Why Manchester City had to keep Bunny Shaw: The striker's record-breaking impact assessed
Risk of Jamaican star heading to rivals extinguished after signing new four-year deal
“Our number nine, arguably the finest centre-forward in world football, has now committed her future to the Joie Stadium until 2030”.
Those were the words in the Manchester City press release revealing Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s new contract on Monday night.
The announcement put to bed months of rumours that the 29-year-old was about to head to Chelsea on a free transfer when her contract expired next month. Instead, much to many’s surprise, Shaw was able to come to an agreement with the club and sign a new four-year deal.
The Jamaican revealed the news on stage at Manchester City’s joint-trophy parade with the men’s team, with huge cheers from the crowd and her teammates.
City signed Shaw from French side Bordeaux in the summer of 2021 as the successor to Ellen White. She initially struggled to adapt to City’s more disciplined system in her first season and was second choice to White, though she still scored nine goals in 794 WSL minutes which is a little over a goal a game, such are her high standards.
If there were any questions after her first season, they were all answered in her second as she firmly established herself as one of the best goalscorers in the league. She scored 20 goals, finishing second to Rachel Daly in the golden boot race.
The 2023-24 season was the most prolific of her City career. Shaw scored a goal every 66 minutes - 21 in total en route to her first golden boot, with eight goals separating her from her nearest challenger. She also became the first player to claim the prize for City as a professional side in the WSL era.
City ran out of steam towards the end of that season and lost the title on goal difference, and it is not far-fetched to think it was partly due to Shaw’s absence with a foot injury she suffered in April. She also ended that season with the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year and the WSL Player of the Year awards.
Her injury issues persisted into the 2024-25 season but she still managed to win the golden boot with 12 goals in 10 games as City dropped to fourth in the league table.
Neither those injury problems nor City’s position was to be repeated the following campaign. Shaw bounced back to start all their WSL games, scoring 21 times to equal her best tally. The result was her first WSL winners’ medal and her third consecutive golden boot. A record, as were her second WSL Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards.
How good has Shaw been for City?
She arrived in England as one of the best young forwards in Europe having been prolific in the French top flight. She scored 32 goals and set up 11 in the southwest of France which was enough for City to sign her on a three-year deal. She has since evolved into a talismanic figure in Manchester.
City have often looked to Shaw for goals and the team has been built around getting the best out of her. They have often used wingers on the side of their dominant foot -left-footer Lauren Hemp on the left; Aoba Fujino, Kerolin and, in years gone by, Chloe Kelly on the right - to facilitate a lot of crosses into the box. Shaw has benefited from this, with a good chunk of her goals coming from headers. Forwards like Kerolin and Vivianne Miedema have profited from her presence drawing more attention from defenders to get scoring chances.
She averages over five shots per game. With City boasting some of the league’s star attackers, she is the one who takes them to the next level with her ability to get on the end of attacking moves, managing to release shots even in situations she has no right to. She has elite movement in and out of the box, she can run in behind, she can roll a defender and carry into the box.
Some of the records she has broken at City
1. City’s record goalscorer - 117 goals in 137 appearances
2. The first-ever player to reach 100 goals for Manchester City
3. The first player to win three consecutive WSL golden boot awards
4. The first player in WSL history to reach the 20-goal mark in three separate seasons
5. Scored against 10 of 11 WSL opponents in 25-26, the most in a season alongside Sam Kerr
6. The best minutes-per-goal ratio in WSL history for players who’ve scored at least 10 times
7. The most headed goals in WSL history
8. The fastest hat-trick in WSL history, against Tottenham in 25/26
Her evolution into arguably the best striker in the world has also been marked with improvements in her all-round game. Her four assists this season were not anything to shout about, but her 26 open-play chances created ranked her fifth in the division.
Her 5.62 open-play expected assists was only bettered by teammate Hemp. City have used her aerial ability to play over the press in build-up and defend set-pieces. Her hold-up play has been crucial for knitting attacks together as the focal point up front, but she is also capable of dropping deeper to provide a passing option to progress the ball.
Shaw’s legacy
Shaw’s decision to stay at City cements her as one of the most loved players in the club’s history.
Strikers of Shaw’s quality don’t come around often and it was critical that City kept her, by any means necessary. The fact that City were able to secure her future at the club, is also a testament to the work of director of football Therese Sjogran.
In Shaw’s contract announcement, Sjogran praised the wider impact she’s had in the last five years: “The stats and awards speak for themselves, but there’s so much more to Bunny than what she does on the pitch. She has become a real leader in the team and I’m sure she’ll be a driving force on our return to Uefa Champions League football next season and our push to retain the WSL title”.
The 29-year-old is the best forward to ever play for the club, but this season’s WSL title was only her second trophy in her five years at the Joie Stadium. The new contract provides an opportunity for Shaw and the squad to build an exciting dynasty with Andree Jeglertz over the coming seasons. The first challenge, is making this season a domestic double with a Women’s FA Cup final still to play against Brighton at Wembley on Sunday.
 | A guest post by
|