Vasco's U20 Star Attracting European Attention

City, Chelsea and Arsenal have all registered an interest in the teenager, according to reports. Sales is due to turn 17 in November and has already caught the eye of scouts across Europe.

The Brazilian has taken an unusual path to the centre of defence. He began as a striker, dropped back to left-back, and now operates in the middle. Left-footed and composed in possession, his profile explains why clubs abroad are circling.

Sales has spent much of this campaign with Vasco's U20 side, holding his own against older opponents, and helped the team win the Brazilian U20 title this year. He also lifted the U17 Copa do Brasil in 2025.

On the international stage, he has represented Brazil at youth level, lining up at the South American Championship. Next month's FIFA U17 World Cup is expected to provide another showcase.

Vasco have already turned down a €10 million (£8.7 million) offer for Sales, though the identity of the bidding club is unclear. He is under contract until the end of 2028, and the club's improved financial position means they no longer feel pressured to sell their best young players at the first sign of European interest.

City have recent form in beating Arsenal to young talent, having signed Jeremy Monga from Leicester City this summer.

Meanwhile, Enzo Maresca's side return to Premier League action against Liverpool at Anfield on October 11, three days before a home Champions League tie with Paris Saint-Germain.

The Manchester United legend wants City stripped of the 2011/12 Premier League title — and handed to United instead.

He made the case on Instagram in his own distinctive style. Ex-teammates, he said, keep talking about trophies being taken off City while quietly declining the medals themselves. He is not one of them.

'Keep hearing ex-teammates saying they want trophies taking (sic) off them but they don't want their medals...f*** that I'm a greedy b****** I want my medal.'

At least he's honest about the motive. Greedy, self-aware, and entirely upfront about wanting a piece of metal he didn't win on the pitch.

The record doesn't help him

Here's where it gets awkward. Wayne Rooney — Scholes' former teammate, a man who actually played in those derbies — has said United shouldn't be awarded the title for that season. Scholes disagrees with him.

Rooney is right. United didn't deserve to win it.

The two clubs finished level on 89 points. United lost both meetings with City that season. Across those two games, City scored seven goals and United scored one, including a 6-1 victory for City in the first meeting. United literally couldn't beat City in 2011/12.

That is not a title taken by administrative manoeuvre. That is a title decided by what happened when the two sides met.

Scholes, it should be noted, only played 16 matches in his final season — 2012/13, the year after the one in question. United haven't won the Premier League since. Since 2013/14 they have finished second twice and fifth or worse seven times.

Wanting a medal from a season you didn't win while your old club slides down the table is a choice.

Where the case actually stands

City were recently found guilty of financial fair play charges and of not helping with the investigation into them. The club is appealing. No punishment has yet been handed down.

One potential sanction would be for City to be stripped of the titles won between 2009 and 2018 — the years when the wrongdoing allegedly took place.

So Scholes is jumping ahead of the process. No punishment has been decided. City are contesting the findings. And the specific season he wants reassigned was settled by a 6-1 at Old Trafford and a season sweep for the Blues.

If the titles do get stripped, they won't be handed to the team that lost twice and scored once. That's not how any of this works.

Scholes can want his medal. Rooney, at least, understands why he shouldn't get one.

The Premier League made its announcement on Tuesday, and an independent commission delivered a guilty verdict. That single development has sent clubs across Europe scrambling, wondering whether unlikely opportunities might soon arise to sign players who would normally be out of reach.

Galatasaray and Real Madrid Lead the Queue

Galatasaray are among those taking a keen interest, according to reports from Fotomaç relayed by Turkish Football. The Süper Lig side has form for this kind of thing. Mohamed Salah, N'Golo Kante and Ederson have all turned up in Turkey in recent years, and Galatasaray currently count former City men Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane among their squad, alongside Rafael Leao and Victor Osimhen. No formal negotiations have begun. This is window-shopping, not a bid.

Real Madrid's interest looks more structural. Thibaut Courtois edges toward his 35th birthday, and the task of replacing him is a genuine problem. Donnarumma, 27, with vast Champions League experience, fits the profile of a long-term solution.

He is also, by some distance, one of the more attractive names on any list. Some consider him the best active goalkeeper in the game. His shot-stopping has produced moments of genuine quality since he arrived. The criticism has been reserved for his distribution, most notably after a bad error in last season's 2-1 win over Arsenal.

Nothing Angling for the Exit

Donnarumma joined in the summer of 2025, a £26 million capture from Paris Saint-Germain, signed in somewhat surprising fashion to succeed Ederson. He has barely settled into the number one shirt, and there has been plenty of debate about whether he or the now-departed James Trafford suited Enzo Maresca's style better. None of that is driving the current chatter.

Nothing he has said or done suggests a player looking for a way out. He has dismissed the idea that City are in a transition season, insisting the club intend to compete for every trophy available.

The board, meanwhile, has reportedly made no internal decisions on player sales. Their attention is fixed on the appeal against the commission's ruling and the sanctions hearing still to come. That is where the real outcome will be decided, not in the rumour columns.

So the interest from abroad amounts to preparation for a scenario that may never arrive. Whether it becomes concrete has less to do with Donnarumma and more to do with how harshly his employers are punished. If sanctions bite and City are nudged towards selling, the market floods with talent that would ordinarily be untouchable. Donnarumma would be one name on a very long list.

For now, the queue outside the door says more about the uncertainty at the Etihad than it does about the goalkeeper himself.

Algeria's coaching staff want a formal apology — made publicly, through the media or his own channels — before the left-back pulls on the shirt again. Reports from Algeria, via Sport Witness, frame it as an absolute requirement rather than a courtesy. The aim is to settle the dressing room and make good on the disruption his behaviour is said to have caused.

The episode dates to last Friday, when Algeria faced Zambia. Manager Brahim Hemdani picked Brighton's Jaouen Hadjam at left-back, leaving Ait-Nouri on the bench. Hadjam scored the opener; Zambia equalised shortly before the hour. Hemdani had intended to bring Ait-Nouri on at that stage but shelved the plan after the goal. When Algeria went back in front soon after, the City defender is said to have refused to enter the pitch at all.

His annoyance had been obvious, according to accounts from the camp, with teammates and Hemdani attempting to settle him by the touchline. The fall-out is said to have frustrated players and staff. He left the camp soon after, a departure the national team confirmed. Reports suggest he asked to go, and only got his way after asking more than once.

Algerian outlets have not held back, placing the blame firmly on the 25-year-old. One report claims the decision to let him leave was approved at a meeting that also had the backing of federation president Walid Sadi. Another described him as looking withdrawn and sullen before a ball had even been kicked against Zambia. That is the picture painted back home, fair or not.

For City, the timing is awkward. Ait-Nouri is already scrapping for minutes at left-back, and his only start this season came in the 5-0 Carabao Cup third-round win over Norwich City, where he lasted the full 90 minutes. Outside that, his contribution amounts to one substitute appearance. A public apology may be the price of an Algeria return, but it will not solve the club problem.

Stefan Borson has spent enough time inside the Etihad's balance sheets to know where the bodies are buried — and, more to the point, where the money went. The former City financial adviser has a pointed observation for the clubs queuing up to demand the harshest possible sanction against his old employers.

An investigation found that City inflated their accounts by £900million. Across the period from 2009 to 2018, roughly £1.2billion went out of the club in transfer fees. Wolfsburg, Monaco and Arsenal topped the list of recipients. The deals included Kevin De Bruyne, Edin Dzeko, Bernardo Silva and Samir Nasri.

And the cash didn't stop there. Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Barcelona and Real Madrid all saw money flow straight from the Etihad Stadium. A wide network of clubs, in other words, grew fat on City's spending.

Now many of those same clubs are lobbying for a major points deduction, transfer bans, or even relegation to League Two. Borson, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, sees an awkward contradiction at the heart of that campaign.

