Just as it was gathering pace, with thousands of supporters joining the revolution, an attempted boycott of Manchester United’s commercial partners has disappeared into thin air.
What is left is exactly what supporter groups and the organisers of the boycott did not want: a fractured fanbase, who are at war with one another. And it has turned nasty.
A group of United supporters, who believe protests over how co-owners Ineos and the Glazer family run the club are falling on deaf ears, launched an online campaign against the club’s sponsors and commercial partners in an attempt to get senior executives to take notice.
Using the hashtag #BoycottUnited, the campaign was gathering real momentum, trending on X, with an orchestrated plan to target commercial relationships through negative reviews, contacting press offices and leaving comments on their social media posts well under way.
Thousands reposted or shared the message on their socials, with a vocal number of supporters firmly backing the campaign. Not all were on board and the movement ground to a halt, leaving fans to argue among themselves. It has all turned rather toxic.
The i Paper has spoken to numerous supporters, some affiliated with fan groups and those on each side of the argument, to gain an understanding of how we got to a point where prominent members of different United fan groups, some who helped start such associations, have chosen to step down in the aftermath of the failed boycott attempts. Most of those contacted wished to remain anonymous, for fear of yet more online abuse.
“I had enough, it was not worth it,” Steve Crompton, one of the founders of fan group The 1958, who resigned last week, tells The i Paper.
“I was getting abuse on Twitter, as were my family. Calling me all sort of things and making threats of physical violence. It has never been as toxic as this, ever. I was only trying to get what everyone wants: a change of ownership. These organisers had no idea what they were doing. Now it is World War III.”
There were protests before September’s game against Man City (Photo: Getty)
The disagreement surrounded how quickly this latest boycott campaign took place. Several fan groups called for a coordinated approach, which would take time to meticulously plan and put in a structure where the efforts can be monitored.
Several accounts with large social media followings instead pressed ahead with the boycott, setting out ways supporters could join in and, in revealing they had not gained cooperation from certain fan groups, the online conflict began.
Both sides suffered threats and abuse from the other, with a clear separation between match-going supporters and those more prominent online becoming apparent.
The Red Army, who claim to be United’s “largest, truly independent supporters” group and also organise banners in the Stretford End, have made their X account private as a result of the abuse they were getting for not openly supporting the early stages of the campaign. It is understood those in prominent positions’ mental health was being affected.
The i Paper has spoken to those who lead the boycott efforts and they are adamant they wanted to unify all fan groups and ordinary supporters behind the cause. Some have also had to since make their tweets private, as the levels of abuse became too much.
“We are losing good people in the fight,” another member of the United fans’ forum tells The i Paper. “And who are the people who win from us turning on each other? The ones who always do – the Glazers and (Sir Jim) Ratcliffe.”
Those who took to boycotting commercial partners felt they needed to act now as protests are “doing nothing”.
Not for the first time since Ratcliffe and Ineos took a minority stake in the club, hundreds of angry supporters marched down Sir Matt Busby Way to voice their discontent ahead of the last league match at Old Trafford against Manchester City.
“I actually agree that they probably aren’t doing that much,” one of the protest organisers tells The i Paper. “But we were trying to do things as one. A boycott has to be planned properly, with everyone on board. This latest one was not going to do anything.”
Boycotting a match at Old Trafford, where fans let their empty seats do the talking for them, is being mooted, too. Yet even that is causing division on social media, with some claiming those demanding supporters don’t turn up to games are from overseas, and have no intention of ever attending a game anyway.
Powerful fan channel voices, such as Mark Goldbridge, weighed in, questioning how supporters from “faceless” accounts can call out established fan groups and not appreciate the efforts such organisations are making already.
And you can imagine the reaction Goldbridge received. Social media provides too easy a platform to spread division. It is down to United supporters not to lose sight of the fact that, however they want to go about things individually, collectively they are all on the same side.
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When Everton were going through their battle with the Premier League over a £20m PSR breach that threatened the club’s very existence, the Manchester City charges got mentioned a lot.
“We just want consistency,” one insider told me at the time. There was a feeling that the more complex the case, the more grey areas it created, and the greater scope there was for dragging it out.
There was a deep and burning sense of injustice that they were the club sacrificed to prove a point when it came to the Premier League’s financial rules.
