The Title Race - 2024/25

How many points to win the league?

  • Total voters
    301
  • Poll closed .
Same points as we had last season after playing the same teams (picked up points at Chelsea and Wolves to cover for dropping at Newcastle and Bournemouth), bearing in mind we haven't played well this season apart from possibly Chelsea at the Bridge. Still chance to make up some ground given we drew at home to Palace, Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool last season and ended up with 91 points.

The concern is we haven't played well, we would and should expect better performances from these players under a manager like ours. I haven't got the answer to that but surely it involves not playing Kovacic/Gundogan/Bernardo in the same midfield 3, doesn't allow us to get up the pitch quick enough and disrupt the opposition's back line. Grealish coming back (hopefully) after the international break will help with this as that's one of his main strengths, close control and ball retention key to reduce the threat of being counter attacked as well.
 
Prophet of Doom said:
We’ve had the easiest start to a season fixture wise we have ever had. The true picture on where stand will be reflected in the new next few games when we start playing the better teams.

We won’t be challenging for the title this season cause we gambled on a small squad with 2 players in Rodri and Haaland that we simply have no back up for. The gamble has failed and tossed off Pep’s last season.

Would love to know the reason why we chose to take that gamble - maybe it was financial or 115 related, if it wasn’t then then it’s a royal fuck up.
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I don't understand all the doom and gloom and "woe is me" pessimism. It's not the only reason, but this is part of why some opposition fans are turning against us. If fans of other clubs came and read this forum sometimes they'd get the impression that none of us know we're born. A "royal fuck up" is relegation, a "fuck up" would be missing out on European football.

This is just an off season. So far.

It is literally impossible for every team to win the title every single season. Does that mean that only one team can be judged to have got it right? Does that mean literally every other team dropped the ball or made some royal fuck up or a massive mistake? Are the efforts of everyone else in the league literally for nothing if one team wins?

If we don't win the title this year, it will be consistent with literally all of English football history. No team in this country has ever won five league titles on the bounce. No team had ever won four in a row until this very same City squad achieved record-breaking history six months ago. Do none of us understand the times we're living through?

Heck, before 2019 no team had won back-to-back English titles for 10 years. We sorted that record out. Before 2023, no team had won three consecutive titles for 14 years. We sorted that out as well. No English team had done the continental treble in the 21st century, but we took care of that too. We are watching an immortal team.

We all thought last year would be one step too far. Physically, mentally, emotionally. But the lads dusted themselves off and won the league with one of the highest points totals in Premier League history, setting an outstanding record in the process. In that time, we've fought off competition from Liverpool and Arsenal who are two of the best runners-ups the English league system has ever seen.

City can't win the league every year. Legs get weary, players get older, other teams get better, fresh new formations become tired old formations. This has literally been the case for every team that's ever won a First Division or Premier League title. Pep managing four consecutive titles is fucking outrageous and literally unprecedented.

Lots of people on this forum are old enough to remember City winning the First Division title in 1968 and then plummeting to 13th the following season. We're definitely all old enough to remember the 12/13 season, or the run between August 2014 and April 2018 when we went almost four calendar years without winning the title at all.

I'm sure most of us are old enough to remember the period between August 2003 and May 2007 when United went three seasons without the Premier League title and only won the FA Cup in 2004 because they were lucky enough to play second-tier Milwall in the final. Does anyone at United focus on that period now? Of course they don't.

In 15 years when Pep's gone, Kevin's gone, Txiki's gone, and maybe even Khaldoon's gone, are we going to look back and moan about the 24/25 season when we finished 2nd behind Arne Slot's Liverpool and only reached the latter stages of the FA Cup and Champions League? Are we buggery - we're going to focus on everything else.

Because that's what football's about - collecting special moments so you can have a little nostalgic cry about them in 20 years and tell your grandkids about the players you were lucky enough to watch. Does anyone on here moan about losing the 1977 title race to Liverpool? No. But do they all remember Mick Channon, Gary Owen, and Peter Barnes? Abso-fucking-lutely.

Teams are allowed a season off. Once you reach the top there's only one way it's possible to go. It's happened to literally every team to ever sit at the pinnacle of the English game. The old rule under Pep was that we'd have a season off, two seasons on, a season off, two season on, etc. Then we won the bloody treble during a season that was supposed to be an "off" one. And then won another title.

An off-season was coming. It might be this one, it might not be. But for you to sit there and call this a "royal fuck up" is just barking mad, sorry. I understand humans never really appreciate the good times while they're happening but we're looking at a season where "underperformance" means 3rd place, European football, and a Community Shield.

This isn't meant to be a lecture saying "Remember how shit we used to be". I'm not even saying we couldn't have planned this season a little better. But what I am saying is that it's impossible to plan and approach every season completely perfectly, and that it's better to just take in what we are achieving. How that night Istanbul didn't change our entire fanbase's outlook is a mystery to me.
 
Prophet of Doom said:
We’ve had the easiest start to a season fixture wise we have ever had. The true picture on where stand will be reflected in the new next few games when we start playing the better teams.

We won’t be challenging for the title this season cause we gambled on a small squad with 2 players in Rodri and Haaland that we simply have no back up for. The gamble has failed and tossed off Pep’s last season.

Would love to know the reason why we chose to take that gamble - maybe it was financial or 115 related, if it wasn’t then then it’s a royal fuck up.
Click to expand...

Can’t say I’d be too critical if we finished top 4 after 4 successive titles, regrouped in the summer, and went on to win another title again.

This might hurt to hear but we’re not going to win the league every single season and the years we don’t it’ll because we’ll have dipped a little bit or others will have just done well.

The PL is the hardest league in the world to win for elite sides and what you see below is absolutely not normal - it’s historic and it’s certainly good enough for me.

IMG_1707.jpeg
 
alexmcity said:
Yet, some upbeat posters often do it. It's like we have won 100 titles in a row and it's a natural law that we will win again no matter what. Pep is the best but he isn't a miracle worker.

5 years ago Laporte got injured and our defence unraveled. Rodri is more important to this team than Laporte was to that team. It's foolish to underestimate Rodri's absence.

The good news is that Liverpool are not as strong now as back then, and we have several exciting young players capable of helping us compete. But nothing is guaranteed. We can lose the league in some seasons, with and without Pep.
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There’s a growing greed from some that we must win the league every single season and if we don’t then it’s a disaster and everything is a disgrace. It’s totally unrealistic thinking.

What we have achieved in recently times is unprecedented but it won’t last forever, especially when Pep goes.
 
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