Pep Guardiola was greeted by three of his most trusted allies at Manchester City on Sunday evening.
City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, sporting director Txiki Begiristain and CEO Ferran Soriano all gathered in the bowels of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to discuss the latest storm to blow over the club with the manager. As they met for a familiar post-game debrief, little did the four of them know that in just 15 hours time dissecting the bones of defeat to Spurs would be the least of their worries.
There are some within the club who dream of this bombshell news - the Premier League charging the club with over 100 breaches of its rules over a 14-year period with penalties that could go as far as expulsion from the league - as the chance to finally dance into the sunlit uplands of innocence, with the commission having the opportunity to eradicate not only any blame lain at City's door but also the idea that they have only got away because the claims are time-barred, i.e. happened too long ago to be contested now.
