It is becoming increasingly clear that City will have to act decisively next summer. As so often happens with great teams that have won it all, the club may have waited too long to part ways with some of the players who have played such a vital role in their success.City’s board are well aware that they will have to switch off their emotions and make tough but rational decisions. This may involve some of the core players – Ederson, Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish – who were at the heart of the Guardiola era’s happiest moments. There is a sense within the club that they may have mistakenly identified 2025 as the time to rebuild, rather than doing more last summer to speed up the process. There is some regret, for example, that Walker was not dumped sooner.