A penny for their thoughts right now, then. The scale of City’s wrongdoing dwarfs Everton’s, but only one club has taken its medicine. Only one club continues to pay the price.
There has been much talk about Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Arsenal launching compensation claims against City, but it is Everton who should be the most aggrieved about what has happened at the Etihad.
Many inside the club at the time felt they were caught in the crossfire of the City case. They breached PSR – there was an admission of that – but it was at a time when the Premier League was being put through the ringer, legally.
Everton sold Iliman Ndiaye to Man City in the summer (Photo: Getty)
So, the theory went, Everton were made an example of. They ended up with a 10-point deduction (later reduced to six on appeal) but no one should forget that the Premier League had originally wanted it to start at six points and then add an additional point for every £5m they were over the breach.
If the same logic is applied to Manchester City, they would be landed with a 180-point deduction for their rule breaking.
And yet that punishment wouldn’t be proportionate. Burnley made a successful case that Everton benefited from their PSR breach but it was one place in the Premier League.
It is a contentious point (and one that is being put to the test with an appeal that will be heard later this year) but it is hardly the sort of benefit that City got from nine years of cheating.
And whatever happens to them, they have built something that will be very difficult to tear down.
They have conquered Europe and scaled heights that are unimaginable for Everton right now, buying the Toffees’ best players in the process – including John Stones and this summer, Iliman Ndiaye. A global fanbase has been built on a decade of success.
Everton to Man City transfers since 2009
Joleon Lescott, 2009: £22m
Jack Rodwell, 2012: £15m
John Stones, 2016: £47.5m
Iliman Ndiaye, 2026: £65m
The irony is that Farhad Moshiri was chasing a similar dream when he got Everton into the sort of trouble that first caught the attention of the Premier League.
But City’s spending swept in the sort of inflation that meant even he couldn’t afford to keep up. The mess that it created nearly threatened Everton’s very existence.
The Toffees ended up taking their medicine. They appealed, got some of their points back and fought for their survival on the pitch.
The Friedkin Group ended up bailing them out of trouble but have scaled back their investment this summer, partly because they don’t see a way to square the circle of competing at the top level while complying with financial rules.
City, meanwhile, seem intent to fight on after lodging an appeal on Friday. Legal voices this week have suggested it might be five years before we have a conclusion to the case that has rocked English football. That is plenty of time to plan for what comes next and get themselves into some sort of shape for life after the charges.
Everton did not have that. The Premier League were into new territory when the club was prosecuted and punished and what happened to them was used to lay down a marker for anyone else tempted to stray from the rules.
But that example should have been City. Everton have every right to feel aggrieved.
You could make the argument that the Premier League’s financial rules safeguard the league’s future as football’s most revered domestic competition, the gold standard for the sport. Clubs are not allowed to spend beyond their means, keeping the English top flight the market leader for competitiveness in world football.
It helps that broadcast income is shared equally among Premier League clubs, meaning teams like Brighton and Bournemouth can spend hundreds of millions on talent to take them all the way to European qualification. That’s in stark contrast to countries like Spain, where Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid garner most of the TV revenues, and have a sizeable advantage as a result.
However, restricting English clubs to spending based on a maximum loss, or now 85 per cent of their footballing revenue, creates a ceiling, one Manchester City have been caught bursting through after the most seismic ruling in sporting history.
City should have the book thrown at them. An unprecedented points deduction is not enough, given the scale of their blatant disregard for the rules. But the very rules they have unscrupulously broken for years are a major part of the problem.
City are one of the only clubs to have broken the supremacy of the Premier League’s ‘Big Four’ clubs (Photo: Reuters)
Yes, Brighton against Brentford can produce slicker football than El Clasico, but neither will ever win the Premier League. Nor will Newcastle, whose owners’ resources go beyond the limitless.
And that can’t be right. Those clubs who make the most revenue, and therefore can spend hundreds of millions more than their rivals on players, are the same handful of clubs who, taking City out of the equation, have won the title in all but one of the last 31 seasons.
Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal – City fans call them “the red cartel” – are the main beneficiaries of the current regulations in place.
And while there is obviously no concerted effort from the Premier League to favour top clubs, it is getting harder and harder for anyone else to break into the true elite, as the revenues at the established giants continue to dwarf their less globally recognised rivals.
