I'll start this by saying I know fuck all.
I don't know anyone who knows what's going to happen.
I haven't listened to that Stefan fella chat on the Spaces thing on Twitter (which must be a strange sentence to read if you're not on Twitter), I've been blocked by Colin Savage so no idea what he's saying on the matter and I could only bear with about 10 pages on the Bluemoon thread before I longed for reading about the likelihood of us signing Messi. So anyone reading this is probably more informed than I, who has just read what's been dripped through from the aggregators on social media. But then, does anyone for sure know what's going to happen?
I don't even really know what City are being charged with. On social media you see stuff about the grass being too long and something about us not entering the FA Cup - I presumed the whole thing was about Trumanns For Steel paying £250m per year for 30 seconds on the 2nd tiers digital advertising board, but perhaps I'm a bit off the mark.
But it's an important moment in City's history, so it's probably worth writing about.
Been a bad couple of weeks really, hasn't it? My head nearly fell clean off when Cancelo went to Bayern. I mean, there's no player ever to play for us that has irritated me more, but still to lose someone of his quality and not replace him in a position that we haven't properly invested in for 6 years is a bit mad really. Oh and the one senior player we did purchase for that role was basically injured for 2 years and the last 2 years has been suspended by the club for criminal charges relating to sexual assault.
We're not playing great at the moment. Missing a bit of a spark. Earlier in the season there was a sense of the invincible of us with The Big Fella leading the line, bagging goals for fun. Although his scoring rate is still very impressive, the belief and swagger you'd expect from last seasons league winners adding the best striker in the world to their team isn't really there. Is it the hunger of the players and fans? Are we missing a Fernandinho/Kompany like leader on the pitch and in the dressing room? Are we too predictable with Grealish and Mahrez? Has the overall quality of the squad dropped compared to last year? Am I justified in not really trusting or liking Akanji because he grew up a United fan? I think the answer to all of the above is, "probably, yes".
Having said that, we're 2nd in the league and we know that things could all look very different in a few games time as unlikely as that feels right now. Probably favourites for the FA Cup and I don't think anyone would want to face us in the Champions League. Long way to go yet before we start writing off the season as a disaster, as much as it's in our very essence to moan about everything being a complete catastrophe.
So, these charges from the Premier League.
Seems pretty serious, albeit could they just be trying to throw a load at us and hope something will stick? From our many detractors out there, the damage has been done. Daily articles from senior journalists speculating what punishment could be handed out to us will trickle down to the likes of the aggregators of rival clubs who feel like they've been cheated out of trophies and the likes of SportBible and FootballLadWhoNeverGoesToGames Facebook accounts will be posting about how "City don't have to give back all their Champions League medals !!!". I can feel like there's going to be a lot of eye rolling from me in the next few weeks. Especially when I've got to speak to people who are either fans of other clubs or just are vaguely aware of football who view me like some sort of Manchester City football correspondent.
We've been here before with UEFA and it was all the same shite from the journalists, all the same banter from the faceless social media wankers and no doubt we'll get all the same unimaginative football chants sang at us by people who wear replica shirts over their hoodies. And speaking of the UEFA charges, despite everything that happened there, it's not really changed anyone's opinions of the club, has it? In fact, I'd say they probably dislike City more because of CAS overruling UEFA. Miguel Delaney probably wakes up in a hot sweat thinking about Tommy Muir on Sky Sports telling everyone to "do one".
What's the worst that can happen? Relegation? Is that what these people want? Do they think that a regime that has invested in to the club (and city - there's another thing our detractors like to get a hard on over, Abu Dhabi's apparent influence over Manchester Council, although I do not have the depth of knowledge to really comment on this) is just going to fuck it off after 15 years just because they've briefly stopped us? Probably one season in the Championship and then back up in to the Premier League battling on all fronts. Even if Pep left and the majority of the squad was sold we would still be able to outspend every club in the league and any and every player to get us out of that division would be desperate to join us.
The infrastructure that has been built over the last 15 years has meant that City as a club and brand are not going anywhere. If fans of other clubs think that this would turn us into midtable mediocrity for the next 20 years or even more what they think in their thick heads that City will return to where they were for 1 season in 128 years then they're completely deluded. Look at Chelsea, it's almost a year since Roman Abramovich was forced to sell the club due to his links with Russia and the bloke that's bought it off him has just gone and whacked £600m on players within a year - if you're looking at trying to get Sheikh Mansour away from City what's to say someone else won't just come along and spend another fuck load of money?
And the talk of stripping us of what we've won - don't make me laugh. It reminds me of the BBC TMS clip when Jonathan Agnew is trying to wind up Geoffrey Boycott by saying that a century he got doesn't count because the South African government want to remove a fixture between England and the rest of the World (on YouTube if you want to watch it), basically; what a load of bollocks. And even if you did want to do that, like it fucking matters? The memories I have of Yaya at Wembley, Aguero vs QPR, Jesus at Southampton, Mahrez at Brighton, Gundogan vs Villa, moments I saw in the flesh, they do not get changed one bit. And with that, the moments where United and Liverpool fans felt like they got kicked in the bollocks - Pienaar, Gerrard slipping over, Crystanbul etc. they all still happened, and they will still hurt you in your stomach, at random moments, like remembering something stupid you said in the playground as a 12 year old.
And my favourite ever moment (West Ham away under Sven on the first game of the season) was before these charges anyway.
Regardless, not much I, as a regular fan, can do about all of the above. Even as someone who believes what socks I wear to the match has a direct connection to how the result goes has to admit that what will happen over the next days, weeks, months and years is out of my hands. And if we do end up having to go down the leagues, you'll still have the same people moaning about the beer, chips, Metrolink, pies, the ticket office and colour of Moonchesters ears. It's in our identity to do so.
