This is not like City. In recent years, the club has been very proactive when it comes to renewals, with Shaw earning one at the end of the 2022-23 season, just two years after her arrival from Bordeaux. The following year, City renewed four more key starters – Khiara Keating, Yui Hasegawa, Leila Ouahabi and Lauren Hemp – as well as the contract of then-head coach Gareth Taylor. Kerstin Casparij signed a renewal last season and, this term, all of Hasegawa, Mary Fowler, Alex Greenwood and Rebecca Knaak, amongst others, have agreed new deals.
Sure, there have been a few notable departures on free transfers in that time, with that of Laia Aleixandri, who returned to childhood club Barcelona this season, perhaps the biggest blow. But after the summer of 2023 seemed to raise alarm, when Georgia Stanway, Caroline Weir and Lucy Bronze all left upon the expiration of their respective deals, City have generally been proactive when it comes to contracts.
