Manchester City will be crushed by ‘mass exodus’ after ‘secret meeting’ and ‘bombshell statement’
Man City face a truly ruinous ‘mass exodus’ after a ‘secret meeting’ and ‘bombshell statement’, with the impact on the players already clear.
Nonsense, all of it.
Wag the tail It is day five of the Manchester City fallout and finally, the true harrowing ramifications of the unravelling situation have been bravely reported – by The Sun website:
‘The glamorous Man City Wags facing a mass exodus if club’s superstars jump ship after bombshell verdict’
Once the Premier League realises there will be a mass Wag exodus, the charges will probably just be dropped.
Got a secret, can you keep it? A quick message to these daft sods:
‘Defiant Man City chief stuns Premier League rivals with shock speech at secret meeting and vows to fight guilty verdict’ – The Sun website.
‘Man City CEO drops hint on 115 charges outcome at secret meeting with rival bosses’ – Daily Star website.
‘Man City chief ‘stuns rivals’ with unexpected comment at secret meeting after charges verdict’ – Manchester Evening News.
It was a private, scheduled European Football Clubs board meeting between 30 chief executives, with a great many actual journalists reporting almost immediately after on Ferran Soriano’s brief message of Manchester City defiance.
If it was a ‘secret meeting’, they did a pretty awful job of keeping it so.
Sori, not sorry It was during that secret, clandestine, covert meeting that Soriano declared: “It’s taken eight years to get there – and it’s going to take a lot more time.”
It’s a pretty vanilla quote, all things considered. Khaldoon Al-Mubarak’s statement to fans basically said the same thing – ‘The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the Club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began’ – and really it’s quite obvious and implied anyway.
Manchester City maintain their innocence, and proving that or their guilt is going to take bloody ages. As Soriano said, it’s taken eight years just to get here.
So no, Daily Mirror website, you can’t go round calling it a ‘bombshell statement’.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda The Sun website headline: ‘How Man City could be banished into non-league with EFL under no obligation to accept them if they’re expelled’.
The opening paragraph: ‘MANCHESTER CITY could be banished into non-league if the EFL refuse them entry.’
It would, entirely theoretically indeed, all come down to that EFL membership application which, entirely theoretically indeed, could be rejected.
That is described as ‘highly unlikely’ in the 11th paragraph but sod it, ‘banished into non-league’ it is.
They have, however, missed a trick, because ‘should it happen, City’s next resort would be to apply to join the National League in the fifth tier’.
And hey, they could entirely theoretically indeed reject that too. So it turns out The Sun have undersold the story; Manchester City could be banished into complete non-existence. Even if it is ‘highly unlikely’.
Sick City In the Daily Mirror, John Cross suggests the situation is already taking its toll on the Manchester City players:
‘You only had to look at England’s performance against Spain to think the City contingent had been distracted.’
No-one really impressed for England against Spain bar Anthony Gordon and Jude Bellingham. That feels like the consequence of playing the actual world champions and missing at least one guaranteed starter, rather than Manchester City’s impending EFL banishment playing on collective minds.
Did Harry Kane mess up his penalty because he was wondering which charge Manchester City were found not guilty of? Was Ezri Konsa so poor because he was worried about how Lord Pannick is holding up?
The Manchester City contingent did not play particularly well. Nor did the Arsenal one, or Jarrel Quansah of Bayer Leverkusen. It was an England problem.
‘Elliot Anderson was well below his incredibly high recent standards at Wembley against Spain on Saturday. Yes, Anderson was facing high class opponents who made it more difficult for him to play his game. For City lately, Anderson has been getting the ball, protecting it and hitting record numbers of passes. Controlling the game. Anderson lost the ball, was crowded out and, even though he was by no means the worst player, he was not at his very best against Spain.’
So Anderson was fine against one of the best midfields in the world, creating one goal alongside a partner he has never played with in Myles Lewis-Skelly (an Arsenal player Cross himself called out in his report for doing something ‘unforgivable at Sunday League level).
Sounds like Anderson was as distracted as he was during the World Cup, when Thomas Tuchel should have blocked his move.
‘Marc Guehi is so reliable, so consistent and yet he ran into trouble – and Lamine Yamal – to gift Spain the opening goal. Guehi was playing a slightly different role, pushing on to Dani Olmo and stepping out but even so he does not normally make mistakes.’
Thierno Barry wants a word.
‘Nico O’Reilly made an error leading to a goal. It cannot be a coincidence.’
It probably can. O’Reilly made an error leading to a goal, but did also set one up. Was he just not distracted about Port Vale (a) then?
‘You cannot tell me that the City case – and talk about the club being relegated to League Two – has got nothing to do with England players suddenly defending like they are playing in League Two.’
They were against the world champions, John. England have not kept a clean sheet since their final World Cup group game; before facing Spain they had conceded ten goals in five games.
And that was before the City new broke. England being defensively poor is a sustained problem, not a mere by product of Guehi worrying about his club’s future.
Argie-bargy ‘Revealed: Fearful Argentina youngsters are reluctant to move to the Premier League with World Cup villains hit by fan abuse following semi-final exploits against England’ is an intriguing headline from the MailOnline.
Tom Collomosse has been doing his research, speaking to ‘recruitment experts in Argentina who believe their top prospects may be advised to move to Spain, Portugal or Italy while the atmosphere in England remains hostile’.
And that…is it. Some ‘recruitment experts’ reckon players might be steered towards Spain, Portugal or Italy – countries which enrol Argentinean players more regularly than England anyway due to similarities in climate and culture – so now ‘fearful Argentina youngsters are reluctant to move to the Premier League’.
The final three paragraphs quite severely undercut the idea that Argentina youngsters need be fearful in the first place:
‘Fernandez, then with Chelsea but now with Manchester City, scored the equaliser in the semi-final and then infuriated England supporters with a provocative celebration. ‘Despite being an unused substitute, Barco celebrated Argentina’s goals wildly and Jude Bellingham slapped him on the back of the head after the final whistle. ‘Meanwhile Martinez displayed a banner bearing the words ‘Las Malvinas son Argentinas’ (The Falklands are Argentina’s), for which FIFA fined the Argentine FA £237,000.’
It sounds like the lesson here is that Argentina youngsters need not be fearful of hostile fan receptions if they don’t go round a) slapping Jude Bellingham on the back of the head after beating England in a World Cup semi-final, or b) being Enzo Fernandez or Emi Martinez.
