The first stage of grief is denial. “I believe in the innocence of the club,” said Rodri last Friday, as news broke that an independent commission had found Manchester City guilty of more than 100 breaches of Premier League rules between 2009 and 2018. “What we did, they cannot take out of us.”
Then comes bargaining. “I’m very proud of what I did with Manchester City and what we achieved as a team, and that doesn’t change,” said Joe Hart a few days later. “That doesn’t change until you tell me.”