Despite their rival’s continued struggles on the pitch, the most ardent City supporter would probably admit that their club will never get close to United’s grandeur, even if only in secret. City are much closer now than they have ever been, but it would take generations of United failures to get anything like parity in terms of global standing.
There is no shortcut to that long history as a footballing behemoth, which is why United, Arsenal and Liverpool will always generate more revenue and thus be allowed to spend hundreds of millions more on players.
Nation states should never have been allowed to buy City and Newcastle – those rules simply must now be addressed, just as leveraged buyouts are no longer legitimate after the Glazer family saddled United with what is now over £1bn of debt.
But that is another argument.
In some regulated form, fit and proper owners – English football possesses few of such figures – should be allowed to inject their own money into a club. That is their prerogative, if it is done sustainably, and legitimate revenues grow as a result.
For a nation whose famous exports are all but gone, the global giant the Premier League has become is one to be celebrated. Yet this latest scandal threatens the very supremacy it worked so hard to build.
Investors from overseas have propped up the Premier League in recent years. But why would you inject millions into a top-flight club – Saudi-owned Newcastle are selling their best players to avoid penalties – if there is never any chance of winning the title?
Years of legal cases are sure to follow, as clubs seek compensation from City’s cheating. That, coupled with being a much less attractive investment opportunity, risks the Premier League being dethroned as the world’s greatest sporting spectacle. Serie A’s fall from grace was spectacular after the Calciopoli scandal. The Premier League is not too big to suffer a similar fate.
City’s conduct shows, quite rightly, that there is no way to beat the system. That does not mean the system in place is the correct one. If we can learn our lessons from the Glazers’ debt-laden United takeover, we can adapt to ensure nobody feels the only way to halt the hegemony of the elite over the Premier League title is to break the rules.
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That was the week that shook English football more than any other in its modern history. It was not the end of this ludicrous, multi-layered saga, but was surely the peak of us having our brains fried by the devil in the detail.
With that in mind, here are 27 things that have been taking up an awful lot of real estate in my head over the last seven days, from the punishingly serious to the comically stupid. It’s been that sort of week…
1) Nine. Hundred. Million. Just the actual enormity of the figure
That is the rough estimate by which Manchester City gained, either by underestimating expenditure or overestimating legitimate revenue. It is an extraordinary figure, almost too much to take in. So why not use this website that explains how much a billion is in pixels? The good news for Manchester City: you can take off 100 million of them.
2) David Ornstein has this all wrong… err, really?
News of the verdict leaked last Friday, well before the Premier League made any official comment and before Manchester City had said anything publicly either. That persuaded some City supporters (admittedly those who are a little too online) that David Ornstein, the best-connected man in the industry, had either taken a flyer, got his numbers wrong or was working for some shadowy cabal. Shock horror: Ornstein was proven right.
3) The fact it happened in the longest international break
This is the longest mid-season regular international break in the history of the Premier League. Many supporters fretted, wondering what on earth they would find to discuss without the all-consuming noise of England’s top flight. And then the biggest story of all broke several days in and was thus given the entirety of the stage. With necessary apologies to Czechia vs England and the Uefa Nations League, it was a tough sell.
4) The documented accusation of lying
The figures were monstrous. The details of Manchester City’s deliberate, concerted, calculated cheating were eye-watering. But most shocking of all was the detailed (in black and white) conclusions about how City witnesses had not just obfuscated but outright told untruths. It undercut everything that the club would subsequently claim in their statements and videos.
5) Aguerr-no – everything we saw was based on lies
Sergio Aguero’s legendary goal feels hollow now (Photo: AFP)
It’s not particularly pleasant to know that everything you watched and took as competition within the sport’s accepted boundaries was based upon a lie. For Manchester City supporters, I can understand why the memories are still the memories (even if they are tainted). But that Aguero goal was the greatest ending to any elite football competition I have ever – or will ever – witness. And it was built upon sand because it was built upon lies.
6) Punishment bingo
It’s not just the sheer spectrum of the suggested punishments I’ve seen, what we might label as “Why should League Two take them”. It’s the potential breadth of the aftershocks here if City lose their appeal.
