You have to be yourself. You can’t be no-one else. How City lost their way this season.

City's heightened affiliation with Oasis this season showed their lack of focus.

You have to be yourself. You can’t be no-one else. Or so the song goes, anyway.

With City getting all the way to, and losing, the FA Cup final, we’ve had to put up with one of the worst kits, one of the worst signs of hubris a team has ever exhibited for the best part of a full season; Noel Gallagher’s handwriting being used for the names on numbers aback City’s none Premier League kits.

Finally, we can consign the 0161 detail in the collar and sleeve trim to history too. It’s been a shocker, by the standards City have set across recent years. Where did it all go wrong?

When the season began, it seemed as though normal service ensued. By Halloween City were unbeaten, but Arsenal and Newcastle got a share of the points in the early six pointers and the cracks started to appear.

As winter set in, the cold bit and so did reality. One win in thirteen games, and City were setting records of the wrong kind. The run was arrested in the league somewhat across the festive period, but left Pep Guardiola looking back in anger, having suffered the worst spell of his managerial career.

It went wrong long before a ball was kicked though, and as minor detail as the kit font seems, that wouldn’t have happened a couple of seasons back. City don’t need Oasis and Oasis don’t need City. This was greed, arrogance turning to complacency. And it didn’t end there either. That TIFO in the second leg against Real Madrid. Awful. Read the room. You’ve been shite.

If you wonder why City, even after acquiescing so early in the title race, didn’t put up a better fight on the continent, it’s because the complacency penetrated the continental campaign too.

Toto Wolff was asked on a recent High Performance podcast how he handled Lewis Hamilton’s departure to Ferrari. Like Pep would, was in essence the answer. Even if the player is the top of their game, if they don’t want to be there, let them go.

Whilst that philosophy was applied to Julian Alvarez, not spending some of the money until January was a mistake. Perhaps, with Pep’s future in limbo, it was decided to keep the money aside until he committed; buying a player to suit his style of play, or keep the funds aside for whoever succeeded him. Either way, it’s poor planning.

After City won the treble, it could be argued there was too much loyalty to the squad. Jack Grealish, popular as he is, was never a viable long term fixture. He needs an unbroken run of games for momentum to transpire to threat. He was never going to get that

Kevin De Bruyne, who has eclipsed Yaya Toure and David Silva as the midfield talisman of the Sheikh Mansour era was already too prone to knack. Surely City have learned their lessons now, and with De Bruyne making way, the powers that be have must have lined a successor up? Such a succession plan can’t be assumed anymore.

Then there was Kyle Walker. The pre-determined departure of captain Ilkay Gundogan in 2023 meant Guardiola could ill afford to lose any more experienced players, but when Walker was denied his move to Bayern Munich, the rules changed.

Defect and you are done, was the old way. When Kyle Walker was blocked from joining Vincent Kompany’s side, City had softened.

The draw to Arsenal took the immortal sheen away. Walker could be beaten for pace, especially if he’d lost his positioning. His bravado marking Gabriel, who shook him like droplets from an umbrella after getting caught in the first moments of a shower, changed the game.

If Walker, who usually could recover from the opposition byline when City lost the ball, could be beaten, so too could City. Maybe their cheat codes had stopped working.

But Pep is both genius and enigma. Frustration at John Stones and Manuel Akanji being knacked for Liverpool’s visit a great example emotional crack or psychological manoeuvre? Either way, it signals Pep’s fatigue. He knows City, among others, are perpetual fuel pourers on football’s burning desires for wealth. His squad have paid the delayed price for over playing, but he and City have been happy to count the prize moment too.

Not moving ageing players on is the folly here, and when City did, replacements were far weaker.

It was apparent the moment Kalvin Phillips was signed Rodri needed both competition and back up. So why, when Phillips initially departed for West Ham was an alternative not sought? Again when Phillips was loaned to Ipswich, it was assumed that Gundogan, Matteo Kovacic and Rico Lewis could share the burden.

Gundogan’s return was short sighted and naive, and whilst Nico Gonzalez cameos in his countryman’s position in the interim, City’s operating rhythm has been obliterated.

If anything, this still speaks to Pep’s genius, and his place in the managerial pantheon. He’s delivered success, at least domestically, time and again.

Whilst he will have a heavy hand in recruitment, signings are generally led by Txiki Berigistan, Ferran Soriano and Brian Marwood.

Money was spent in January, and the the benchmark of a decent, if underwhelming, campaign remains unreached with City not yet locked in for Champions League football with only a few games to play.

And this is a sliding doors moment. A season out of the Champions League could be compounded if the looming charges don’t go the club’s way.

It’s a lucky escape. But that’s City isn’t it. Gillingham. QPR. This season?

Perhaps keep it simple next year. A nice blue kit, with a white trim. And leave the Gallagher brothers