Enzo Maresca has had a fortnight to think about what he might say. The answer, it turns out, is not very much — and that is probably the point.

City's return to the City Football Academy after the international break brought the manager in front of a microphone for the first time since the Premier League released the findings of an independent commission into the club's financial affairs. His message was short, deliberate, and entirely on-message.

"I'm very calm, to be honest. The club has been quite clear. We trust, completely, the club."

That was the headline. What followed was a familiar division of labour: the club handles the legal arguments, the players handle the football. Maresca described the mood among his squad as "fantastic", with the group "excited for the next two games" and "focussed" on the small matter of being top of the league.

He was not pretending the noise does not exist. "We understand the noise, but the focus for us is just what we can control," he said. "They know what we can control; the football side. They're not worried at all about different things."

Erling Haaland has already made his own position clear, backing the club publicly as the situation rumbles on. Whatever questions may have been put to representatives of some players — and reports have suggested exactly that — the dressing room appears to be holding its line.

Anfield First, Paris Next

That focus will be tested on Sunday. Liverpool at Anfield is never a gentle reintroduction, and this one comes with an added edge: it is the first chance for the home support to offer their own verdict on the commission's findings. A "Bus Greeting" has been mooted on social media for two hours before kick-off on Anfield Road. Merseyside Police say they have an "appropriate" policing strategy in place.

Maresca, for his part, framed it simply. His players are thinking about "how we can beat Liverpool, with the fans, and try win at Anfield." No grand statements, no deflection. Just the next fixture.

City have won every Premier League game so far this season. A trip to Merseyside is the sort of fixture that tends to sort the genuine article from the fast starters, and the atmosphere will be hostile in a way that has nothing to do with the league table.

Then comes Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad in the Champions League, a night that will see Pep Guardiola back in attendance. Two games, two very different kinds of pressure. Maresca's approach to both seems to be the same: keep it on the grass.

Whether that proves enough to keep the outside world at arm's length is another question. City have lodged a "comprehensive" appeal, which league rules state should conclude within 12 weeks. Until then, the club's position remains what it has always been — that the name will be cleared by "irrefutable" evidence, a stance chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and chief executive Ferran Soriano have maintained throughout.

For now, the manager has a squad to prepare and a league to lead. The rest, as he keeps saying, is noise.