They could get the sporting punishment. Those who committed these offences could be charged by the Independent Football Regulator. They could face criminal investigation. The club could be sued by any number of related parties and rival clubs for loss of earnings. Pull the thread and watch the thing unravel.
7) The clubs who missed out
And while we’re pulling at threads, just how many clubs could feel that they have been a victim here? Every side that lost a domestic cup final? Every side that missed out on a league title? Every side that fell just short of a Champions League or Conference League place? What about losing to City in a semi-final, does that count? We could be set for the most spectacular class action lawsuits in sporting history.
8) The first five pages of the report moaning about the complexity
Although the juicy bits of the full report caught your eye, I’ve a lot of time for reading the first five pages, effectively an explanation of why the whole thing took so long. My tip: pretend that each line is delivered with a sigh, eye roll and check of the watch.
“Over the course of more than 200 pages [emphasis for effect] the Club’s Answer set out the numerous individual bases underlying each of its denials. [Huff. Sigh.] The Club’s Answer was also supplemented by Further Information. [Eye roll.]
“Although the parties made great efforts – for which we were extremely grateful [pretend sarcasm] – not to drown us in paper at the hearing, the volume of documents contained in the bundle used at the hearing remained extremely substantial. [Put ear to watch.]”
9) Djibril Cisse challenging Mike Dean to a fight
Yep, that happened a few days ago and you’d already forgotten it despite it being a decent contender for stupidest thing to happen in any other year.
I’m not gonna let you people talk shit like that Let’s have a proper meeting and talk about it Cause there is now way I gonna accept your bullshit anymore So let’s do it https://t.co/7NfWcNpHIN
10) They didn’t need to do this – they could still have won!
This is the thing I can’t shake, and I’m aware that this might be totally wrong but I still can’t shake it. The cheating was designed to shortcut the process, to allow more spending and rapid improvement to the pinnacle.
But before 2011, owners could effectively inject unlimited capital anyway. And, honestly, given the component parts and a club being constructed internally for Pep Guardiola, I’m not even sure they needed to do it to win trophies. They got more than 90 league points four times.
11) The Arsene Wenger quote from 2011
“It raises the real question about the credibility of financial fair play. They give us the message that they can get around it by doing what they want. It means financial fair play will not come in. It is as simple as that. I can understand how they do it but it raises the real question.
“If the financial fair play is to have a chance, the sponsorship has to be at the market price. It cannot be doubled, tripled or quadrupled because that means it is better that we don’t do it and we leave everybody free. That can be defended as well, but if they bring the rules in they have to be respected.”
12) That 2019 post-match interview when Guardiola got angry
“Do you know the question you’re asking me? Did I receive money for another situation, right now, today? Honestly, do you think I deserve to have this type of question, the day we won the treble, did I receive money? Are you accusing me of receiving money?
“If we’re punished we accept it. But I listen to my chairman [Khaldoon al-Mubarak] and my CEO [Ferran Soriano], they give me the arguments for why we are under investigation and I trust them. They tell me we are fair and we absolutely follow the rules, I believe them.”
“I want every single Manchester City fan across the world to know I am here; more than ever,” Guardiola posted on social media. “I am, always have been, always will be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran, the players, staff, Enzo [Maresca] and you, our unique supporters. Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all.”
That’s nice. But you did say you would accept punishment? And you’re there despite leaving just before this all broke.
14) The BBC 5 Live Suffragette guy
Honestly, I don’t think that will be beaten. Talksport does a billion phone-ins with spicy callers and then Auntie Beeb goes and wins the lot.
“It’s not an issue that concerns me,” said Mancini before the Premier League’s official statement. “It’s nothing new because this matter has been discussed for the last four or five years. Manchester City has not been found guilty, and the alleged double contract is not my concern. It’s their issue, not mine.”
They have now, Bobby. And it sure feels like that double contract might be an issue for both of you. I’ve been thinking about that magnificent chutzpah a lot.
16) Ferran Soriano not blinking
Honestly, this is the biggest one. I’m not saying that this case has lived in my head rent-free and put up its own furnishings that I broadly dislike, but on Wednesday afternoon I did an actual Google search for the phrase “world record longest no blink”.
(Mack Borys, Winnipeg in Canada. Set this year at one hour, 45 minutes. But it’s unofficial and, with some more club videos, I reckon Soriano has a shot).
