Pep Guardiola did not pause for breath as he reeled off nine names. “Burnley, Wolves, Leicester, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Chelsea,” he listed: nine clubs who wrote to Uefa in 2020, urging them to ban Manchester City from the Champions League. It is something that has been preying on his mind: he had mentioned the nine a week earlier, too.
And that was before the Premier League had surprised Manchester City with 115 charges on Monday over alleged breaches of financial rules. If Guardiola had shown signs of a siege mentality before, the public face of a club under siege responded with a display of defiance. “My first thought is that we are already being condemned,” he said. An independent commission of three members will deliver the most meaningful verdict but in the meantime he argued City are being convicted by the other 19 Premier League clubs, who he feels are behind the charges; by the court of public opinion, too.
