Manchester City

[vlahka]

Noone says or does anything for fear of the perm looking as dodgy as the italian league.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Noone says or does anything for fear of the perm looking as dodgy as the italian league.

Think it reached the as dodgy stage a long time ago.

[badpiggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/andcouldheplay7/status/1660218841496973312[/ame]

[Buzzo]

Interesting, Pep going off piste.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he wants the 115 Premier League financial charges against the club to be dealt with "as soon as possible".

In February, City were charged with breaches of the league's financial rules from 2009 to 2018. They were also accused of not cooperating since the investigation began in December 2018.

City have denied financial wrongdoing and say their innocence is supported by a "body of irrefutable evidence" and they "look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all".

A two-year ban from European competitions for breaching Uefa's Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in 2020, but City were fined 10m euros (£8.67m) for obstructing the investigation.

Having initially suggested they were happy to abide by the Premier League process, they have remained silent on recent media reports they have lodged legal challenges against the charges and objected to the appointment of Murray Rosen KC as the person who will appoint the chair of the independent commission that will hear the case on the grounds he is an Arsenal season-ticket holder.

Speaking before Wednesday's game at Brighton, Guardiola, who has led the club to their fifth Premier League title in six seasons and their third in a row, said: "What I would like is if the Premier League and judges could make something as soon as possible.

"Then, if we have done something wrong, everybody will know it and, if we are like we believe as a club for many years, [done things] in the right way, then the people will stop talking about it.

"We would love it tomorrow. This afternoon better than tomorrow.

"Hopefully they are not so busy and the judges can see both sides and decide what is the best, because in the end I know fairly what we won we won on the pitch and we don't have any doubts.

"Let's go. Don't wait two years. Why don't we do it quicker? In 24 hours, sit down with lawyers present. Let's have it as soon as possible for the benefit of everyone."

City officials were not expecting Guardiola to speak on the issue in his media conference on Tuesday and the timescales are evidently impossible given it is such a complex case.

Guardiola's side have a chance to claim the Treble, with the FA Cup and Champions League finals to come next month. In English football, only Manchester United in 1998-99 have achieved that feat.

The Catalan, who has a contract until 2025, said he would not quit the club while the charges remain unresolved.

"I will stay next season while there are 110 breaches against us," he said. "Don't worry, we will be there."

However, a couple of minutes before that, Guardiola did say he was not sure how he would react to winning the Champions League against Inter Milan on 10 June in what, for him, would be a third success in the competition.

"Right now I am not thinking about leaving, but who knows?" he said.

"I would like to continue here next season independent of the result. I don't know what it's going to feel like winning or losing, but my feeling is I have a contract and I want to respect the club."

City have won their seventh Premier League title since the 2008 takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group.

They have been accused of effectively falsifying their accounts and artificially inflating sponsorship and commercial deals over a number of years to allow them to spend more but stay within Uefa and Premier League rules.

The club has been referred to an independent commission, which can impose punishments ranging from a fine and points deduction to expulsion from the Premier League. It is not known how long the process will take.

[Sus]

Well that was anything but unequivocal from Pep

[spud_gun]

Optics.

He'll be long gone before the dust settles on any Citeh wrong doing.

[Rafa Justice]

Well that was anything but unequivocal from Pep

Yeah, interesting for sure.

[Buzzo]

Well that was anything but unequivocal from Pep

That’s what I thought also, not the hard line defence we are used to. Totally unprompted also.

[Fivex]

Seems he’s realised there will be a huge asterisk on his legacy there, either officially or unofficially, due to the increasing amount of media personalities speaking up.

He’s said that the owners have assured him everything is legit (no idea why he’d believe that is genuine but still..), so guess he’s got nothing to lose by calling them out & telling them to stop filibustering.

[Alex]

I think its fair to say he is seperate from ownership in as much as we think of Klopp being seperate from the ownership etc.

Klopp talks about himself being an employee, so thinking Pep is different probably isnt fair on him.

He is also probably a little willfully ignorant to the charges in the same way Klopp is when asked about transfers. They all know far more than they let on.

Im not saying our lack of spending and their lack of not spending are the same. Just that Pep is the football manager, not the CFO of the club. So he probably can push them on this a little given his standing in the game.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Seems he’s realised there will be a huge asterisk on his legacy there, either officially or unofficially, due to the increasing amount of media personalities speaking up.

He’s said that the owners have assured him everything is legit (no idea why he’d believe that is genuine but still..), so guess he’s got nothing to lose by calling them out & telling them to stop filibustering.

The guy was a cheat long before he became a manager. He is the guy who was happy to use performance enhancing drugs as a player to help him cheat.

He has tried to cheat on his taxes and been caught.

His teams have have rumours of players using similar PEDS that he used as a player.

He is a good manager but seems to need the crutch of being at the richest club in a league to excel.

He constantly deflects in the media by bleating on about other clubs and managers.

Now his latest bleat is about how he will be at City next season regardless of whether the outcome of the charges when not long ago he was bleating on about how he would be gone the next day if charges were proven.


The man's "legacy" is one of showing he will cheat and lie at the drop of a hat in order to get his way and that winning things can look easy if you have little to no constraints on the players you can buy.

He is a really good manager, maybe even a great one, but not sure we will ever know if he is truly great or not as all his best achievements have coincided with him having the most advantages in the league he was managing at the time.

[Fivex]

I wasn’t sticking up for him!

[Doc_Piptorious]

Never said that you were

[baitman]

Pep looking to "distance" himself from any cheating is laughable.
If and when city are found guilty he will be all high and mighty, this was something that I was not involved in, I didn't know anything about it blah blah.
Then he will look for away to squirm away, club have breached their trust with me, I'm squeaky clean, etc...
******.

[Alex]

But as much as we want to say he is involved, he just isnt. He isnt an accountant, doesnt sign the cheques and doesnt direct their fiscal policy.

Its a different matter to know about the fraud and pretend its not happening. But if your employers are constantly reassuring you its not a problem. How is he culpable?

I dont really have the hatred some seem to have for him, its far more egregious to me that he was banned for doping in the 90s. Way more problematic.