Premier League

I head a City supporter talking about Liverpool on the radio the other day. He was talking about how he didn't respect Liverpool before but really hates them now because they have spearheaded the push for FFP to be properly enforced and for City's charges to be properly moved forward.

He then said that it's all untrue because the charges are time barred and completely false anyway.

So, my question is this.

We have a team that were in the old League division 2 in 1998/99. After managing to get back to the PL they found themsleves back in the old League 1 in 2001/02.

it is not unthinkable that a team that went through that can pull through and go on to win a PL title - see Leicester. But how, in all honesty have City managed to dominate if they have stayed within the rules?

City fans then have to concede that Liverpool and Man Utd have higher levels of income and resources and haven't managed to dominate in the same way over the past 10 years or so. I mean seriously, if it isn't over spending (which looking at the squad it absolutely has to be) then what is it? Youth academy? Money ball tactics?

The likely explanation has to be financial doping. If it isn't that then what exactly do you claim it is? Pep is a great manager and some (more than most teams) of the players are truly amazing. But how did you acquire them? What attracted them to a club with no recent history of success?

City fans tell us that we're just salty because of the success. So tell us...how did you come about that success relatively over night?

If they are found guilty he will be fun in the media considering he constantly flat out denies accusations when he doesn't need to

If they are found guilty then his career as a manager will have been

Brilliant barca team won everything *paying referees being investigated + doping scandals Bayern - won domestic trophies - so do all bayern managers City won everything - cheating may even get trophies taken off them who knows

He's the Lance Armstrong of football.

He took steroids as a player and blamed it on his doctor (Dr. Ramon Segura)...

Then in 2009 when appointed Barcelona manager he hired the very same doctor that caused him to fail two drug tests in 2001.

During Pep Guardiola's time at Bayern there were issues with Dr Hans Müller-Wohlfahrt who has served as the club medic since 1977...

The issues arose when Pep claimed the German wasn't in the same class as Cugat.

In his autobiography, My Life and My Medicine, Müller-Wohlfahrt wrote that he was “blamed for numerous injuries, the physical condition of the players and ultimately for a defeat by Porto (in April 2015).”

Guardiola also used to say “it cannot be that injuries here last six weeks but in Spain only a fortnight," according to the German. 👀

Things came to a head with the saga over an injury to midfielder Thiago Alcantara. The Spanish midfielder was sent to Barcelona in March 2014 for treatment for a knee injury, which turned out to be a partial tear of the ACL.

“Thiago once returned from Spain after four weeks, seemingly fit,” Müller-Wohlfahrt wrote. “But when I evaluated him I said, ’stop! The injury has not healed completely, even though you are pain free'. Thiago got injured again and went on to miss a full year.” 👀

When joining Manchester City Pep Guardiola made it quite clear from the outset that he had to work with Cugat.

There already is a massive asterisk. Football fans know, whether they get docked or not.

Sky and the PL won’t damage their brand. He will still be a chequebook hero. Great manager, but has unlimited resources and skirts the rules at every opportunity. Cheated as a player too.

I don’t know. All I know is that Pep deserves all the praise coming his way. Even if all his accolades got stripped he would still be one of the best managers of all time. He’s the type of manager that makes you twice as good with a high morale to always win.

It would only effect the conversation I terms of number 1 manager the century or of all time etc. He is an excellent manager, but there are factors that go into that he said so himself, he is excellent when he has "A/S ranked" players available but by his own admission he is no where near as effective when working with "B class" players and below. Can't quite remember the quote but he said if he managed Leeds he would get them relegated or something.

So it will just be another factor in the conversation I assume for many it will bump him down places but some still regard him as the best manager still in the game some don't because of all the controversy around Man City and Barcelona when he was about and that takes away from his accomplishments.

FFP rules are nonsense. The teams that dominated the 90s would have broken them all. It was invented to maintain the status quo and stop the nouveau riche. Invented by the same folks who brought you VAR.

It wouldn't be peps fault. He's done exactly what the manager should do. The club? Yeah, tarnished.

Cheat at a cheating club

Personally I wouldn’t give a poop. I assume they are guilty already but to pull that team together and not have them bicker and fight and fall out is an incredible job of man management. Just look at the money Utd have spent to realise how hard it still is to beat everyone else.

Imo yes it will put a bit of a stain on his time with the club, but it wont change the fact that hes a great manager. Hes proven himself time and time again to be one of the best managers in the world, and done it with multiple teams. Hes also been one of the most influential figures in modern football. Seems like tons of teams look to his lineups and tactics for ideas of what to do and how to move their team into the future.

So yeah man city being found guilty of record breaking amounts of cheating financially will probably make us think less of the team as a wholes success, and that includes his, but it will not remove the great work hes done as a career.

Hes a great manager but of course his record would be tainted with the fact that all of his trophies at Man C came with an unfair advantage that they were found guilty for. They and he should be stripped of the trophies won as a result of this unfair advantage.

Legacy

Makes no difference.

I’m a UTD fan. Man City’s net spend isn’t as high as ours. Spending money is no guarantee of success.

As painful as it is to write. He’s an animal, best manager since Ferguson, no one is even close.

Doesn’t change the fact he’s made city prob the best team in the world

Good question. I'd say that Guardiola's creation of that Barcelona team, the greatest club side of all time, should stabilize his legacy. If not that, then the amount of current managers who worked under him. In the Premier League alone, there's Ten Hag, Arteta and Kompany. Although two of them aren't doing too good right now.

But the general public has questioned Guardiola's credibility numerous times. This would only further aggrevate it.

Of course it would stain his reputation. How can there be any pride if you have won through cheating?

everyone needs to calm.

his legacy ain’t impacted. we all knew and have known he’s always had the best wherever he’s managed. simply bc he’s the best.

him losing his accolades with the charges doesn’t change that HE won it, and HIS players won it, regardless of financial cheating.

they have the memories and the medals.

The most serious charges are from before Pep was even there, and the club rarely, if ever, spent the most in the league. That said, like anything, Pep fans will ignore it and Pep haters will claim that his accomplishments are meaningless.

Let's just say, I don't think the charges will be mentioned in his obituary.

As a Manchester United fan, the points deduction has nothing to do Pep. Therefore, his legacy isn’t impacted at all.

He still had to coach everyone, get them to play his system, develop players that needed to be deliever, build his team, and pick the right teams for the games. If Pep was actively involved in the stuff that different.

There’s a famous presser of Pep, where he says the owners of the club told him they did nothing. He told them “if you did tell me and we will go against the ruling together. If you lie to me I’ll be leaving the next day” something like that.

So, Pep is Pep.

The charges are all FFP violations, no? Correct me if I’m wrong, but unlike the Barça stuff, there aren’t any bribery allegations against Man City. If so, I don’t think his legacy is going to change all that much (in the prem, at least).

Half of these clubs have been operating under very sketchy circumstances for quite sometime. That’s just the prem for you. I don’t mean to mitigate this; sportswashing is lame. But I do think that a) plenty of clubs have gone all out spending too much money and not producing and b) we should be looking into the system that allowed these 115 violations to occur as opposed to deducting points and calling it a day.