I want to start this off with a HUGE disclaimer: I never have been, and never will be, an expert on anything sport-related. I am not claiming to be an expert on the Premier League, and this article is written with love toward any professional footballer, athlete etc etc, it’s a hard job and certainly not one I could do in this lifetime or the next. With that being said, I am here today to give you a rundown on what is currently happening in the Premier League (PL), specifically in regard to one team: Manchester City.
A bit of brief history for those of you who aren’t familiar with the team:
For people who grew up watching football throughout the 90s, Manchester City weren’t known to be a particularly strong team, and they were regarded as the working man’s club in Manchester (as opposed to the other PL team Manchester United). Manchester City spent quite a bit of time being relegated and promoted among leagues (essentially going up to a better league or down to a worse, depending on how they were doing) but made their final promotion to the Premier League (the top football division for UK teams) in 2002 where they have since stayed. Twenty-two years later and Manchester City has won the Premier League six times in the last seven seasons. Without doubt they’re a strong team with some class players including Haaland, Foden, Rodri, and Grealish, yet in the world of football this could be regarded as a pretty quick rise from the bottom to tippy-top. So how did this happen? A large part of City’s success can be attributed to the financial takeover of 2008, when The Abu Dhabi United Group took over a controlling share of the team. They were able to pump some serious funds into the team which then allowed them to bring in some top players (i.e., Jack Grealish was bought from Aston Villa for a cool £100 million – we’re talking MONEY). They also have been under the guidance of manager Pep Guardiola from 2016. Pep led them to Premier League victory in his second season with them and has maintained the strength from there. So, it seems like everything is going fine and dandy for this team – what’s there to write about? Let’s break it down into three categories: Money, Comments, Performance.
Money:
As mentioned above, money is not an issue for Manchester City, at least not in the sense that they’re left wanting for it. However, remember how I mentioned they were originally a working man’s club? The sudden influx of literally millions upon millions of pounds has not been looked upon kindly by all involved. Now, the validity of making comments about the expenditure of money in the Premier League is a whole other article. People on the whole seem to dislike how money has come to play such a large factor in a teams success – to that I am tempted to say either, choose a different (underfunded) sport, or watch the women’s teams – I can’t foresee too much money being an issue there just yet. However, further than general disgruntlement, there are currently legal investigations into whether Manchester City breached Premier League rules regarding finances. The alleged breaches cover an array of activities from sponsorship to player salaries and covers an entire 9 year period. The proceedings are currently at the hearing stage, however the club is facing potential repercussions including fines or even relegation (being dropped down to a lower league). This leads us nicely onto our next section…
Comments:
Footballers and their managers are regularly interviewed post-match (on a completely unrelated note, if you feel like watching peak interview search Cole Palmer chippy chips), footballers also have their fair share of heated conversations on and off the pitch. What I’m trying to say is that many, many, many comments are made to, by, and about footballers, managers, and clubs every day of the year. We are going to focus on just two especially pertinent comments which seem to have (maybe) cursed the Man City team over the past couple of weeks.
Firstly, let’s consider what Pep Guardiola said. As discussed above, Man City are facing some pretty harsh punishment for their possible financial rule breaking. Of course, this has been a hot topic in interviews with the team and manager. Recently, Guardiola was asked whether he would stay with the team, eliciting the following response:
“I said when all the clubs accused us of doing something wrong and people say ‘what happens if we are relegated? ‘ I will be here. “I don’t know the position they are going to bring us, the Conference? [But] next year we will come up and come up and come back to the Premier League. “I knew it then, I feel it now.”
Okay… Kind of noble right? He’s a committed guy who wants to stick with his team (not always the case in these sorts of situations). However, when discussed in relation to performance it’s suddenly a little concerning. More on that in a second, I want to quickly unpack the other comment before we get onto that.
