Almost from the moment that Pep Guardiola became Manchester City manager in the summer of 2016, the club became the dominant force in English football.

Between their first win under the Spaniard at the end of the 2017-2018 season and the end of the 2024-2025 campaign, the only club able to stop City from winning league after league was Liverpool. As the Abu Dhabi-owned club won title after title, Kevin De Bruyne was there as the orchestra leader of all that was done well at the Etihad.

Gary Neville: “I know we’ve talked about Mo Salah, but no one would argue that Kevin De Bruyne has been the greatest Premier League player in the last years.” pic.twitter.com/fPz9AUl2G4

— mcfc england 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@mcfc_england) March 4, 2025

Now it appears as though the Belgian will be departing Manchester City in the summer having won six Premier League titles, five League Cups, two FA Cups and a Champions League.

Whilst Mohamed Salah appears to be in the best form of his Liverpool career, seemingly taking the Merseyside club towards their second Premier League title in five years, it looks as though City are undergoing a changing of the guard. De Bruyne has been one of the top-flight’s finest ever players, but does his departure signal the start of a downward spiral for the club?

De Bryune’s Chequered Injury History

Kevin De Bruyne arrived at Manchester City from VfL Wolfsburg in the summer of 2015, with some wondering if he had what it took to make it in the Premier League after failing to make an impact at Chelsea three years earlier.

Having signed for a club record fee of £55 million, he was soon confirmed as being on the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or. In the January, he scored in the League Cup semi-final against Everton but suffered a knee injury that would keep him out for action for several months. It was a neat encapsulation of what De Bruyne would bring to Manchester City.

@bbcsport Premier League, beware – Kevin de Bruyne is determined to get back to his best 💪 #BBCFootball #KDB #KevinDeBruyne #ManCity #PL ♬ original sound – BBC Sport

Able to score and assist on a regular basis, De Bruyne was also prone to picking up an injury on a seemingly regular basis. Once Guardiola took over at City, he began to build his team around De Bruyne, declaring him to be a ‘special, outstanding player’ who was ‘ just behind Lionel Messi’.

He signed a new long-term contract with Man City in the January of 2018, proving his importance to the club, but another injury occurred in the August and meant that he missed another couple of months. Anyone who has seen him play this season would admit he’s definitely lost a bit of his magic.

Putting Everything into the Treble

When Manchester City won the treble in the 2022-2023 season, Kevin De Bruyne put everything had into achieving it. The club won the Premier League title, the Champions League & the FA Cup, with the Belgian reportedly playing with an injury for the final two months.

City were also hoping to win the League Cup that season to produce a quadruple, which is something that no side has done before. With that in mind, it is perhaps no surprise that the attacking midfielder’s age is showing.

‘How has this happened to this wonderful team’

What a braindead question, injuries play a small part I guess but the fact is they’ve relied on players who have aged, the team needs a rebuild but to be honest, they’ve put everything on
De Bruyne, Foden & Haaland, it’s failed, it’s brilliant

— thescousecolossus.bsky.social (@thescousecolossus.bsky.social) 15 December 2024 at 19:43

Of course, De Bruyne isn’t the only player who has been a stalwart for Pep Guardiola yet is looking past his best this season. The Cityzens have all but fallen off a cliff during the campaign, struggling to put any kind of run of wins together.

Having asked his players to go again and again & put everything they had into winning as many trophies as they could, Guardiola has done the equivalent of killing the goose that laid the golden egg and now his team and players are paying the price.

130 Charges

If you are going to talk about the fall off suffered by Manchester City, which Kevin De Bruyne seems to be emblematic of, it is impossible not to talk about the 130 charges of financial impropriety that the club are facing from the Premier League.

We won’t be looking at the charges specifically here, but rather the impact that they are likely to have had on the players themselves as they go for further honours.

Whilst none of the charges have yet been proven, in the eyes of most football fans the fact that they’ve even been brought in the first place is a sign that the club have “cheated”. That is an accusation that will surely weigh heavily on the players, who have put everything into winning silverware only to potentially have their success undermined.

It will also be limiting the club’s ability to sign new players, who must be wondering whether City are likely to be in the Premier League moving forward. Ageing players and an inability to replace them is a recipe for disaster.