"There is one big issue that all these teams have got, Premier League as well as European clubs, in lobbying for a very severe punishment," he said.

"And that's them being taken out of the market effectively."

He's not mincing words about where the money travelled. "That money went across Europe, it went to Arsenal, it went to Liverpool, Germany, to teams in France," Borson said. "City's money has filtered through the entire game over the last decade."

The clubs around the world, he argues, "benefitted greatly" from the 10-time Premier League winners. "They've benefited greatly cash-wise from the investment that's been made."

Which brings us to the uncomfortable bit. "If City lose their appeal, the taps will be turned off," Borson said.

The short-term picture, according to Football Insider, is that a host of City players would suddenly become available at knock-down prices. Arsenal and Real Madrid have already made contact with Erling Haaland, while Mick Brown believes Marc Guehi could finally join Liverpool. Rayan Cherki, Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernandez and Gianluigi Donnarumma would have no shortage of suitors — nor would boyhood fan Phil Foden.

Cheap talent, then, for whoever moves fastest. But only in the short term. Once the Etihad chequebook is closed for good, the clubs who spent a decade dining out on City's money will have to find someone else to subsidise them. The taps, after all, run both ways.

City head to Merseyside on the back of seven straight wins in all competitions, five of them in the Premier League. The momentum is there. The squad depth, perhaps, is about to be tested.

O’Reilly had played the full 90 minutes in England’s 3-2 defeat to Spain earlier in the break, a Nations League fixture that preceded the Czechia game. He has made five appearances for City this season, but his campaign has already been disrupted once — a back injury sustained in the warm-up before the 1-0 win over Coventry City forced him out of two matches. Now another issue, still unspecified, has cut short his time with the national team.

Maresca will address the media next Friday, and that press conference will be the first proper opportunity to learn the severity of the problem. Until then, City are left to monitor a player who has shown promise but has yet to string together a run of games.

Anfield awaits. Seven wins on the spin is a fine run, but Liverpool away has a habit of finding out where a squad really stands. If O’Reilly is unavailable, someone else steps in. That is the nature of a long season.

Stefan Borson, a former financial adviser at Manchester City, has delivered a stark assessment of the club's position: relegation from the Premier League is now an inevitability. The only question is which division they fall into — and how much else comes with it.

City have lodged an appeal against the 114 charges the club was found guilty of, and the process is expected to run for a long time yet. Borson, who has followed the case closely from the start, believes the punishment will be severe.

"We're just not at that point yet. They're obviously going to be severe. We've spoken about it many times. From the very first day, I explained to people that the punishment would be severe and that City would be relegated."

He added: "I think people now maybe understand that and maybe didn't understand it when I said it. But it's just inevitable that one way or the other, there's going to be a relegation of some sort."

The appeal will determine the mechanism and any additional sanctions. Borson was clear on the scale of the setback: "But as we sit here right now, they couldn't have expected a worse outcome from this hearing."

League Two? Unlikely, but not impossible

Supporters across the Premier League have been baying for blood since the verdict, with suggestions ranging from points deductions and transfer bans to stripping titles. Some have floated expulsion to League Two — a move that would mirror the SPFL's decision to dump Rangers into the third division in 2012.

Borson can understand the uproar, but he thinks that particular punishment is a long shot. "Well, it's obviously pretty unlikely, but there's a storm at the moment and I think it's very hard to pick through what those sanctions might be," he said.

Even so, he refused to rule it out entirely. Expulsion to League Two is unlikely, but clearly not impossible.

If the club were relegated to League Two, especially with a multi-window transfer ban attached, they would essentially be forced to start over. That would mean leaning heavily on an academy that has already produced Phil Foden, Nico O'Reilly, James McAtee and Liam Delap.

Ryan McAidoo and Josh Wilson-Esbrand are currently pushing for senior involvement, while several others are catching the eye on loan. Jaden Heskey at Sheffield Wednesday, Jeremy Monga at Swansea City and Divine Mukasa at West Ham United would all make an impact at the Etihad if called upon.

It's a grim picture, and one that won't be resolved quickly. The appeal process is likely to drag on, leaving the club — and its supporters — in limbo.

Manchester City's transfer dealings between 2009/10 and 2017/18 went through 46 selling clubs in 19 different national league systems, according to a new BBC Sport analysis. The research puts the club's net spend across those nine seasons at around £900m.

Just over a quarter of that outlay went to other Premier League clubs. Arsenal were the most frequent supplier, selling City four players. The rest was scattered across Europe and beyond — eight separate deals with La Liga clubs, similar sums paid to Benfica and Porto, and around £13m handed to Championship sides for two players.

The figures exclude free transfers, loans and academy graduates, so they cover only senior moves. They also throw up some curious footnotes. Queens Park Rangers pocketed around £9m from a sell-on clause when Raheem Sterling joined from Liverpool in 2015. Barnsley received roughly £7m a year later after John Stones arrived from Everton.

Perhaps the most striking detail concerns Sporting. City made no senior signing from the Lisbon club during the period. Sporting, for their part, did not win the Portuguese title between 2009 and 2018. Whether that says more about City's scouting or Sporting's fortunes is a matter for the reader.

The BBC analysis lands in the middle of a far bigger story. The independent commission that found City guilty of serious breaches of Premier League financial rules concluded that, between 2009/10 and 2017/18, the club used arrangements which artificially inflated revenues and reduced costs by more than £900m. It found that the accounts did not accurately represent City's financial position, and that the club would have substantially breached Premier League and UEFA spending limits had those arrangements been reported accurately.

City have challenged those findings. The Premier League confirmed on 2 October that the club had formally lodged an appeal, which will be heard by an independent Appeal Board.

The transfer trail, meanwhile, tells its own story of what happened to some of the clubs who did business with City. Wolfsburg sold Kevin De Bruyne in 2015. They had finished second in the Bundesliga before his departure, dropped to eighth the following season and then narrowly avoided relegation in successive campaigns. Julian Draxler arrived for roughly half the De Bruyne fee; Dante came in from Bayern Munich. It didn't stop the slide.

Monaco are the other cautionary tale. They had won Ligue 1 and reached the Champions League semi-finals before selling Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy to City in 2017. Within two seasons they were fighting relegation, having recruited the likes of Terence Kongolo and Keita Balde.

City's appeal now sits with the independent Appeal Board. Whatever the outcome, the BBC's numbers offer a reminder of just how far and wide the club's recruitment reached — 46 clubs, 19 leagues, and a net spend of around £900m across nine seasons.

It's a line that leaves little room for interpretation. City aren't accepting the outcome quietly, and the paperwork went in at 7PM on Thursday 1 October — a detail the club took the trouble to highlight.

The verdict itself landed on Tuesday, when the Premier League published its own statement confirming that City had been found guilty of all charges relating to breaches of financial regulations between 2009 and 2018. An independent panel found that the club had arranged "sham contracts" with commercial partners to disguise funding of more than £830 million. The Premier League claimed City had "systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade".

City's response has been robust. They say they have provided "a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence [that] exists in support of all of its positions". The appeal, described in the club's own statement as 'comprehensive', takes aim at what they characterise as the Premier League's 'opinion' as much as its verdict.

Guardiola breaks his silence

Against that backdrop, the most recognisable figure of the club's modern era has spoken. Pep Guardiola, who managed City for ten years and delivered the club's first Champions League trophy alongside four consecutive Premier League titles between 2021 and 2024, released a message on social media.

"I want every single Manchester City fan across the world to know I am here; more than ever."

He didn't stop there.

"I am, always have been, always will, be behind my club, my owner, my chairman [Khaldoon Al Mubarak], Ferran [Soriano], the players, staff, Enzo [Maresca] and you, our unique supporters."

And then the line that will be repeated most often:

"Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all."

Guardiola had already shown his backing for the club in a message on social media in recent days. This latest statement goes considerably further.

