Ruling could end Guardiola’s dynasty
David Silva may not have picked a bad time to be leaving Manchester City after all.
This was always going to be the Spaniard’s final City campaign after a decade at the Etihad Stadium but, as the bombshell news of Uefa’s decision to ban the club from the Champions League for the next two seasons circulated, it seemed fair to wonder how many more will be carefully considering their futures in the weeks and months ahead.
Of course, that ban will effectively be put on hold once City appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and given the fury dripping from every line of their 168-word statement, that particular submission is likely to come quicker than midfielder Kevin De Bruyne sees a pass.
Yet that will not stop the questions from building and if Pep Guardiola, for one, thought he had been forced to field an inordinate number of questions about his future in recent times, the City manager might want to steel himself for what is to follow.
Until this point, Guardiola, short of being sacked, had been adamant he would see out his contract at City, which runs until the end of next season, despite the apparent presence of a break clause that would allow him to leave this off-season.
But the prospect of no Champions League football at City for the next two seasons would change everything and already the noises from the Catalan’s camp are that the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager will evaluate his position at the end of the season or once there is clarity from CAS.
That, in itself, is a shift in stance. does not mean Guardiola will
It depart — CAS may yet throw out Uefa’s case — but the idea of him moving to Juventus in the not-sodistant future is unlikely to be so readily dismissed now.
Still, would it not be ironic if Guardiola and City now went and won the Champions League this season, the very competition Uefa wants to eject them from?
So many things seem to be going wrong for City this season that their supporters are unlikely to be getting carried away by the thought. Trailing Liverpool by 22 points in the title race is suddenly the least of their worries.
Uefa’s decision threatens to throw an almighty spanner in the works. Not only would attracting the best players become doubly difficult, retaining their key assets could also become an issue. Top players want to compete for the biggest trophies.
There is unlikely to be much sympathy from City’s main Premier League rivals either, not when a Champions League ban would, under Uefa rules, effectively offer a route into Europe’s premier club competition for the side that finishes fifth in England’s top flight this term.