When Manchester City finally conquered Europe, they were barely in Europe. Now, for a rather different reason, they might not be next season. City’s long-awaited Champions League triumph, in 2023, came in Istanbul’s Ataturk Stadium, a few miles from Asia. Now they are in their 16th consecutive Champions League campaign. It threatens to be their last for a while, given the potential punishments after being found guilty of a century and more of charges levelled by the Premier League.
If an era ends for City, the sense may be that apocalyptic predictions of two other ages never came true. City did not dominate Europe, which some suggested was inevitable: a constant presence in the Champions League knockout stages, they won the competition once and reached one more final. And the notion that the English clubs, furnished with Premier League finances, would be unstoppable could go with them.