17) Omar Berrada walking into work
“Afternoon Carol, good day? Sounded quite busy around the desk?”
“Err yeah, Omar. Look, you haven’t seen the news have you?”
“I’ve been snowed under, Carol. No rest for the wicked, ha ha ha”
“Yeah, funny phrase that.”
“Have I missed anything, Carol?”
“You actually have. You know your CV – well it mentioned being Head of International Business Development, Director of Partnership Sales, Group Commercial Director and then Chief Operating Officer at Manchester City. And it’s just that… I’ll pop a meeting in your diary for the morning.”
Omar Berrada was Man City’s chief executive until he was poached by Manchester United (Photo: PA)
18) The Anfield atmosphere
Liverpool and Manchester City don’t like each other much, a rivalry fuelled by their title tussles over the last decade and the insistence from Liverpool supporters that they forged history while Manchester City bought theirs. And then this story broke.
So what is the first Super Sunday fixture after the most news-rich international break in Premier League history? Liverpool vs Man City.
Oh Mr Fixture Computer, you are spoiling us. It’s going to be absolutely soaked in righteous anger and cat-calling. Vicious banter turned up to 11. Yes please.
19) What if Manchester City win the league?
Sorry to get serious again, but there is a huge potential problem on the horizon. Because of how this works, Manchester City are entitled to a full appeal. Any sanctions can hardly apply until after that appeal is heard, because that’s not how sport works. You can’t restore docked points and go back to where you were, obviously.
But what if City win the league (or even qualify for the Champions League, as is overwhelmingly likely). If you thought that everything before was based on falsehoods, Pandora’s Box has now been firmly opened. There will be an almighty kerfuffle at the end of the season if the sanctions are not able to be applied then, and you can absolutely see why. Or, to be more blunt: if you thought that this was messy before…
20) Roy Keane saying that he would throw his medals away
I don’t know if that is true. I don’t even know if Roy Keane really thinks it, given everything he says is recorded for a podcast or YouTube channel now and he’s a low-key brilliant entertainer. I just love that a man schooled and developed under Brian Clough used Cloughie’s phraseology about this case. As a sad Nottingham Forest sap, it gave me a jolt of pride. Pathetic.
21) Joe Hart as a man of trust
“My honest opinion is I’ve got no reason not to trust Khaldoon…He’s been excellent with everything that he’s done with Manchester City… I’ve got nothing but love for the club, nothing but love for him, nothing but respect for him.
“My genuine feeling, as someone who played for the club, is that I’m going to have to let it play out… But for me, someone who I trust, someone who’s led me and led the club brilliantly, what he said is enough.”
Unfortunate timing for Hart, delivered shortly before the verdict, but I also understand the take. I expect nobody to feel much sympathy for highly-paid players here, but having someone tell you that the successes of your career were built upon cheating and lies must be a fairly weighty punch to the gut.
22) The sheer spectrum of the Manchester City fan response
We’ve mentioned the Emmeline Pankhurst radio guy, but more broadly this is an emphatic reminder that football supporters, often treated as one mass when it comes to matters of tribalism, are anything but.
The excellent David Mooney on Sky Sports News, detailing his visceral anger at how the club have behaved and betrayed his trust, had to turn off the comments on his tweets because he couldn’t face the abuse that he would receive from fellow fans. A reminder that most football supporters aren’t loud or abusive on social media and, as such, we shouldn’t judge a fanbase by the online reaction of the minority.
23) City Football Group – what happens now?
The added complexity of this case is that it isn’t just Manchester City who may be impacted. They are the highest-profile club within a large nexus: New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, Yokohama F. Marinos, Montevideo City Torque, Girona FC, Shenzhen Peng City FC, Mumbai City FC, Lommel SK, ESTAC Troyes, Palermo FC, Bahia.
If the ownership of the club is challenged by authority or negative supporter reaction, it is reasonable to wonder what happens to the future of the conglomerate as a whole. If nothing else, it’s pretty wretched PR for those working in other CFG clubs to have to deal with.
Sorry to all the journalists who investigated this case and whom Manchester City tried to silence. But you should all have done better than Keysey.