The prospect of a return

Rumours have circulated that Guardiola is considering attending a match at the Etihad Stadium. According to City insider 'RealTolmie' on X, club sources have hinted that he is weighing up a return for their next home fixture, having reportedly told figures at the stadium that he 'wants to be with his people'.

Which match he might choose remains unclear. The immediate schedule offers a few candidates: after the international break, Enzo Maresca's side travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in the Premier League, before returning to the Etihad in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain. The next home league game comes after that, with newly-promoted Ipswich Town the visitors on Saturday 17 October.

Whether any of that materialises is another matter. For now, the rumour sits in the realm of the unconfirmed.

Soriano addresses staff

Away from the noise, City CEO Ferran Soriano has spoken directly to club staff, addressing them following the Premier League's publication of the commission's findings.

Reports have indicated that, as part of the appeal, the club are expected to claim that key sponsorship deals were funded by the Abu Dhabi government rather than the club's owners — a distinction that would form a central plank of their case.

The appeal is in. The arguments will follow.

Manchester City's plan to clear their name has been laid out in a new report, with the club set to confirm their appeal against the independent commission's verdict imminently.

According to Mike Keegan of the Daily Mail, City will argue that the sponsorship deals at the centre of the case were funded by the government of Abu Dhabi rather than the club's owners, Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG). The independent commission had ruled that ADUG made the payments, labelling them 'sham' contracts that saw over £900 million illegally pumped into City's accounts.

City's evidence, which was rejected by the commission, included bank statements and witness accounts. The club have always maintained they possess a body of 'irrefutable evidence' that would ultimately clear their name.

Keegan also reports that City's legal team will question the length of time the panel took to deliver its verdict. He writes: 'High-powered lawyers acting on behalf of the club are also likely to question the amount of time it took the panel to deliver its verdict, pointing out that in such cases judgments should be delivered within three months (rather than 20) of a hearing concluding, so that judges can properly remember evidence when crafting their judgment. As a result of the time elapsed, they will say the decision is 'unsafe'.'

City will also point to the fact they provided no fewer than 24 witnesses at the hearing, while the Premier League failed to provide anyone who confirmed the existence of the alleged conspiracy.

The confirmation of City's bid to appeal is expected today, marking the next stage in a saga that has dominated the week.

For supporters, the whirlwind of the past few days has been difficult to process. But as one fan writer put it, hope is not yet lost. The appeal is seismic and there is still plenty to play out.

City's owners have given fans memories that will last a lifetime and heavily invested in Manchester, uplifting the area around the Etihad Stadium. As for the success between 2009 and 2018 – the period covered by the Premier League's case – time will reveal whether it was legitimate or built on weak foundations.

There is a team on the pitch to support, too. City face Liverpool at Anfield next Sunday in a match that will likely have a fierce atmosphere given the rivalry and the events of this week. Enzo Maresca's side will need to block out the noise.

From here, the focus for many will be on official updates only – no conjecture, no rumours, no speculation. The appeal will take time, with more twists and turns almost certain. But the support for the club remains unconditional.

England manager Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that the fallout from Manchester City's Premier League charges has dominated conversation inside the national team camp. The German, preparing his side for tomorrow's Nations League meeting with Croatia, said the subject is unavoidable.

"We had some time off and time between the matches and it is a big subject. Everyone speaks about it so there is no other voice needed. I am glad to not be that voice. Nobody needs my half knowledge on it. The players are ready to go tomorrow. It’s what they show on the pitch and they show in camp. Its a big topic in camp."

Tuchel's comments come after news broke last week that City had been found guilty of the vast majority of the 115 charges brought against them for breaching the Premier League's financial rules. The verdict has sent shockwaves through English football, and it was always likely to seep into the international setup.

City's presence in the England squad ensures the topic is never far from the surface. Elliot Anderson and Marc Guehi are both with the Three Lions, though Nico O'Reilly has left the camp with an injury problem.

While Tuchel did his best to deflect attention, the timing of the international break means the club saga has been granted extra oxygen. City return to Premier League action next Sunday with a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool.

Focus shifts to Croatia

For Tuchel, the immediate priority is Croatia. The Nations League clash offers a chance to build momentum, but the manager was candid about the distraction.

"I am glad to not be that voice," he added, suggesting he has no intention of adding his own interpretation to a story that has already generated thousands of headlines.

City's players in the England camp will have to compartmentalise quickly. Anderson and Guehi are professionals, but the noise surrounding their club is not easily ignored.

O'Reilly's withdrawal is a blow for the player, who will now return to his club for assessment. The nature of the injury has not been disclosed.

For City fans, the international break has provided little respite. The charges verdict remains the dominant narrative, and Tuchel's admission confirms it is being discussed in dressing rooms far beyond the Etihad.

Liverpool away is next on the agenda. By then, the focus will shift back to matters on the pitch — at least for ninety minutes.

The Premier League confirmed the appeal on its official website, stating that the club had taken the matter to the Chair of the Judicial Panel. The independent Appeal Board hearing will be held in private, with details kept confidential until the outcome is published.

City's statement pulled no punches. "The Club's firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe," it read. The club added that a "comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions" and reiterated that it is "innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League."

The tone was respectful but resolute: "We will continue to respect due process and are necessarily restricted in what we can say further until all proceedings are complete." City also tweeted a simple message — "Manchester City lodge appeal" — with a link and image, a rare moment of public brevity in a saga that has rarely been short on words.

This is a fight City have not shied away from. Their position has not wavered since the Premier League's Tuesday announcement that the commission found them guilty on almost all charges. The club maintains its innocence and has dug in, unwilling to back down until their name is cleared.

There is a certain irony in the Premier League's confirmation. The league has promised confidentiality for the appeal hearing, yet the independent commission's findings were leaked prematurely before any official publication. You do wonder if this time the process will hold. It simply has to. There is no other alternative, irrespective of the public interest in the story.

For now, City wait. The appeal is lodged, the stance is unchanged, and the football world watches on.

Manchester City's owners still believe they have done nothing wrong. That conviction has not wavered, even as the Premier League's case against them grinds on. Stefan Borson, a former financial adviser at the club, told Football Insider that the men in charge are adamant about their innocence — and that certainty is driving their approach to the appeal.

"They believe they have done nothing wrong," Borson said of the ownership. "That does not match at all with the finding of the independent commission. And that is all that matters right now."

An independent board has already found City guilty, and the owners have pointed to what they call "irrefutable evidence" against the charges. Supporters across the Premier League are still waiting to see it. Many of them want City booted out of the division entirely because of the rule-breaking they believe has taken place.

Borson is clear that avoiding any punishment at this stage is extremely unlikely. He can't see a path to a complete escape. What he can envisage is City's legal team chipping away at the margins of the decision — picking at the edges, as he put it, rather than overturning the whole thing.

That would require the appeal board to spot something very clear: a misapplication of law, a misunderstanding of a statement or fact, or a faulty recollection of evidence. Borson rates those possibilities as very, very unlikely. But if they exist, City will find them.

Leading the appeal is Lord David Pannick KC, described by Bryan King as one of the best barristers in the country. Pannick played a key role in 2020 when City fought off a two-year ban from European competition. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned that ban on appeal. It is the kind of result the club will be hoping for again, though the current process is impossible to predict.

For supporters, the situation has split the room. Many are choosing to follow the owners, sticking with the people who have delivered so much success. Others are turning away and want a change of leadership instead. It is a messy situation, and there is no tidy resolution in sight.

City's owners continue to battle the charges, claiming innocence. Borson's assessment suggests that fight will be fought on narrow ground. The confidence is there. Whether it is justified is another matter entirely.

It is the first time Enzo Maresca's side will take the pitch since the verdict of the 115-case sparked an uproar that has reverberated around the football world. The match at Anfield, City's sixth league fixture of the campaign, now carries a weight far beyond the usual rivalry between the two clubs.

