Manchester City has played 34 seasons in the divisions covered here since 1992/93: 29 in the Premier League, 4 in the Championship and 1 in League One. It has been in the Premier League since 2002/03 (24 seasons), after 1 season in the Championship. It won the Premier League 8 times, most recently in 2023/24. Its biggest climb took five seasons: from 22nd in the Championship in 1997/98 to 9th in the Premier League in 2002/03. It has been promoted 3 times and relegated 3 times.
Manchester City
2025/26: 2nd in the Premier League · 2026/27: Premier League
How high can Manchester City realistically go?
Based on finishing 2nd in the Premier League in 2025/26
About 4 in 10
Of the 36 times a club finished 2nd to 4th in the Premier League between 2004/05 and 2015/16, 16 won the league within ten seasons.
16 of 36 (44%); likely range 16%–83%, 7 different clubs.
| Finished in the top four again the next season | about 7 in 10 45 of 63; range 51%–84% |
Manchester City itself: 10 of the last 10 seasons in the Premier League; 10 top-four finishes; 6 titles.
How do we know?
We took every season since 2004/05 in which a club finished in the same part of the same league, and followed each club forward. The figure is the share that reached each goal. Ten-year goals use finishes from 2004/05 to 2015/16, five-year goals from 2004/05 to 2020/21, so every case has had the full time to play out; results run to the end of 2025/26.
It describes what happened to clubs in this position, not a forecast for one club. A club with much more money or history than is usual for its position has better chances than the figure suggests, which is why the club's own record is shown underneath.
The likely range is a 95% interval worked out by resampling clubs rather than seasons, because the same club often appears several times. It is wide where only a few clubs have been in a position, and two leagues whose ranges overlap may not really differ. Reserve teams such as Barcelona B or Real Madrid Castilla are left out of these counts, because they cannot be promoted into their first team's division.
Counts: won the league within ten seasons: 16 of 36; finished in the top four again the next season: 45 of 63.
The story so far
Final position each seasonRinged dots are titles
How to read this chart
Every club in the divisions covered is placed on one ladder each season: the champions are 1st, and the top club of the second division comes straight after the bottom club of the first. Shaded bands are the divisions. Hover over or tap a dot for the season.
34seasons since 1992/93
29seasons in the Premier League
8league titles
16top-four finishes
3promotions
3relegations
Against the money
Finished 2 places above its money
Over 14 seasons, Manchester City finished on average 2.4 places higher than clubs with the same wage bill usually finish. The gap is too large to be put down to chance. It finished above its money in 14 of 14 seasons with published figures.
£408mwage bill, 2024/25
2ndhighest of 36 clubs with published accounts
3rdfinish in the Premier League, 2024/25
Where Manchester City finishedWhere its wage bill normally finishes
Season by season
| Season | Finish | Wage bill | Wage rank | Places above its money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 3rd, Premier League | £408m | 2nd of 36 | +0.7 |
| 2023/24 | 1st, Premier League | £413m | 1st of 36 | +2.6 |
| 2022/23 | 1st, Premier League | £423m | 1st of 39 | +3.2 |
| 2021/22 | 1st, Premier League | £354m | 3rd of 38 | +2.2 |
| 2020/21 | 1st, Premier League | £355m | 1st of 37 | +2.7 |
| 2019/20 | 2nd, Premier League | £351m | 1st of 39 | +3.3 |
| 2018/19 | 1st, Premier League | £315m | 2nd of 37 | +3.3 |
| 2017/18 | 1st, Premier League | £260m | 3rd of 35 | +3.7 |
| 2016/17 | 3rd, Premier League | £264m | 1st of 33 | +0.8 |
| 2015/16 | 4th, Premier League | £198m | 3rd of 36 | +0.9 |
| 2014/15 | 2nd, Premier League | £194m | 3rd of 38 | +2.9 |
| 2013/14 | 1st, Premier League | £205m | 1st of 36 | +3.4 |
| 2012/13 | 2nd, Premier League | £233m | 1st of 34 | +3.1 |
| 2011/12 | 1st, Premier League | £202m | 1st of 24 | +1.1 |
How do we know?
For every season, we compare each club's wage bill with the average in the top two divisions, and work out the finish that wage bill usually brings, allowing for differences between seasons and assuming a bigger wage bill never lowers the expected finish. The gap between that and the actual finish, averaged over the seasons, is the figure above. An overall verdict needs at least eight seasons, and a signed number is given only when the gap is clearly larger than chance.
Wage bills are the staff costs in each club's statutory accounts at Companies House (all staff, not only players), read without any language model and checked against the note's own components and the next year's accounts. Seasons where two readings disagree by more than 2% are left out.
On average, most of a big over-performance fades: clubs that finished at least four places above their money (on average 6.4 places) were +2.0 places the next season, so about 69% of it disappeared and the rest persisted. Some clubs beat their money season after season. It mixes good management, luck and resources the measure cannot see, so it is not a score for how well a club is run.
Clubs with a similar path
Clubs whose finishing positions over the last 15 seasons were closest to Manchester City's, with recent seasons counting more.
In England
LiverpoolEngland · 5th in the Premier League, 2025/26ArsenalEngland · 1st in the Premier League, 2025/26Manchester UnitedEngland · 3rd in the Premier League, 2025/26ChelseaEngland · 10th in the Premier League, 2025/26
Elsewhere in Europe
Paris Saint-GermainFrance · 1st in Ligue 1, 2025/26Real MadridSpain · 2nd in LaLiga, 2025/26Bayern MunichGermany · 1st in the Bundesliga, 2025/26
Compare Manchester City with another club
Sources
- Final tables to 2025/26. Top-flight positions follow the official classification, including head-to-head tie-breaks and point deductions. Lower-division positions before 2025/26 are worked out from match results and can differ from official tables where points were deducted.
- Relegations include dropping out of the divisions covered.
- All figures can be downloaded on the data page. Spotted a mistake? Report it with a source.