Man City ended 2024 by getting back to winning ways against Leicester after a rotten run of form to end the calendar year.

City ended the year in sixth place in the Premier League table, 22nd place in the Champions League table and knocked out of the Carabao Cup.

An injury crisis has ravaged their season and now they have to get back on track with some transfer business in the January transfer window. There is also the looming results of the 115 charges case against the Premier League to contend with.

READ MORE: Two players ruled out of Man City vs West Ham as Pep Guardiola waits on five injury doubts

READ MORE: Premier League CEO Richard Masters just scored huge own goal with two Man City blunders

Here is a round up of the key Manchester City headlines on Thursday, January 2.

Masters own goal

Even if Richard Masters gave a stock 'no comment' answer, it would have been better than simply not talking about the Premier League's charges against Manchester City at all.

Masters has opened 2025 with a sit-down interview with a new Sky Sports podcast, but hard-hitting and in-depth it was not. Listening to him speak, you would not know this is the man leading the Premier League in the middle of a titanic legal battle with its defending champions, having lost a courtroom battle with the same club in recent months forcing a significant rule change.

Masters did reference the Profit and Sustainability Rules that require changing after City successfully proved the old version was against UK competition law. After trying to explain the new proposed rules, comparing them against UEFA's, he said: "We think [the threshold for permitted losses] is the right place to put it at and see if the clubs vote it through during the course of the season."

That is where the legal talk stopped.

Read the full story, here.

Defender recalled

Manchester City will recall defender Issa Kabore from his nightmare loan at Benfica, and he will return to the Etihad this month.

Right-back Kabore signed for City in 2020 and has spent loans back at former club Mechelen, at Marseille, Troyes and Luton before agreeing to join Benfica in the summer. But his time in Portugal quickly fell apart.

"When you arrive at a big club like Benfica, the goals are clear. There's a clear vision," he said at the time. "We're here to win trophies and that's what we're going to strive for. They're clubs [during previous loans] that have added a lot, that have made me grow as a player and as a man. I come here with that experience, with everything I learned from them."

However, after playing a regular role for Luton in the Premier League last season, Kabore struggled for games with Benfica, playing just seven times of which just two were starts and only 11 minutes came in the league across three substitute appearances.

Read the full story, here.

Rodri transfer boost

Manchester City need a defensive midfielder this month.

Rodri is out for the season and the decision in the summer not to buy support for him has been exposed. City were confident in Mateo Kovacic and the returning Ilkay Gundogan to offer alternative options, with John Stones, Manu Akanji and Rico Lewis all able to invert.

The problem has been keeping those players fit as well, as injury problems have ravaged the squad and exposed any weakness while brutally ripping open the reliance on Rodri. January is a chance to put some sticking plasters on that huge number-six-shaped hole and try to restore some control in midfield.

Finding a candidate to replace Rodri, or act as a back-up, will be no easy search, however. Especially if City are not expected to move for Martin Zubimendi or Bruno Guimaraes.

They need someone to fix the injury crisis straight away this season in a way Rodri would, but then be happy to act as number two to the Ballon d'Or winner next season. Maybe that's why they didn't find the ideal candidate in the summer.

The search will be harder now.

So it is welcome to hear Rodri talk about next season and how his recovery is going. He's already said he hopes to be back before the current campaign is over but that feels both foolish and ambitious.

Read the full story, here.