Man City awards 2023-24: Best & worst player, best & worst transfer, top scorer

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 27 May 2024 12:55 BST
• 5 min read

Manchester City won their fourth consecutive Premier League title during the 2023-24 season, but Pep Guardiola’s side were left slightly disappointed after their failures in the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

Last year’s treble winners entered all three cup competitions as the favourites for glory, but they fell to a penalty shootout loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final, a 2-1 FA Cup final defeat against Manchester United and a shock 1-0 loss to Newcastle United in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

However, there’s no doubt that Man City deserved to win the Premier League title and they will be hoping to make it five in a row before Guardiola’s expected departure in 2025.

Below, FootballTransfers runs through our Man City awards for the 2023-24 season.

READ MORE: Man Utd Awards 2023-24 - Best & worst player, best & worst transfer, top scorer

Man City’s Player of the Season

Man City’s Player of the Season was undoubtedly Phil Foden. The England international has been a side-piece to Kevin de Bruyne for the vast majority of his senior career, but he is now Man City’s main man.

He is still often deployed in a wide role, however Foden was given far more creative freedom in 2023-24 and he frequently played in a No.10 role - by far his best position.

The Englishman was the deserving winner of the Premier League’s Player of Year award after he notched 19 goals and eight assists on his way to the sixth league title of his young career.

READ MORE: Arsenal awards 2023-24 - Best & worst player, best & worst transfer, top scorer

Man City’s Flop of the Season

Matheus Nunes arrived for a whopping €62 million from Wolverhampton Wanderers, yet he mustered just 1,540 minutes of action in all competitions.

The Portuguese midfielder simply wasn’t trusted by Guardiola and he started only seven Premier League games during his debut season at the Etihad Stadium.

His arrival was a slightly peculiar one at the time, given his fairly average form at Wolves, and Nunes now looks like another midfield transfer failure following the arrival of Kalvin Phillips from Leeds United.

Man City’s Top Scorer

Erling Haaland was Man City’s top goalscorer in all competitions with 38 goals in 45 appearances. The Norway international missed 14 games through injury and ended the campaign with 14 fewer goals than his first season at the club.

Foden was Man City’s second-highest goalscorer with 27 strikes, while Julian Alvarez was third with 19.

Man City’s Best Transfer

Josko Gvardiol arrived with huge expectations and a massive price tag on his head having joined from RB Leipzig for €90m.

The Croatian initially struggled in a new left-back role, but he grew into the position as the season progressed and he ended the campaign as one of Man City’s most important players.

Gvardiol was a solid presence at the back, while he added goals to his game too, notching five during the final nine games of the season.

Man City’s Worst Transfer

As mentioned earlier, Nunes was Man City’s worst transfer by a fairly comfortable margin. Jeremy Doku impressed in sparks, Mateo Kovacic filled in nicely in central midfield, while Gvardiol was a standout performer in defence.

Nunes, on the other hand, failed to make a meaningful impact and his €62m fee looks like a vast overpay.

Man City’s Best Youngster

Man City’s squad is far from old, but Guardiola is always wary of promoting youngsters too soon.

Foden and Haaland were both nominated for Premier League Young Player of the Year award, and the former wins the award for Man City’s best youngster as he technically qualifies, despite being a first-team player for six years.

Oscar Bobb impressed during his limited involvement, while the same can be said for Rico Lewis.