TAINTED LOVE?

FFP cloud casts a shadow over the brilliance of Brand Pep His verdict on the challenge facing the champions

WHEN Pep Guardiola joined Jurgen Klopp in the Premier League for the beginning of the 2016-17 season, you would not have backed the German to be the first of the pair to leave it.

Let’s be honest, many of us gave Pep three seasons in England, tops.

Not that anyone expected him to do badly and be sacked.

It was just that a lot of people thought three years of the sort of intensity Guardiola brings to the job would have to take its toll.

Oh, and three years of Manchester might have him pining for Catalonia.

Instead, it is Klopp who has grown tired, Klopp’s intensity that has left him fearing burn-out, Klopp who is saying goodbye.

Guardiola is carrying on and insists that he will see out his current contract, which expires in the summer of 2025, by which time he will have been in charge for nine seasons. It is becoming a dynasty. Not a Manchester dynasty of Alex Ferguson proportions, but a dynasty all the same and there are some suggestions Guardiola will soon be amenable to new contract discussions.

For him to have a decade in the Premier League would be remarkable and, in this post-treble season, there is nothing to even hint that his hunger has dissipated by any measure.

Who knows what his tally of Premier League titles will be when he does finally decide to either rest or look for a new challenge, or do both?

If Manchester City can win at Anfield this afternoon – and their record at that stadium suggests that remains a big ‘if’ – then it will represent a significant step towards Premier League title No.6.

But is there a danger that any of Pep’s titles will have an asterisk next to them in the history book?

Quite simply, we will not know, until hearings have taken place and verdicts have been reached on the Premier League charges City face – 115 of them, tabled 13 months ago.

Of the offences that are alleged to have taken place, the most recent is from 2018, when Pep had been at the coaching helm for less than a couple of years.

But, of course, the foundations for City’s success as a club were put down before Guardiola arrived, meaning the charges will be relevant, whenever the time comes to discuss Pep’s legacy.

If City are cleared of all charges, there is no asterisk, obviously.

But there WILL be, if they are convicted of any of them.

Will Guardiola’s genius as a coach be diminished if any of the charges are proven? Absolutely not.

Regardless of City’s finances, the brand of football Guardiola has brought to England – the brand that will be on display at Anfield this afternoon – has been something wondrous to behold.

But the bottom line is that, if City are found guilty of circumventing financial fair play regulations – and, remember, they vigorously deny any wrongdoing, are innocent until found guilty and, even in that eventuality, there would, no doubt, be an appeal – it would mean they have, at some stage, operated outside the same rules that Klopp’s Liverpool and others have had to stick to.

That is why history-defining occasions, such as the game that will take place today, should also act as a reminder that this matter needs sorting out, sooner rather than later.

Such is Klopp’s admiration for Guardiola and his work that the Liverpool manager would probably never point to a financial misdemeanour on Manchester City’s part as any reason why he has not won as many Premier League titles as his rival.

And there are probably quite a few impartial observers who would believe that any proven charges against City, should they come, would still not necessarily cast a shadow over Guardiola’s achievements.

But the game needs some sort of resolution to the City charges.

Preferably before Pep follows Klopp out of the Premier League exit door.

The game needs to know if, for all Guardiola’s unrivalled brilliance, his achievements are tainted.