Gary Neville, speaking on The Overlap, painted a stark picture of what awaits. "If Manchester City want an understanding how angry the world of football is, then Anfield will tell them next week," he said. "In a way you would never believe. There will be banners, there will be chants, it will be a brutal day."

The players and staff will be the target for many. With the case still ongoing, the hostility is unlikely to be confined to the stands. For a squad that includes newcomers like Rayan Cherki, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi, this will be an entirely new experience.

City's captaincy group – Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Marc Guehi – will be expected to lead the way. Dias, in particular, has the presence to be a figure of inspiration, while Donnarumma and Guehi have navigated difficult scenarios before. Haaland, a leader at the club, often cops it simply for being Haaland; he will be no stranger to the noise.

Enzo Fernandez, the Argentinian midfielder who is one of the most 'hated' players in football, is another who can play through it. But for the newer faces, Anfield will be a baptism by fire.

City are the villain of the piece in the eyes of many, and when domestic football returns next weekend, that will be on full display. The challenge for Maresca's men is to thrive in the inferno.

The Football Association has issued a 58-word statement that threatens Manchester City, according to reports. The statement comes amid ongoing speculation over Pep Guardiola's future.

Guardiola has been ruled out of the next job he was linked with, though the exact role remains unclear. The FA's warning adds another layer of uncertainty at the Etihad.

City fans have grown used to off-field noise, but this latest development is a fresh twist. The 58-word statement is terse, even by the FA's standards.

What it means for Guardiola and City is still to be determined. For now, the club and its supporters are left to parse the wording and wait for the next move.

Barcelona wanted Josko Gvardiol. That much is now on the record.

A report from Mundo Deportivo has confirmed the Catalan club's interest in Manchester City's Croatian defender, an ambition that surfaced during the summer window. City, for their part, had no intention of doing business. The same report states plainly that the club were not prepared to let an important player like Gvardiol go.

He stayed at the Etihad. That was that.

Why Barcelona Wanted Him

The logic from Catalonia is not difficult to follow. Gvardiol can play centre-back or left-back, a versatility that appeals to a club shopping in the market for a defender. Mundo Deportivo's report frames him as an ideal replacement for Alejandro Balde, who could be on his way out of the Nou Camp after falling out of favour.

Should that chain of events unfold, Balde himself could be one to watch for Premier League clubs in the near future. A neat little loop, that.

Gvardiol is 24. He joined City from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2023. Since then, he has shown his quality and played a big part in the club's success on the pitch. A key player, by any measure.

Uncertainty at the Etihad

What happens next is less clear. In the wake of City being found guilty of so many major Premier League financial breaches, it is not out of the question that the club are soon handed a huge points deduction or perhaps even expulsion from the Premier League.

That verdict, delivered last week, has left a cloud over the club. Gvardiol will surely be one of a number of City stars wondering what the future holds at the moment.

He is not alone in that. Erling Haaland is apparently being monitored by Real Madrid and Barcelona, according to the Sun. When the vultures start circling, they rarely circle just one player.

For now, Gvardiol remains a City player. Whether that holds beyond the next transfer window is another matter entirely.

Ogunsuyi, who is just 14 years old, has already made an appearance for his new side — and it came against his former club. The young forward scored twice in a 5-1 victory over the Black Cats earlier this week.

The Sunderland Echo reports that Sunderland are still due compensation from the transfer because of Ogunsuyi's age, and the same outlet describes him as highly rated and one of the brightest prospects in the Black Cats academy.

His credentials support that billing. He won Sunderland's academy Player of the Season award in 2024/25, and became the club's youngest-ever player to turn out for the Under-18s at 13 years of age. He also featured in a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle back in March.

Liam is the younger brother of Trey Ogunsuyi, a striker who plays for Sunderland's Under 21s. That family connection adds a neat subplot to a deal that otherwise flies under the radar.

He is not the only youngster to have been snapped up by City. Mishel Ndika has arrived from Arsenal, and the young midfielder took to Instagram to share a photo of himself signing his contract. Jeremy Monga and Pierce Charles have also been secured, with both loaned out to Swansea City and Queens Park Rangers respectively.

At 14, Ogunsuyi is clearly one for the future. But scoring twice against your former club before the paperwork has even been announced? That's one way to make an early impression.

Manchester City are facing a nervous wait over two key players after Nico O'Reilly returned from international duty injured and Antoine Semenyo remained absent from training. With a crucial fixture against Liverpool just ten days away, head coach Enzo Maresca is set to provide further updates next week.

O'Reilly, the 21-year-old left-back, sustained his injury while representing England. He had played the full 90 minutes against Spain last week but was then left out of the matchday squad for the Nations League fixture against Czechia. England boss Thomas Tuchel initially described the issue as minor, but it was confirmed on Thursday afternoon that O'Reilly has returned to Manchester for treatment. He will miss England's remaining matches against Croatia on Saturday and the return fixture versus Czechia on Tuesday night. No expected return date has been set.

Meanwhile, Antoine Semenyo did not join up with Ghana for international duty due to an ankle problem. The 26-year-old had impressed in City's 5-3 win over Sunderland, scoring twice and providing an assist, and there was no sign of a knock as he completed the full 90+ minutes. Ghana FA president Kurt Okraku later said the forward had a swollen leg, and it was decided that Semenyo would be better off staying in England to undergo treatment and focus on his recovery. He has not been pictured back in training and is now a doubt for the Liverpool game.

City's medical staff will be working overtime to get both players fit, but with the Liverpool match still ten days away, there is time for assessments to be made. Maresca is expected to shed more light on the situation next week.

The incident in question arrived during that frantic second period, when the ball struck Sunderland's Elliot Anderson on the hand as he tussled with Enzo Le Fée inside the City area. Jones waved away the protests immediately. Michael Salisbury, on VAR duty at Stockley Park, saw no reason to intervene.

The panel agreed. By a three-to-two majority, it backed the original call. "The referee's call of no penalty for a potential handball offence against Anderson was supported, 3:2," the panel wrote. "Both players were engaged and the ball was bouncing at close proximity after deflecting off [Enzo] Le Fee."

Two panellists, though, felt there was a deliberate secondary movement of the arm from Anderson that constituted a handball offence. The panel comprises a trio of former players and coaches, one Premier League figure, and a refereeing-body representative, so split decisions are not unusual.

On the separate question of whether Salisbury should have got involved at all, the panel was more decisive. It voted four to one that the VAR had been right to leave the original call untouched. That is a stronger endorsement of the process than the handball verdict itself.

For City, the win sent them to the top of the league going into the extended international break. Enzo Maresca's side remain perfect in the Premier League. There is a long way to go, of course, but the early signs are encouraging.

Sunderland head coach Régis Le Bris might feel differently about the handball call, though he will have taken some encouragement from a spirited performance. Anderson, for his part, has been cleared of any wrongdoing and has enjoyed a fine start to the season.

City will now turn their attention to October's trip to Anfield. That is a fixture that tends to define seasons, and it will be a proper test of their credentials.

Of every player to feature for more than 90 minutes in the Premier League this season, Grealish has created the most chances per 90. His four per game sits clear of Rayan Cherki on 3.5, Sávio on 3.4 and Marcus Rashford on 3.3. Whatever picture you had of Grealish drifting through his loan spell, that stat redraws it.

A late deal that never quite felt settled

It seemed, not so long ago, that Enzo Maresca was seriously considering keeping Grealish around for the 2026-27 campaign. That possibility faded. Grealish joined Everton at the 11th hour, a second consecutive loan move to Goodison Park, and the sense from the outside was of a door closing quietly rather than being slammed.

Supporters have not forgotten what he gave the club. Six years is a long time in modern football, and the gratitude for that service has been genuine.