25) Irrefutable evidence – a secret history
Manchester City insist that they possess a “comprehensive body” of “irrefutable evidence” that proves their innocence and it’s a phrase that has caused great confusion.
That confusion boils down to two obvious points:
a) if this evidence is so strong, why did nobody think to bring it up during the four years that we’ve been forced to wade through?
b) if it was indeed brought up and heard, that rather suggests that either the evidence was indeed refutable or its irrefutability didn’t actually make any difference to the strength of your argument, which rather suggests a limitation in your chance of winning an appeal.
On Wednesday morning, Sun Jihai logs into his Instagram account. It is his birthday, 49 years young. He prepares to have a special day, surrounded by his family and friends. It is now 10 years since he retired as a professional footballer. It almost feels like half a lifetime ago.
As he scrolls through his account, he sees that one of his former clubs have wished him a very happy birthday. He thinks it a lovely touch. After all, the six years he spent at Manchester City were amongst the happiest of his life.
Below the post is 1,680 comments. Wow, he thinks. What an absolute honour, all these people sending salutations on this fine day. He grabs a mug of hot coffee, sits down at the table and begins to read through the best wishes from Instagram users across the football community.
27) The Prime Minister couching criticism
I’m not thick; I get it. The UAE owning Manchester City also brought in significant investment into east Manchester, something that was desperately needed and the local council could hardly afford on their own. The former Mayor of Manchester is now the Prime Minister, ergo he’s always going to be slightly careful about his direct criticism.
But my goodness, if this doesn’t convince you that an actual state owning a football club should be banned because things have the clear potential to get horribly messy geopolitically, I don’t know what will.
Cristiano Ronaldo is like the ageing beauty who calls in the plastic surgeons in a futile attempt to preserve their appearance.
The adjustments make them look even older than the passing years, and, like the Bride of Wildenstein, they are the only ones who can’t see it.
Ronaldo is 41. As freakishly well preserved as this Dionysian vision is, performance is underwritten by nature. Athletic decline sets in at the age of 35, give or take a month or two. Ronaldo is almost seven years into the process.
No male player has scored more international goals (146), nor made more international appearances (234). The lad has scored 10 hat-tricks for Portugal. His eminence is not in doubt, only his capacity to keep up with his teammates.
It has taken his former coach at Al-Nassr, Jorge Jesus, to give him the bad news, that he is not 21 anymore. And he took it like a 12-year-old. His exit from the Portugal camp, complete with teased promise to reveal all on social media, was peak diva behaviour.
Ronaldo is done as an elite footballer. The World Cup confirmed that. The pursuit of 1,000 career goals, a target from which he is 21 away, continues in the Saudi Pro League, which kind of says it all.
Vanity is bad enough. Vanity and power combined is a lethal blow to reason and balance. The only voice that matters is his. He is always right, which by definition makes everyone else wrong. The result is the conduct of a child.
Ronaldo was an unused sub against Norway (Photo: AFP)
The decision of Jesus to leave him an unused sub against Norway was more than he could take. While his teammates offered their thanks to the travelling Portugal fans, Ronaldo headed straight down the tunnel.
For Jesus this was a straightforward decision. He started Ronaldo against Wales, decided in favour of Goncalo Ramos, who replaced him against the Welsh, for the Norway fixture and was rewarded with the winner.
Jesus explained to Ronaldo before the match that he was not in the starting XI but could feature. “I decided not to bring him on. It’s nothing to make a fuss about,” Jesus said.
When Jesus made it clear that Ramos would again be preferred to Ronaldo for the Denmark game, he whistled the private jet to get him outta there.
“After the press conference of the national team and following a conversation with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, I have decided to leave the national team training camp. In time, I will tell all the Portuguese the truth about the reasons that motivated me to leave,” Ronaldo said.
Boo hoo. The problem is, in CR7 World, Ronaldo is Portugal. He personalised the legitimate decision of the coach not to pick him and weaponised it, making it a matter of honour. If this is to be his final contribution as an international footballer what an ugly, if predictable way to say goodbye.
It is not enough to have scaled heights few in the game have reached. Ronaldo sits in the pantheon alongside the greats, men like Ferenc Puskas, Pele, Alberto Di Stefano, Sir Bobby Charlton, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi et al.
