Think of a number relating to Manchester City’s imminent title push. Depending on your persuasion, it is likely to be five in a row, or perhaps it’s 115 – the number of alleged financial rule breaks looming over another season but which are finally scheduled to be heard in the coming weeks.
The trial will reportedly begin in mid-September, it will last two months, and a verdict should be decided in early 2025. That will mark two years since that ground-shifting winter morning on which a string of damning accusations were first made public. If City are found guilty and choose to appeal, it is hoped a final decision will still be delivered before the end of the season.
Rivals, not least closest competitors Arsenal, can salivate at the prospect of how all this plays out; a distraction at best, a catastrophic blow to City’s title hopes at worst.
That theory does not hold water, though – if many outside the Citysphere are left cold by their accomplishments, there is no evidence that the case has had any bearing on their ability to compete. Since they were charged, in fact, they have won two more league titles, one of which formed part of the Treble.
The mantra within the club, that it is “business as usual”, has self-evidently been proven true.
Pep Guardiola has always operated on that basis. Before his two Champions League finals at Barcelona, he would instruct his players to enter the field as if they were going to perform training drills. It was part of a wider drive to create a high-performance culture, shifting pressure from the squad and turning daunting career milestones into run-of-the-mill routines.
At City, Guardiola has been key to embedding a siege mentality, but it faces its toughest test yet now that the threat of points deductions, stripped honours, or even relegation have been thrust into the here and now.
Fans have bought into the belligerence too. “Pannick on the streets of London,” read one banner at the Etihad, propelling us all into a peculiar new world where supine supporters honour not coaches or footballers, but House of Lords crossbenchers representing them in a protracted legal fight against the Premier League.
They have been promised that Guardiola will be with them every step of the way. Adamant that City must be afforded the presumption of innocence, he once vowed that he would commit to the club even “if we are in League One”.
The first cracks in that fortitude appeared on the final day of last season. “It’s over, what am I doing here?” he pondered, shortly after lifting another trophy. “It’s over, there’s nothing left.” When a burnt-out Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool, he immediately knew why: “Every moment, you think ‘I need to breathe’”.
Guardiola has stalled on his long-term future, and given the spectacular manner in which Liverpool’s title bid imploded after Klopp’s announcement, he may caution against a similar bombshell mid-season.
His position would be untenable nevertheless, should City find themselves bang to rights. Is the greatest manager of modern times to pose, a la Lance Armstrong lying beneath his seven yellow jerseys, in a trophy room allegedly comprised of ill-gotten gains? The integrity of the seismic stamp he has made on English football would forever be debated.
Guardiola can hope that the game is one-eyed enough to exalt the good times over everything else – the 343 wins from 473 games, the 1,165 goals, the 18 trophies, 28 individual awards and counting.
Yet at press conferences throughout the season, there are impending legal, even ethical, questions he will face. Perhaps that seems unfair, not least because the 115 charges relate to a period between 2009-2018, during which he largely worked for other clubs.
Managers, though, accept their role as mouthpieces for the machinery which they serve. Thomas Tuchel had to field questions about Roman Abramovich when the Russian oligarch was sanctioned following the invasion of Ukraine. Eddie Howe takes the Saudi coin and is therefore quizzed on human rights.
It would be a personal tragedy if Guardiola’s impact on the game is ultimately overshadowed, the first manager in English history to win four titles in a row, having enjoyed unprecedented success at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. He has always faced naysayers, those who have highlighted his reliance on Lionel Messi or the weakness of the Bundesliga – this would be an asterisk too pointed to shake.
If the Premier League successfully throws the book at City, there will be no falling upwards, but for their manager offers will beckon. The trial may dovetail neatly with the availability of the England job.
Nathan Chen, the American figure skater, described it as a “win for no one” when he was awarded a Winter Olympic gold medal after Russian prodigy Kamila Valieva was banned for doping. There is nothing to gain from any more delays in a case that urgently requires resolution.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/9Rh1Tmx
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