So far this season he has started just twice for David Moyes' side — against Wolves in the Carabao Cup and Ipswich Town in the Premier League — and Everton won both. He has yet to get off the mark in terms of goals, though he managed two goals and six assists last term.

The chance creation is the part that nags. Everton rank 12th in the Premier League for xG created. Grealish, on this evidence, is doing more than his share to lift that number.

City's own uncertainty in the background

All of this unfolds against a backdrop at the Etihad that is anything but straightforward. The club's 114 charges hang over like a dark cloud, and the threat of relegation to the Championship makes planning for next summer much trickier than it would otherwise be.

Keith Wyness has told Football Insider that he believes a 50-point deduction is on the cards. Even that, as he acknowledges, does not guarantee relegation. So the calculations at City remain murky — and a player out on loan, creating chances at a rate nobody in the division can match, is one more variable in a summer that already looks difficult to map.

Grealish's City career may or may not be finished. What is certain is that, right now, he is doing something no one else in the Premier League is doing. That is worth noticing, even from a distance.

The defender, now a World Cup and European Championship winner with Spain, said that City had to see off serious competition to land him from Athletic Bilbao.

Laporte explained that a serious ankle injury, sustained while on international duty with the French U21s at the end of a season, complicated the first attempt to sign him.

"Mentally, I wasn’t ready to go to England at that time; it seemed too far from my family."

That injury also caused one of the interested clubs to pull out of the running, though the others, including City, persisted.

Instead of moving, Laporte signed a new contract at Athletic, intending to stay. But roughly 18 months later, City came back. Athletic were having a mediocre season, and the timing finally worked.

The second approach cost City £57 million in January 2018. By then, Pep Guardiola had already been tracking Laporte since his Bayern Munich days. Guardiola phoned the defender to tell him he was joining City, that he was a key player, and that he wanted him to partner John Stones.

Laporte went on to make 180 appearances for City, scoring 12 goals — including a Carabao Cup final-winning header against Tottenham. He won 13 trophies, among them five Premier League titles and a place in the treble-winning side of 2023.

He left for Al-Nassr in August 2023 and returned to Bilbao in 2025.

Reflecting on his time at the Etihad, Laporte offered a frank assessment of Guardiola. "Tactically, he’s one of the best in football," he said. "In terms of interpersonal relationships, perhaps the worst."

He also suggested that City have changed since his departure. "Since I left, City isn’t what it used to be, and winning has become the norm."

City are facing more than 100 charges relating to financial fair play, covering a period that began in 2009 and ended in 2018. For two of those years, Guardiola was manager. In that time, and since, his side has won 20 trophies. Six Premier League titles. Five Carabao Cups. One Champions League.

The club is accused of manipulating £900 million. Sheikh Mansour, who helms the Abu Dhabi Group that runs City, has a reported net worth of £22.62 billion to £28.65 billion. He was accused of cooking the books. An appeal could still overturn the guilty verdict against the club.

Guardiola's pedigree was established long before he arrived in Manchester. He was with Barcelona and Bayern Munich before coming to City. The trophies won under his oversight are not in question. The charges are. Both stories will be told for years to come.

Talk about the club's pending case has settled into a comfortable groove: a colossal points deduction, maybe as many as 100, served in one go, a season written off, and then normality restored. City's ownership group insists nothing was done wrong. The Premier League counters that the club is guilty of more than 100 charges. The gap between those positions is where the real anxiety lives.

Now consider how the league might actually choose to apply a penalty of that size. Rather than swallowing the whole thing in a single campaign, the points could be spread — 20 docked from each of the next five seasons. That's the scenario with teeth. A one-year hit is a bruise. A five-year squeeze is a different sport entirely.

The reasoning is straightforward enough. Strip 100 points in one summer and you relegate a club that still has most of its stars under contract for years to come. Erling Haaland is tied to the place until 2034, for instance. The squad is deep and young enough that a single year in the Championship would be a detour, not a destination — City would flatten that division and be back in the Premier League by the following season. The league knows this. In its eyes, a clean one-season punishment achieves very little.

So the smarter, crueller play is to stretch it out. Twenty points off the top each year means City almost certainly don't win the title during that window. Not once. Not close. And if those deductions arrive alongside a transfer ban — no signings, current players drifting away, the squad hollowed out season by season — the cumulative effect isn't a bad year. It's a lost decade.

That's the combination nobody at the Etihad wants to contemplate: points bled away over five campaigns while the rebuild is frozen in place. A fine can be absorbed. A ban can be worked around. Both at once, over years, turns a superclub into something far more ordinary.

There are caveats, naturally. City could win their appeal and the whole conversation evaporates. The players, as far as anyone can tell, don't have contract clauses allowing them to walk if the club is found guilty, though selling a few stars to offset a hefty fine remains an option. And a decision on sanctions may not arrive quickly, whatever the rulebook says about timelines.

Which is why the calendar matters as much as the verdict. Supporters might find themselves fretting about all of this more in 2031 than in 2027. For anyone who prefers the league's side of the argument — a Manchester United fan, say — the goal is obvious: crush City's future title hopes, not just their next season.

A single deduction is a footnote. Five of them, with the squad padlocked, is the story.

The dispute broke out in Norway after NRK's Jan Petter Saltvedt suggested City had leaned on the Norwegian FA to keep Haaland away from pre-match press obligations ahead of the Nations League meeting with Portugal.

"Nobody believes anything other than that it is Manchester City who has instructed the Norwegian FA to spare their leading jewel from the questions that would have come," Saltvedt said.

Norway manager Stale Solbakken did not take long to respond. He called the implication rubbish and insisted the call was his alone, with City playing no part whatsoever.

Solbakken went further, claiming he had not discussed media matters with anyone at City since Haaland's move from Dortmund. He also revealed he had made the decision without even telling Haaland, and offered up his phone and email accounts to reporters to prove it.

Haaland, for his part, did what he usually does. He scored in Norway's 1-2 defeat to Portugal, a result that leaves the post-match analysis to others.

For City, the timing is hardly ideal. The club are still absorbing the fallout from the commission's guilty verdict on the long-running Premier League charges case, and an appeal is already on the horizon. The last thing they need is a side-plot about media access in Oslo.

Solbakken's offer to hand over his communications should quiet the noise for now. But with City bracing for the next stage of their own legal battle, distractions are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

Andrée Jeglertz's side have started the season in ominous form, making it four wins from four to open their WSL title defence. Alex Greenwood's solitary goal at the Valley was enough to see off Charlton Athletic on Saturday. The only blemish so far was their Champions League opener nine nights ago, when they found themselves 2-0 down against Bayern Munich at Sportpark Unterhaching. Beth Mead halved the deficit, Bunny Shaw missed a spot-kick, and Carlotta Wamser salvaged a draw late on. A point rescued rather than two dropped, perhaps.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, drew their own matchday one fixture, held by Paris Saint-Germain at Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano. They had taken a second-minute lead through Felicia Schröder in Valdebebas. Schröder has scored in all three of Madrid's Champions League matches this season, including both legs of the qualifying win over Ajax. The Swedish striker is clearly the danger.

Pau Quesada made four changes for Madrid's 5-3 win at Real Sociedad on Saturday. Sara Däbritz and Lineth Beerensteyn were also on target, alongside Schröder. But Madrid's European pedigree is modest: seventh in last season's league phase, past Paris FC in the first knockout round, then beaten by Barcelona in the quarter-finals. They have never gone beyond that stage.

City, by contrast, know what it takes to go deep. Jeglertz made five changes for the Charlton win, and Yui Hasegawa, Lauren Hemp and top-scorer Bunny Shaw are among those likely to return. The squad depth is there. Whether it translates into a first win over Spanish opposition since that Barcelona victory three years ago is another matter.