Charlton was infamously substituted by Sir Alf Ramsey in the 1970 World Cup quarter-final with England leading 2-0 against West Germany. England went on to lose 3-2, the first German reply going in as he walked from the field brushing the combover across his balding head.
It turned out to be Charlton’s 106th and final match for his country. Though he said he felt full of running, he went without complaint. He understood his role was to play, the manager’s to choose when.
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So who knew what about the scam at Manchester City? The hottest question in the football firmament could have consequences not only for the City hierarchy but former executives now moved on, not least at Manchester United.
Though City were found guilty on all charges of financial misconduct by the independent commission, the judgment redacted the names of individuals involved, leaving the club’s ownership, Abu Dhabi United Group, in the dock.
The question about who knew about financial wrongdoing, which City continue to deny despite the overwhelming nature of the ruling against them, necessarily starts at the top.
Unless City were the victims of some rogue AI infiltration, it is fair to assume there was some human involvement in proceedings, and when we consider the sums signed off, upwards of £830m in what were found to be sham deals, you might think that would be a matter for serious executive clout.
Berrada (left) and Wilcox (centre) are the two most high-profile ex-City employees at United (Photo: PA)
Which brings us to those in high office during the period under investigation, including one Omar Berrada, now CEO at United. Berrada was not accused of any wrongdoing and no findings against him were made, but that does not stop the perfectly reasonable question about connectivity being raised.
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe raided City to mine intimate knowledge of how to succeed at football, the 115 charges of financial breaches against City were laid but the hearing into those charges had not begun.
Ratcliffe’s Ineos reign is shot through with incompetence, revealing how little he understands the unique nature of football leadership. He made the classic industry move, plundering a blue-chip rival to land proven winners.
Ratcliffe must have thought Berrada, who joined City from Barcelona as the head of the Etihad’s international business department, a genius to help generate sponsorship north of colossal.
Working at the elbow of Ferran Soriano, chief executive of City Football Group, Berrada climbed the food chain to become chief executive in 2016 and would assist football director Txiki Begiristain in player recruitment.
By the end of the investigated period, which stretched from 2009-2018, the judgment found City had disguised secret funding totalling more than £830m through sham contracts with a variety of “commercial” partners, a figure that would go some way to erasing United’s debt were it legitimately sourced.
United’s second City hire, director of football Jason Wilcox, joined City as an academy coach in 2012 rising to the position of Academy Director five years later. Although he had no involvement in City’s commercial operations, most United fans have lost confidence in him, as well as Berrada, and would welcome seeing both out the door.
Berrada’s fingerprints are all over the swingeing cuts that have ripped the soul from Old Trafford. Wilcox is viewed as a clueless imposter. Together they are seen as the Dumb and Dumber of football leadership, Ratcliffe’s henchmen reviled as much as him.
When Walter Scott penned his epic poem Marmion with its nuclear line “oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,” he had just this kind of scandal in mind. And we are only at the beginning of the domino effect inherent in a deceit of this scale, if those involved knowingly practised it.
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Appointed by Newcastle United in a whirlwind summer of change, his in-tray has been so loaded that he only moved out of a hotel into his new home this week.
In these early days, his interactions with journalists – short answers, matter-of-fact delivery – were viewed as a man laying down a marker. A lot of fans seemed to take to the “Newcastle’s new man takes no prisoners” vibe.
But Jaissle was misunderstood. By his own admission his “guard is up” when making new acquaintances (just ask his supermodel girlfriend Lisa Czetsch, he chuckles) but a few weeks into his Tyneside tenure, that is starting to change. It is clear there is much more to Jaissle than meets the eye.
In the middle week of a super-sized international break, he is happy to open up a bit more. Inviting north-East media to the club’s training ground for breakfast and to observe part of training was his idea, we are told, and he is an interested host, asking questions and listening intently to the answers.
But the real value of the morning is the level of insight into the man charged with leading “Newcastle 2.0”, the project that is seeking to reposition the Magpies as consistent challengers by prodding a hard reset on their recruitment and squad profile.
The moments that made him
The German spent his entire playing career at Hoffenheim (Photo: Getty)
There are plenty of revelations – not least about the level of adversity Jaissle has come.
Aged five, he says, he was diagnosed with a tumour on his neck that left him fearful he would never be able to play football.
