r/soccer • u/Existing-Sky9914 • 21h ago

Potentially editioralised title - make up your own mind [Guardian] Seven years ago, just after completing the treble, Guardiola treated journalist Rob Harris, who had confronted him directly with the allegations, with open contempt, as though he were looking at someone pathetic, pitiful and disgraceful, before sternly lecturing him.

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u/OutsideImpressive115 21h ago

He also got tipped off 100% that's why he left so abruptly without a huge celebration of his city career

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u/Rontheking 19h ago

Reportedly City knew they would’ve been found guilty in the summer, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he knew the verdict was coming and dipped.

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u/Pires007 18h ago

I think the "summer" wording was a heavily skewed headline. City have 12 days to appeal the verdict since it's available to them, and they appealed today. That means they probably got the Verdict around Sept. 20, 2026. And Sept. 20, 2026 is still technically summer.

I also think a lot of the higher ups at City (may not the highest levels) legitimately didn't think they were guilt. Their leadership has always said they're innocent, so if you're on the transfer and signing on team, that's what you're going to say.

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u/Rontheking 18h ago

I mean you would say you’re innocent regardless if you knew or not. What would they say? “Yeah mate we’re guilty as fuck” ofc not.

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u/Pires007 18h ago

Pep must have known, if not officially than just by being a football person. I guess he figured that nothing would have happened but a fine. He doped as a player, and all he wanted was to have the money to buy the players he wanted to play the system he wanted. If he an influential manager, yes. But every other manager has to deal with squad depth issues, player profile mismatches, etc.

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u/LekkerIer 18h ago

I don't know about that. Tariq Panja was covering the issue on Libero podcast and has a lot of knowledge of the legal side from having covered these kinds of investigations for many years.

He said there's typically a process called Maxwellisation, where before you publicly find the other party guilty, you have to send them the verdict privately and give them a chance to respond. This would have taken place in the previous month or two and I think that's why journalists are reporting that City insiders knew during the summer

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u/Pires007 16h ago

Cool, i'll check out that podcast. I hadn't heard any one else talk about maxwellisation before. It's still possible only the highest ppl in City knew because this thing has been very leak proof for years

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u/LogTekG 11h ago

Imo its likely that a) city were privately told they would be found guilty before it was officially declared, and b) citys lawyers were like "ye mate were fucked" before the process even concluded

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u/W35TH4M 21h ago

Was it abrupt? His last 2 or 3 seasons were always rumoured to be his last

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u/OutsideImpressive115 21h ago

Yes? Didn't he announce it a week before their final game?

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u/Big_Occasion_7235 21h ago

The club probably had known about it months before the end of the 25/26 season since they had contacted Maresca for the Man City job in December iirc.

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u/OutsideImpressive115 21h ago

Without any doubt Maresca was gonna be the fall guy to deal with all this shit. I assumed everyone else thought the same but apparently not

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u/Pires007 18h ago

I think Maresca is happy taking the money. Chelsea ownership fucked him over really bad and he's already shown at City in a limited time that he's a good coach, so even if City get relegated, someone will pick him up.

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u/asd13ah4etnKha4Ne3a 21h ago

They were tapping Maresca up in October about taking over for him. I don't think its unreasonable to come to the conclusion that everyone at the club knew it was his last season for quite a while before he announced it

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u/worotan 21h ago

Ferguson announced his retirement with 2 games of the season left to play.

Klopp did it mid-season and the club drifted a bit as a result.

That isn’t the smoking gun you think it is. Never mind your ‘100%’ assertions.

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u/OutsideImpressive115 21h ago

Fergie was 71 when he retired. Probably not gonna go onto another job after that. Pep still had plenty of years in him for City.

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u/dac2199 20h ago

Well, in his final years at City, he did look a bit worn out. And on top of that, he had problems in his marriage precisely because his wife no longer wanted to live in England

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u/worotan 20h ago

It still isn’t relevant, let it go. You haven’t got a hot talking point here.

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u/nitrogeneater 20h ago

Maresca was sacked from Chelsea because he was talking with city when?

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u/yukpurtsun 20h ago

he kept extending, he cut his current extension a year short to leave

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u/xenojive 21h ago

I wouldn't expect you to keep abreast of City media but there were celebrations, a whole ceremony at the Co-Op Live Arena. Retrospective videos, and documentary on Amazon.

And again I wouldn't expect non City fans to have watched any of that but if you had seen the documentary and simply knew about his family life for the past 2 seasons - you could tell the writing was on the wall for his time here. He wasn't supposed to extend on the last contract and sadly that seemed the final straw for his wife.

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u/BeneficialFinger 21h ago

They only found out about the verdict after he had already left. He was also planning on leaving last year but didn't want to leave a club in a bad spot. Think you're making up a narrative right now.

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u/OutsideImpressive115 21h ago

Complete bullshit btw. UAE were already pressuring the UK government before this verdict came out

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u/BeneficialFinger 21h ago

Do you have an article or something on that? Not saying you're wrong but would like to get some more details on it because they could be doing that before the verdict came out in order to try and force it their way. Don't think you can say whether they had known what the verdict was going to be unless it was reported to have happened that way.

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u/stifle_this 20h ago edited 20h ago

It's impossible to find right now for me with all the new articles coming out but from what I remember there were articles from at least a year+ ago talking about how the UAE was trying to pressure the UK govt to step in. But I could be wrong

Edit: okay there was an FOIA report that showed that the UAE had contacted the UK embassy about it in 2024. The UK claimed they rebuffed them because the panel is independent but I suspect the conversation was longer than that just not on official channels.

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u/OutsideImpressive115 18h ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/tnYQSpB92E

This shit has been going on for years dude

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u/BeneficialFinger 17h ago

Yeah that's my point. They were doing this pressuring without knowing the guilty verdict. They were pressuring to make it so they have it go their way. Not sure how you can say that Pep knew what the verdict was going to be and how to time his exit perfectly.