Madrid face seven-in-a-row champions Barça Femeni at Estadi Johan Cruyff on Sunday. A daunting trip either side of this one. City, meanwhile, host struggling Arsenal at the Etihad on Sunday. The defending champions will fancy their chances.

For City, this is a chance to put down a marker in Europe. For Madrid, it is a test of whether they can finally break their quarter-final ceiling. The Spanish hoodoo hangs over City, but records are there to be broken.

Manchester City will contest the guilty verdict handed down by the Premier League, with the club set to lodge its appeal before the October 2 deadline. The news, reported this week, confirms what most around the Etihad had suspected: this saga is nowhere near its conclusion.

The Premier League officially announced the guilty verdict earlier this week, but the punishment phase now faces a significant delay. By challenging the finding itself rather than accepting it and arguing over sanctions, City has ensured that the entire process will drag on well beyond the current campaign.

Had the club chosen not to appeal, the implication would have been stark: an acceptance of guilt, with the only remaining dispute being the severity of the punishment. That route was never likely. City have maintained their innocence throughout, and that stance remains unchanged.

If the club didn't appeal the guilty verdict, it would be saying, OK, we are guilty, but we won't agree with the sanctions.

Instead, the appeal opens a window that could last months, perhaps years. Sanctions, if they arrive at all, might not be put in place for a considerable stretch of time. That uncertainty leaves everyone guessing — not least the club itself.

No one at the Premier League or UEFA is willing to put a timescale on proceedings. The complexity of the case, combined with City's longstanding position, means the attorneys involved are triple-checking every detail. For the Premier League, a failure at this stage would carry grave consequences — potentially eroding club trust in the process and, in the most extreme scenario, threatening the league's very existence as we know it.

For City, the range of possible outcomes is equally wide. Expulsion from the Premier League and a forced re-application for membership is one. A points deduction so severe that relegation becomes near-certain is another. Even if the club is permitted to remain in the English pyramid, there is no guarantee at which level it would land.

What is clear, at least for now, is that City are digging in. The appeal will be filed, the legal battle will continue, and the rest of us will wait. And wait.

The appeal must be submitted by Friday 2nd October, it is believed, with an Independent Commission then set up to deliberate the case. The verdict is likely to take several months, but Maguire thinks the process will be concluded prior to the end of the 2026/27 campaign.

Premier League rivals have pointed to new regulations introduced in June, which state that a verdict should be handed down no later than 12 weeks after the appeal is filed. That timetable would put the conclusion well before the season's end.

Pundits have called for City's expulsion from the Premier League, but a report citing sources close to top-flight teams says that outcome is highly unlikely. An extremely high fine, along with some form of points deduction, is considered the more probable result.

The outcome remains difficult to predict, and City's appeal will be closely watched. For now, the club must prepare their submission by the October deadline.

Former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has finally addressed the club's guilty finding, breaking his silence on Wednesday after the Premier League made an official statement. Guardiola, who oversaw the on-field product during the last two years of the period in which City were found guilty of breaking rules between 2009 and 2018, had until then said nothing about the reported guilty finding. He chose to speak on his official X handle, declaring: "I am, always have been, always will be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran, the players, staff, Enzo, and you, our unique supporters."

"Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all."

Guardiola's message was one of unwavering support, not just for the club but for owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Abu Dhabi United Group. "I am, always have been, always will be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran, the players, staff, Enzo, and you, our unique supporters," he wrote, adding: "Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all."

The timing is significant. Guardiola waited until the Premier League made an official statement before commenting, a decision that underscores his respect for due process. His words come after a decade of living through the triumphs and trials of Manchester City, a period that yielded 20 trophies, including six Premier League titles. The last two years of the period in question were overseen by Guardiola, making his intervention all the more poignant.

For City supporters, the message is clear: the man who delivered unprecedented success remains firmly in their corner. As the club navigates the fallout from the guilty finding, Guardiola's public backing provides a rallying point. His statement, simple and heartfelt, leaves little doubt where his loyalties lie.

The former Manchester United captain was on punditry duty with ITV Sport, as quoted by BBC Sport, when the subject of Manchester City's Premier League charges came up. He didn't hedge.

"If I was a player, I'd be 100% sticking those medals in the bin. Of course you would, it's cheating."

He went further.

"They won it on the pitch because cheating was going on."

And then the line that will sting most inside the Etihad.

"They (the club) knew it would hurt a lot of people, but they've still done it."

The context is unavoidable. The Premier League have released a statement confirming that City are guilty of the long list of financial charges against them. The charges look likely to earn the club a huge punishment, and the success of the past decade or more now looks very different against the backdrop of one of the biggest scandals in English football history.

A Long Way From Over

City can appeal the decision. That much is clear. Whether there is much ground to contest such a long list of such serious charges is another matter entirely — and at this point it looks like they might not have that much.

Any potential punishment remains speculation for now. We should soon learn more about whether City face a points deduction, a lengthy transfer ban, or possible expulsion from the Premier League. The club will hope for clarity as soon as possible.

The rest of the Premier League could do with a clearer picture too, before club football resumes after the current international break. Nobody is quite sure what the landscape will look like when it does.

Keane, typically, didn't hold back. He rarely does. But for City, the wait for answers is the harder part.

Liverpool have rekindled their interest in Marc Guehi, with sources indicating a move for the Crystal Palace defender is 'back on'. The development comes as Manchester City confront a looming relegation threat that could reshape their summer transfer plans.

City's internal verdict on potential player exits has also surfaced, painting a picture of a club bracing for significant upheaval. The Blues are reportedly preparing for the possibility of life outside the Premier League, a scenario that would force a drastic reassessment of their squad strategy.

For Liverpool, the renewed pursuit of Guehi represents a opportunistic swoop. The Reds had previously been linked with the England international, and the current uncertainty at the Etihad has seemingly opened the door for a renewed approach.

City's own transfer business now hangs in the balance. The club's hierarchy is understood to have reached an internal conclusion on which players could depart, with the threat of relegation accelerating plans for a potential exodus.

The situation remains fluid, but the prospect of City dropping out of the top flight has sent ripples through the transfer market. Rivals are circling, and Liverpool's revived interest in Guehi is just one example of how the Blues' precarious position is being exploited.

For City fans, the news is a stark reminder of the stakes involved. The club's future, both on and off the pitch, could hinge on the outcome of the ongoing proceedings. As it stands, the Blues are facing a fight to preserve their Premier League status, and the fallout is already being felt in the transfer window.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Serie A side have identified the 25-year-old as their primary target to solve a problem position that has haunted them since the summer window closed. The Bianconeri are ready to ask for him on loan with an option to buy — the same structure they attempted in late August, when they reached out to the player's representatives before the deal fell apart.

That approach failed to come together, but Juventus haven't moved on. If anything, their need has grown more acute.

Luciano Spalletti has seemingly lost all confidence in Juan Cabal, who Juventus couldn't offload in the summer. The Old Lady tried and failed to replace him then. They will try again in January, and Ait-Nouri sits at the top of their list. It's a situation that speaks to a broader malaise at the Allianz Stadium — Juventus have been leaning heavily on Zeki Celik and Pierre Kalulu in the early going, with both Andrea Cambiaso and Juan Cabal only just returning to fitness. The caliber of reinforcement they need, and the level they can realistically target, hinges on whether Cambiaso shows signs of life after a very long sticky patch.

For City, the calculus is rather different. Ait-Nouri arrived from Wolverhampton a year ago for €37m after showing well at Molineux, but he has been an afterthought since Enzo Maresca took charge. The defender has played only twice this season, starting just one Carabao Cup tie, and has never been deployed in the Premier League. His camp was already concerned about his prospective role in late August, and little has happened since to ease those worries.

A few injuries have contributed to his lack of minutes, it should be said. But when fit, he has still rarely been a regular. If the situation doesn't improve, a winter exit looks almost certain.

