Manchester City Bows Out Of Champions League In Disgrace. A Sign Of Things To Come?

Manchester City, the 4-time defending Premier League champions, and perennial candidate for the Champions League title, have been unceremoniously dumped out of the competition by fellow heavyweight Real Madrid.

In what has been a disastrous season for the Mancunians, the 2022-2023 Champions League winners have now failed to make even the Round of 16 of this competition, in addition to being 16 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.

It seems that the Pep Guardiola era of Manchester City dominance is coming to an end. But coming to an end not with a bang, or a valiant defeat, but with a humiliating whimper.

Manchester City still have meaningful matches left in their season, but meaningful for an embarrassing reason for a club of City’s stature.

City will have to finish out their season strong to make sure that they stay in the top 4 in the Premier League to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

They also are still in the FA Cup, but needing the FA Cup to have any chance at a trophy, and knowing this by February, shows how far the club have fallen. There are even calls by some for manager Pep Guardiola to be sacked.

Now, we should be cognizant of the fact that at this level of the sport, no club can stay on top every season. This could just be a blip in the radar for a club that have been at the top of European football for the last decade. But, with how precipitously City have dropped in all competitions, it could portend problems in the future.

Whatever this season is in the long term story of Manchester City will only be seen in the coming years. But what we know for sure is that City are beatable, and something needs to change for them to get back to the lofty heights they’ve been at over the previous 5 years.