their most likely challengers for the league title next season, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Newcastle United already have players settled into their styles of play, it will be very challenging for City to blow them away, even by the standard.

In recent times, City experienced delay before finally get going with Jack Grealish and even Pep Guardiola knows it is not always plain sailing on the other side – if he choose to continue taking chances, he’ll have to live with the consequences.

Croatian duo of Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol are expected to become the club’s new players. Deal is completed for the former while negotiation continues with RB Leipzig for the latter.

Quality players but it may take time before they gel in and at the same time, it may not.

The best option for City is to be more frown on exits. Tie down important players and ensure no mass departure of first team players.

They’ve lost a club legend in each of the seven previous summer windows and having officially lost Gundogan this summer, their best call will be to leave it at eight in eight because more departures of long serving players will have devastating effects.

They are Manchester City, treble winners, managed by Pep Guardiola and have the spending capacity to replace anyone but when it comes to mass departure, team starts to lose it’s identity and the pattern of play is upset.

Maybe Manchester City will continue to dominate whether or not they let go of their top players but one thing is that there is no certainty of their abilities to retain their status without these players that have for years represent them.

It is now left to Manchester City and Pep Guardiola, if they can take the chance of dominating yet with new players, or regressing and surrendering their dominant status, right after winning the treble.

Kehinde Hassan Afolabi