Juventus Casting a Wide Net

Ait-Nouri isn't Juventus's only option. The club is keeping tabs on David Raum for a possible Bosman addition, and Corriere dello Sport reports that Nicolas Tagliafico remains on the radar after he almost joined on deadline day. Tagliafico sits on a fallback list alongside his teammate Abner and Emerson Palmieri.

Whether Juventus get as far as a formal loan offer in January remains to be seen. But the groundwork is being laid, and Ait-Nouri's situation at City isn't improving. Two appearances by late September is a meagre return for a €37m signing. Something will have to give.

Enzo Maresca will not hang around at the Etihad if Manchester City are relegated from the Premier League. That is the view of Keith Wyness, the former Everton chief executive, who believes the City boss has already protected himself against the worst-case scenario.

Wyness, who ran a football consultancy after leaving Goodison Park in 2009, told Football Insider that Maresca is bound to have a relegation release clause written into the contract he signed upon arriving at the club in the summer. The 46-year-old, a former Chelsea boss, has guided City to a 100 per cent start to the new Premier League season, but that form has done little to quiet the noise surrounding the club's ongoing dispute with the Premier League.

City have been found guilty of 114 financial breaches, according to Wyness, and face the prospect of being demoted down the leagues. The club hierarchy remain adamant that they will contest the decision, but Wyness has already described their hopes of success as 'tenuous at best'. He feels their guilt is undeniable and that any appeal must focus on specific points of law.

And he has gone further, indicating that City are 'certain' to receive a points deduction of at least 50 points, a punishment that would effectively seal their relegation this season.

"He wouldn't walk away in the middle of the season if the punishment is dished out in the coming months. Instead, he would see out the remainder of the campaign before enforcing his exit on the club next summer."

That is the scenario Wyness sketched out: not a mid-season flounce, but a calculated departure once the campaign has played out. He believes Maresca would hold the club to the agreement, an exit route he considers inevitable for a manager of his standing.

The appeal process, Wyness suggested last week, is likely to take a maximum of three months. That timeline would push any final resolution towards the business end of the season, leaving Maresca and his squad to navigate the speculation while trying to maintain their form on the pitch.

City's start has been flawless so far, but the bigger picture remains anything but. Relegation, once unthinkable, is now a subject of open discussion among those paid to analyse the boardroom. For Maresca, the clause is not an act of disloyalty; it is simply the reality of managing a club in limbo.

The chief executive sent a video message to all employees, in which he described the charges as the product of a single false accusation and reiterated that the club are the victims of a conspiracy theory.

Soriano's message was followed by a statement on the club's official website. City are continuing to protest their innocence and look set to appeal.

For a club that has spent years insisting on its innocence, the guilty verdicts represent a serious blow. Yet the response from the top has been immediate and defiant.

The move to address staff directly underlines the internal seriousness with which City are treating the situation. Soriano's video was not a public broadcast, but an internal one — a recognition that the people who work at the club day to day needed to hear from him first.

His words leave little room for interpretation. City are not backing down.

An appeal now looks inevitable, and the club's public statement echoed the chief executive's message. It is a stance that will be familiar to anyone who has followed this saga: the Blues maintain that they have done nothing wrong.

Whether that argument finds favour elsewhere remains to be seen. For now, City's position is clear — they will fight on.

Manchester City have been found guilty of more than 100 of the financial fair play charges brought against them, among others. No punishment has yet been handed down. The Premier League is giving the club until 2 October to appeal the finding of guilt.

The league issued a statement on Tuesday. It is fairly long. That, in itself, tells you plenty about the mood.

The Abu Dhabi United Group took over almost 20 years ago. Two decades on, the club's ownership era has arrived at its most consequential juncture.

City have until 2 October to lodge an appeal. After that, there is no known timeline for when the appeal will be heard. No date. No indication of how long the process might run. The deadline is fixed; everything beyond it is not.

For now, the club and its supporters are left with a finding, no sanction, and a fast-approaching cut-off point. What happens next is, for the moment, an open question.

No Contingency Plans

Last week, reports suggested City had been found guilty of the vast majority of the Premier League's financial charges. The club continue to deny any wrongdoing. Sources indicate that the hierarchy are not currently considering a major restructuring of the first-team squad, nor are they making preparations for a possible drop into the Championship. The message from the Etihad is clear: they believe the legal battle is far from finished.

According to Football Insider, City remain "confident" that an appeal will ultimately go in their favour. The report claims the club's hierarchy intend to continue protesting their innocence until every available legal route has been exhausted. That process could significantly delay any final outcome, meaning uncertainty around possible sanctions could continue well beyond this season.

Soriano's Message

City chief executive Ferran Soriano addressed members of the European Football Clubs board this week, telling them that the club intend to clear their name and believe they can eventually win the case. He also indicated that the process could still take a considerable amount of time. Reuters have reported that sanctions could range from fines and points deductions to relegation, but City are clearly not planning for the worst-case scenario.

If the club's Premier League status were to change, several members of City's squad would inevitably attract major interest. Reports have already linked Arsenal and Real Madrid with Erling Haaland, and the prospect of a fire sale is one that the club are evidently unwilling to entertain. For now, the focus remains on fighting the charges and proving their innocence.

City's unwavering stance is a bold one. The coming months will reveal whether their confidence is justified.

Sky Sports News reported on Tuesday morning that O'Reilly will sit out the Three Lions' upcoming match, just days after an error in defence allowed Spain's Alex Baena to score in a 3-2 defeat. The nature and full extent of the problem remain unclear, and England manager Thomas Tuchel is expected to provide an update later on Tuesday. It is not yet certain whether the 21-year-old will formally withdraw from international duty.

For City, the timing is far from ideal. Enzo Maresca's side have begun the 2026/27 Premier League campaign with five wins from five, and a visit to Anfield was already shaping up as the sternest test of that run. O'Reilly has made an impressive start to life under the Italian, building on a 2026/27 season in which he was an ever-present in Pep Guardiola's preferred XI during the Catalan's final year in charge.

The academy graduate also scored twice in City's 2-0 Carabao Cup final win over Premier League champions Arsenal at Wembley in March — a brace that underlined his growing importance to the squad. His absence would leave Maresca weighing up his options at left-back, with Josko Gvardiol the likely deputy. The Croatia international has established himself as a competent option on the flank since arriving from RB Leipzig in 2023.

Maresca and his coaching staff will monitor O'Reilly's situation closely. If the injury proves serious, the defender will be recalled to the City Football Academy for assessment.

City's fixture list offers little breathing room either way. Paris Saint-Germain visit the Etihad Stadium three days after the Liverpool match, meaning any absence could stretch across two significant tests. Before that, Andoni Iraola's side provide the upcoming domestic challenge.

Whether O'Reilly features at Anfield remains to be seen. City would ideally want him available — and the next 48 hours should clarify whether they will have him.

Instead, the hierarchy intend to keep protesting their innocence until the very end, convinced they can prove the Premier League wrong. That much is clear from the noises coming out of the Etihad. The confidence remains. The intention to appeal remains. The belief that they have done nothing wrong remains.

What also remains, unless they can successfully plead their case at an appeal hearing, is the prospect of a hefty points deduction.

Wyness: 'Certain' to Lose at Least 50 Points

Keith Wyness, the former Everton chief executive and one-time Premier League board member, offered a blunt assessment on Friday. He told Football Insider that City's hopes of overturning the verdict are "tenuous at best". He expects a deduction of at least 50 points. Heavy fines and reputational damage, in his view, are also coming.

Wyness did concede one thing: the Premier League's own reputation is on the line too. Eight titles won while potentially breaking the rules does not reflect well on the competition, whichever way you look at it.

He also suggested the appeal process could drag on for up to three months.

Stefan Borson, a former City financial advisor, was similarly downbeat last weekend. He believes City may challenge specific points of law, but rates their chances of overturning the guilty verdict as extremely unlikely. In his view, they face a huge uphill battle given how severely they appear to have lost on the initial judgement.

