The summer break saw several players leave the club, Kiki Musamapa and Albert Riera’s loan deals were not extended and David Sommeil was released along with seven other fringe and youth players.
Stuart Pearce strengthened the squad pre-season with purchases of Bernado Corradi a £2M buy from Valencia, Didi Hamann from Bolton, Ousmaane Dabo from Lazio, Young goalkeeper Joe Hart for £600k from Shrewsbury and Paul Dickov also returned for a second spell with the Blues.
Three youngsters who had gained first team experience left the club, Lee Croft, Willow Flood and Bradley Wright-Phillips. The Blues pre-season began on 19th July with an entertaining 3-3 draw at Wrexham and three days later a 3-2 win at Rochdale.
A Joey Barton hat-trick gave City a 3-0 win at Port Vale before the Blues made it three friendly wins on the trot with a 1-0 victory at Bradford .
City then flew out to Shanghai to take part in the Shanghai Gateshead Cup. Pearce’s men beat Shanghai Shenhua 1-0 in the first game but lost the second 4-3 against Kashima Antlers .
Then just two weeks before the season started David James shocked Stuart Pearce as he left the club to join Portsmouth for a fee in excess of £1M, the timing of the move wasn’t ideal but an experienced replacement in 24 year old Swedish International custodian Andreas Isaksson was quickly found, a £2M purchase from Rennnes .
Tunisian International captain Hatem Trabelsi was also a late addition to the squad joining on initially a one year contract..
The Thomas Cook Trophy was the curtain raiser to the season and Porto won the trophy with a 1-0 victory over the Blues at Eastlands.
The season started with a 3-0 defeat at Chelsea , a league debut for Corradi to forget as he was given his marching orders.
City’s first match of the season at Eastlands was a 0-0 draw against Portsmouth which will be remembered only for the horrendous challenge by Ben Thacher on Pedro Mendes for which Thatcher was suspended by City pending the club’s own internal investigation into the incident, later to be confirmed as a 6 match ban, increased to 8 by an independant disciplinary commission
Putting a bad week behind them The Blues beat Arsenal at home 1-0 courtesy of a Joey Barton penalty, and then played a friendly at Ballymena , winning 3-1. However three defeats on the trot followed, 1-0 at Reading , 4-2 at Blackburn and an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at Chesterfield which saw the Blues knocked out of the Carling Cup in the 2nd Round.
Stuart Pearce had brought in American International DeMarcus Beasley on a season long loan to bolster the squad and he made his debut in the defeat at Blackburn. Leaving City on transfer deadline day was Andy Cole who joined his tenth club, Portsmouth for a fee of £500,000, and Antoine Sibieski who left for Newcastle.
City got back on track at Eastlands beating West Ham 2-0 and then drawing 1-1 at Everton and so after seven games City were mid table sat in 12th.
‘Typical City!’ instead of continuing the good run then drew at home to Sheffield United in a miserable goal-less affair and then lost 4-0 at Wigan a display that City chairman, John Wardle, to say “I want the players to take a long look at themselves this week. They must understand that the performance was unacceptable. we [The Directors] were embarrassed by what happened on the pitch.”
City made amends a week later by beating Middlesbrough 1-0 at Eastlands but then made it 7 games without a win on their travels losing 1-0 at Charlton, and could only manage a 0-0 draw at home to Newcastle.
With twelve league games gone City were in 14th place just 4 points off the relegation zone the Blues main problem was scoring goals they had only managed 7 all season.
The goals flowed however in the next game at eastlands as the Blues beat Fulham 3-1, a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool followed however Stuart Pearce’s team gained their first away win of the season next beating Aston Villa 3-1.
Entering December The Blues drew at home 0-0 against Watford and then lost 3-1 in the Manchester derby against United at Old Trafford.
City dropped in to 14th place in the league as they lost 2-1 at home to Tottenham in a game that Stuart Pearce described The Blue’s first half performance as ‘awful’.
Things didn’t get any better in City’s next home game as they were beaten 2-0 by Bolton two days before Christmas. City’s away form was thankfully a lot better as they beat Sheffield United on Boxing Day 1-0 and then beat West Ham at Upton Park by the same score four days later.
It was three wins on the trot for Stuart Pearce as City beat Everton 2-1 at Eastlands.
The transfer window was now open and out of favour Ben Thatcher was the first player to be shown the door as he moved to Charlton for an initial fee of £500k, coming in on loan until the end of the season was French midfielder Djamel Abdoun.
The Blues gained a replay in the FA Cup 3rd Round with a 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday and the back in the league drew 0-0 at Bolton .
The FA Cup replay at Eastlands ended with a 2-1 win for City against Sheffield Wednesday .
After a run of six games unbeaten The Blues were brought down to eath with a 3-0 home defeat by Blackburn . However City progressed to the 5th round of the FA Cup beating Southampton 3-1 at Eastlands.
Michael Ball was the announced as City’s next addition to the club coming in until the end of the season from PSV Eindhoven.
Stuart Pearce was asked to become coach of England’s Under 21 team on a temporary basis by the FA and it was agreed by the Blue’s bosses that ‘Psycho’ could take the job as well as carrying on his managerial role at the Citizens.
Claudio Reyna returned to the USA to join New York Red Bulls as their ‘Marquee Player’
City’s league form was still causing concern and they lost at home to Reading 2-0 and away at Portsmouth 2-1 to slip down the table to 15th.
The pressure was off in the FA cup however and City beat Preston 3-1 in the FA Cup 5th Round.
two days before the the game City announced the signing of Belgian striker Emile Mpenza, the 28 year old was a free agent after a spell with Al Rayyan in Qatar and signed a contract with the Blues until the end of the campaign.
For the first time in the season the dreaded ‘R’ word was being banded about in the press and the fans as City slipped fourth from bottom of the league, six points off the relegation zone as they lost 1-0 at home to Wigan .
The solace that was the FA Cup would come to an end as well as Blackburn knocked the Blues out 2-0 in the 6th Round at Ewood Park. A final straw for many City fans who vented their anger verbally at Stuart Pearce and the Directors.
The visit of Chelsea saw City fail to score for the fourth league game on the trot at Eastlands as the team from Stamford Bridge won 1-0.
Things away from home were a little rosier however and two wins on the trot in the North East, 2-0 at Middlesbrough and 1-0 at Newcastle saw move up to 13th in the league but still only six points away from the relegation zone with seven games left to play.
Back at Eastland City drew a blank for the fifth time in a row with a 0-0 draw against Charlton , but made it three wins on the bounce on their travels with a 3-1 at Fulham . But the goal-less drought at Eastlands continued with a 0-0 draw against Liverpool .
At Highbury Arsenal beat City 3-1 and the Blues then travelled to Watford and gained a point in a 1-1 draw. City were now safe from relegation but with nothing to play for with three games of the season left.
Those three games were all defeats, 2-0 against Aston Villa and 1-0 in the Derby against Manchester United , both games at Eastlands and then 2-1 at Tottenham .
The Blues hadn’t scored at Eastlands since 1st January a statistic which would lead the City fans to call for Stuart Pearce’s head. Pearce issued a statement to the effect that he was confident he would still be in charge next season.