Then, at Hoffenheim, he suffered a devastating ACL and MCL injury when on the brink of a call-up to the Germany squad that left him in a wheelchair for more than four months and briefly “lost and depressed”.
These setbacks helped fire the “hunger” that has been so evident on the touchline at St James’ Park.
“When I think back, there have been many moments that have shaped my career,” he said.
“I had a tumour in my neck when I was five years old and I couldn’t move it from side to side. I learned a lot about life then – how important it is to be healthy and how grateful you should be to be healthy and to follow your dream. It was not clear I would be able to play football at that age.
“Unfortunately, I was also really unlucky with injuries. When I was 16, I missed a whole year through injury and that gave me the discipline to fight.
“Then when I made my debut for Hoffenheim after only eight months I ruptured my ACL, my meniscus, the cartilage, everything. I was done. I knew then it could be difficult to carry on playing at the highest level. I was only 20 and was about to be called into the national team for the first time.”
Stopped too soon
In his heart of hearts Jaissle knew that the doctors who hinted – gently – that he should start studying to start a career in something else were probably right.
But he was determined to “keep his dream alive”, believing for “longer than the doctors did”.
“I was forced to quit and I was also struggling for a couple of months.
“I was really down, [it was] tough to get motivated, tough to get your own rhythm again.
“As a footballer, they tell you from morning till evening, and then you lose that structure, so it was not easy.”
Life under Rangnick
Austria manager Ralf Rangnick taught him everything he knows (Photo: Getty)
He had considered becoming a sporting director or agent, but embarked on a training programme at RB Leipzig under former Manchester United manager and current Austria coach Ralf Rangnick.
The idea was to rotate through different departments – six weeks in marketing, six weeks in the commercial department – but he loved coaching so much that Sebastian Hoeness, the Stuttgart coach and Jaissle’s former Hoffenheim teammate, suggested he stay in the dugout.
“I fell in love. After two weeks I felt, ‘Wow, I have joy back in life, not only studying and reading. I have a new purpose’,” he said.
It is nice stuff and explains why he is not taking anything at Newcastle for granted.
Employed a fortnight before the start of the season, his eagerness to get going impressed the St James’ Park hierarchy.
But he is smart and his confidence should not disguise that he knows how big the challenge is.
Far from the finished article
And it has not been easy. Jaissle has been happy with a start in which the Magpies are ninth in the Premier League, but they are far from the finished article.
During the international break, Jaissle’s coaching staff have taken part in a deep data dive on what has happened this season. He leans heavily on a large team of analysts and, when we observe training later, two drones fly overhead to monitor a short, sharp session focused on positioning and movement.
Newcastle are getting results, but not playing as well as he would like. The pressing part of their game is good, but they are too high in the table for “critical ball losses” – in short they win the ball back but lose it far too quickly. Unforced errors and turnovers are a problem.
But they are a young team. Take Sean Steur, for example. He is 18 and from the Ajax academy, where playing diagonally is an anathema.
He is smart enough and good enough to adapt – and Jaissle loves his willingness to take risks even when he has made a mistake – but the whole vibe is different to working with “oven ready” 29-year-olds.
Seeing the bigger picture
Jaissle insists his side have much to improve despite their solid start (Photo: Getty)
Nights like when Newcastle were well beaten at Elland Road in the middle of September, are part of the price of the ticket.
“There were elements in games where we saw a lot of the things we were looking for,” Jaissle said.
“There were also phases in games where we were not happy and satisfied. So there’s still a lot of potential that we can improve.
“We need to remind ourselves always, because we have these high demands, that we are not long here now and we haven’t had too much training time.
“So it was tough. It’s really tough, tougher than expected, to get the stuff and the principles implemented into the player’s head.”
But belief in the bigger project remains. “My style will work anywhere,” he insists.
There is also a kinship developing with his new city.
After Newcastle beat Hull City 2-1 last time out, he went out for dinner with his coaching staff and was stopped for a photograph by a group of supporters out for a birthday meal. He obliged and then bought the fan his dinner.
“It’s crazy how everything comes out but I really love the fans here and the people,” he says.
“They’re passionate but have a good sense of allowing you to keep your privacy and your distance. They’re respectful and ask if they can get a picture.
“They’re just good people.”
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