The Premier League found them guilty on all but one of the 115 charges. That is the reality City are staring at.

A Saga Nearing Its Endgame

This has been rumbling since February 2023. It now looks set to come to a head in the coming months, with the Premier League already making their initial verdict clear and briefing the other clubs.

City's position is straightforward: they will appeal. They have every intention of doing so. They believe they can win. Whether that belief is justified is another matter entirely, and the men who know the financial landscape best are not sounding optimistic.

For now, the club are holding firm. No relegation planning. No squad restructuring. Just a refusal to accept the verdict and a determination to fight it.

The next few months will decide whether that defiance looks brave or deluded.

The charges, first announced in 2023, have been a cloud over the Etihad ever since. A punishment decision is still pending, and an appeal will follow. But for the squad, the legal wrangling is background noise. None of them have a get-out clause that would let them walk away if the worst happens.

That's a crucial detail. For players who joined before the charges were announced, like Erling Haaland, the argument to leave is weaker. They didn't know about the investigation when they signed. Haaland, tied to the club until 2034, is going nowhere in a hurry. The same goes for Jeremy Doku, contracted until 2031.

For those who arrived after 2023, the picture is different. Elliot Anderson, for example, knew all about the charges and still chose to sign. That undermines any claim of being misled.

Then there's the group signed through 2028 or so. They're simply stuck. No clause, no escape. The club holds all the cards.

So while the football world speculates about a fire sale, the reality is more mundane. City's squad is locked in, and any departures will be on the club's terms.

"Yes, well yes, he's a proper footballer," Zidane said. "But it's not just that — everyone knows about that. What interests me is what he's capable of doing without the ball."

The compliment lands differently coming from a man widely regarded as the most elegant and technically gifted player of his era. Zidane wasn't just admiring the obvious. He was looking at the parts of Cherki's game that don't make the highlight reels.

"He's capable of receiving the ball between the lines; he makes incredible passes. Two or three times, when he plays vertically, it can be immediately effective."

Cherki, 23, started Zidane's first match in charge on Friday night — a 1-0 win over Turkey. He played 78 minutes before making way for Eduardo Camavinga, operating in a slightly deeper role than City fans might be used to seeing.

Zidane spoke afterwards about the midfielder's contribution both with and without the ball, and the positional experiment looks set to continue. France face Belgium in their second Nations League fixture on Monday evening, and Cherki is expected to keep his place in that deeper station.

It's an interesting development for City. A player who arrived with a reputation for flair is being trusted with the less glamorous side of the game by one of the greats. Zidane's interest in the defensive and link-up work suggests he sees something beyond the tricks.

Cherki is one of 20 players called up by France for this camp.

Elsewhere, City's international contingent is scattered across the globe. Rayan Ait-Nouri is with Algeria, Geronimo Rulli and Enzo Fernandez with Argentina, Vitor Reis with Brazil, Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol with Croatia, Marc Guehi, Nico O'Reilly and Elliot Anderson with England, Gianluigi Donnarumma with Italy, Ayyoub Bouaddi with Morocco, Erling Haaland with Norway, Ruben Dias with Portugal, Iliman Ndiaye with Senegal and Abdukodir Khusanov with Uzbekistan.

At youth level, Rico Lewis is with England Under-21, while Kaden Braithwaite and Ryan McAidoo turn out for England Under-19 and Floyd Samba represents Germany Under-19.

For Cherki, though, the focus is on Monday and the chance to build on a promising first outing under Zidane. A manager who knows a thing or two about playing between the lines seems to like what he sees.

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.

Erling Haaland and Ruben Dias found themselves on opposite sides in Oslo on Sunday night, and it was the defender who took the bragging rights back to Manchester. Portugal's 2-1 win over Norway in the Nations League gave Dias the points, even if Haaland got his customary goal.

Haaland's 65th international goal arrived six minutes after the restart, cancelling out Joao Felix's first-half opener. The striker had been kept at bay by Diogo Costa, who parried a cross into his path after 24 minutes only for the centre-back to block the attempt. Costa then denied Haaland twice more before the interval.

But the goalkeeper could do nothing about the equaliser. Martin Odegaard's free-kick was parried, and Patrick Berg knocked the loose ball into Haaland's path for a close-range finish. It was his 16th goal in his past 17 internationals, and it extended his record as the Nations League's leading scorer to 22 goals.

Portugal restored their advantage quickly through Goncalo Ramos, who punished a mistake from Orjan Nyland in the 54th minute. The Norway goalkeeper attempted to play out from goal but found Ramos, who lifted his finish into the unguarded net from outside the penalty area.

Dias remained on throughout as Portugal protected their lead and made it two victories from their opening two Nations League matches. Haaland completed the game for Norway, who remain on three points after beating Denmark in their opener.

Both players will reconvene with their national teams later this week. Norway face Wales on Thursday, while Portugal travel to Denmark. The return fixture between the two sides takes place on Sunday.

Four clubs — Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Manchester United — are reportedly seeking legal action against City for compensation, citing loss of earnings from missing out on European finishes and league titles. The potential bill could exceed £200 million in prize money, sponsorship bonuses, and income from European competitions.

The verdict, announced during the international break, has been described as the biggest breakthrough since the initial charges were brought in February 2023. City face a punishment that could range from a points deduction to being stripped of their titles and even expulsion from the Premier League.

Everton's £35.1 million payment to Burnley in 2021-22, after breaching Profitability and Sustainability Rules, set a precedent that now looms large. That case was deemed to have given Everton a sporting advantage, and the same logic could be applied here.

City are expected to appeal the ruling, meaning any legal action from rival clubs will have to wait until the process is complete. But that hasn't stopped them from piling on, and more are likely to follow as the case goes on.

City remain insistent on their innocence. For now, the club is left to prepare for the resumption of domestic football with the threat of further sanctions hanging over them.

When Sheikh Mansour bought Manchester City in 2008, he installed a chairman who has since become the one fixed point in a club that has changed beyond recognition. Khaldoon Al Mubarak has held that role for 18 years. Managers have come and gone. Executives have cycled through the Etihad. He has stayed.

That continuity matters more than ever now. On Saturday, Al Mubarak issued a letter in his capacity as City chairman, addressing the ongoing case that has hung over the club. He insisted the process had a long way to run and reiterated the club's determination to prove its innocence.

It was a rare public intervention from a man who has spent almost two decades as the face of City's ownership without ever courting the spotlight. Where others in his position might have sought the cameras, Al Mubarak has preferred the boardroom.

A Portfolio Far Beyond Football

The scale of his other responsibilities offers some context. Al Mubarak is managing director and group chief executive of Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi's sovereign investment company. Mubadala manages around $330bn in assets across more than 50 countries.

His official Mubadala biography describes him as an influential UAE government policymaker. He chairs Abu Dhabi's Executive Affairs Authority, which provides strategic policy advice to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi. He sits on the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs. His wider responsibilities extend across investment, banking, energy and technology.

None of which is to suggest football is a side project. In 2013, Al Mubarak became the founding chairman of City Football Group, the umbrella organisation that has grown to encompass clubs including Manchester City, New York City FC and Melbourne City. What began as a single club takeover has become a global football operation.

Why the Letter Matters

The Independent has highlighted previously reported exchanges involving Abu Dhabi and the British government, including leaked material in which Al Mubarak was said to have warned that diplomatic conversations could become more difficult if City faced action regarded as unjust.

That is the backdrop to Saturday's letter. Al Mubarak did not choose to speak. He issued a statement as chairman because the moment demanded it. The process, he said, has a long way to run. And City, he insisted, are determined to prove their innocence.

For a man who has spent 18 years as the public face of the ownership, it was a reminder that when the serious moments arrive, he is the one who speaks. Managers change. Executives change. The chairman remains.