Roberto Mancini has picked an awkward week to revisit the terms of his own employment at Manchester City. The Italian, who managed the club between 2009 and 2013, was asked about the financial case engulfing his former employers and offered an answer that will not have delighted the Etihad legal team.
Speaking in Turkey, where he was previewing Monday's Nations League fixture, Mancini did not dispute the existence of a second agreement. He referred directly to having a double contract. The distinction matters. It is one thing to deny an allegation; quite another to discuss the arrangement as a matter of fact.
It's not a problem that concerns me.
That was Mancini's opening position, as reported by The Guardian. He went further. The subject, he suggested, was not new because it resurfaces every four or five years.
Manchester City is not guilty and the fact of having a double contract isn't my problem but theirs, probably.
There is a lot to unpack in that sentence. Mancini defends the club's innocence while simultaneously placing the paperwork at their door. It is a familiar manoeuvre from a manager who has spent the past decade operating in international football's diplomatic corps.
The timing is less than ideal. These comments land days after reports that an independent commission found against City on almost all of the charges it considered. City responded on Friday by saying the process remained ongoing. On Saturday, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak wrote to supporters to reiterate that position.
The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club's innocence is just as strong as when this began.
So there is the club's line, delivered by letter to the people who matter most. And there is Mancini's line, delivered to a room of journalists in Turkey. They do not quite sing from the same hymn sheet.
To understand why this keeps returning, you have to go back. Der Spiegel reported in 2018 that Mancini received additional money for advisory work with Abu Dhabi club Al Jazira alongside his Manchester City salary. The latest Guardian account says that arrangement doubled his £1.45m base salary at City.
That sits at the heart of one strand of the Premier League's case. Among the allegations brought by the league is a failure to provide accurate details concerning player and manager remuneration between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. The issue dates back well before the Premier League brought its charges against City in February 2023.
City have consistently denied wrongdoing. The club continues to contest the case. That has not changed.
Mancini, for his part, took charge in December 2009 and remained manager until May 2013. He won the FA Cup in 2011 and City's first Premier League title in 44 years the following season. Those achievements are not in question. The paperwork surrounding them, apparently, is another matter entirely.
Whether Mancini intended to be helpful or merely honest is unclear. What is clear is that his words will be read closely by people who are paid to read such things closely. The Premier League's lawyers, one suspects, have already underlined the relevant passage.