So, remember Haaland? I mentioned him as a notable City player above and he really is pretty damn good. Born in Leeds, Haaland is a 24-year old Norwegian footballer who transferred to Manchester City in 2022 (£50 million approximately that cost them). His first season with the team he broke the record for most goals scored by a player in one season. That same season he won both Premier League Young Player and Player of the Season – the first person to win both awards at once. He has won multiple awards and been nominated for many others including the Ballon d’Or (best player of the year; previous winners include Messi and Ronaldo). Safe to say he’s a pretty good footballer and seemingly not too bad of a guy. However, let’s remember this is football and this is a 24-year-old who is being treated like he’s a god (fairly so perhaps? Not the point). What I’m getting at here is that it’s hardly surprising that he came out with a comment that in retrospect was a) arrogant and b) not particularly smart. The comment in question arose after Manchester City produced a 2-2 draw against Arsenal (aka The Gunners, another Premier League team doing fairly well this season). Following the match Haaland was caught on camera saying the following quote to Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager:
“Stay humble eh”
Is this a totally diabolical thing to say? Probably not. Knowing what football supporters are like it probably wasn’t even in the top 10 rudest things said that minute. However, it was uncalled for (you just drew???) and it’s pretty out the gate for a player to say that to another team’s manager. At the time the Arsenal players and supporters were pretty upset by the cheek of the comment and it made Haaland a little less popular than he was before. Though initially causing some pretty hot reactions, it seemed that the issue would probably blow over in a matter of days, possibly weeks for the more sensitive among us (football fans I am looking directly at you).
Unfortunately for Haaland, this turned out not to be the case
Performance:
I’m not sure whether Guardiola and Haaland came to an agreement regarding the timing and tone of their comments, or whether it was just a happy accident (or unhappy if you’re a City supporter). Essentially, since it was made Man City seem to have taken Pep’s comment as a challenge to test his loyalty – more or less “let’s get ourselves relegated to see if he’ll actually stay, even if the court case goes our way”.
Alright, so that’s possibly a little unfair, City are nowhere near the relegation zone (bottom three teams in the league), they have however had a pretty bad run of it. Of their last 6 games they’ve drawn one and lost five, and in two of those losses they conceded four goals to the opposing team (losing 0-4 to Tottenham Hotspur and 4-1 to Sporting CP). Not only this, but Haaland himself has done pretty poorly (in relation to his usual performances) – since the draw with Arsenal he’s played the full 90 minutes in eight Premier League matches yet has only scored four goals, two of which were scored in the most recent game. Apparently, according to fans far more dedicated than I, prior to their most recent match, Haaland was scoring 75% less than would be expected with the number of shots taken. Admittedly, the man is still doing far better in these games than approximately 99% of the population are capable of BUT nobody but Haaland made that “stay humble” comment. In true nature of British pettiness, this is of course something that people, particularly Arsenal fans, are delighted in reminding Haaland of after every game that City has lost or drawn. Just check out his instagram, it’s comment upon comment of “stay humble eh?” or something along those lines.
So, what does this all mean? In terms of the comments and performance, nothing much. Haaland proved he’s a bit too big for his boots, and Guardiola proved he’s loyal and that’s about it for now. Realistically, there are approximately 6 months left in the Premier League ‘24-’25 season, a few less than ideal results don’t necessarily mean too much. Manchester City have plenty of time to turn things around (fingers crossed they won’t). Granted, the results of the allegations against them will have some more weight. However, in all likelihood, even if they are relegated to the Championship League (the next league down) they will find themselves promoted at the first opportunity. Selfishly, I hope to see their bad luck continue just a little longer as they are playing the mighty Liverpool FC on Sunday and I would love nothing more than to see Van Dijk (Liverpool captain) and the reds come out on top of that. If, by writing this article I have accidentally jinxed Liverpool then apologies in advance.
Let’s take this as a lesson for us all; keep your finances above board, keep rude comments to yourself, and your performance will do all the talking for you.
Image | Football London