‘Manchester is where I want to be’ says Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw – but it’s not that simple for City’s star

So as the Manchester City left-back attempted a thrown-in in the 16th-minute of City’s final WSL match away to West Ham United, perhaps we shouldn’t fault her for missing Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw running straight at her, smile bared and eyes eager, just a girl hoping to meet a ball at Dagenham and Redbridge FC. Of course no ball came. Ouahabi instead stood with the ball above her head and Shaw’s head, in turn, instantly dropped, disappointment and annoyance wrestling for the real estate of her face.

But Shaw remained, feet planted a yard and a half in front of Ouahabi, the West Ham defender assigned the duty of marking Shaw ostensibly having found something better to do than bare witness to this stand-off. Until finally someone — a City staff member, a member of the crowd, a City teammate — shouts to “just give it to her! ” And of course it’s hard not to make poetry here, to draw obvious lines between the inability of Ouahabi to recognise the plainly evident move to give Shaw what she wants with City’s hierarchy perched a handful of seats away exhibiting the same inexplicable incapacity to “just give it to her.

” If this was to be Shaw’s final match in a Manchester City shirt, then at least the 27-year-old Jamaica international went out in sublime fashion: two goals tucked away from two shots despite an xG of just 1. 32, the most chances created (3), the most touches in the opposition box (9). It is a snapshot of Shaw at her best.

So seize it. Clutch it close. Don’t let it go.