DO WE HAVE TO PUT AN ASTERISK AFTER CITY TROPHIES...

and how long will Pep stick around?

It goes against everything they claim to stand for, against everything they have told us

THERE has been an asterisk against much of Manchester City’s recent achievement ever since UEFA opened their investigation against the English champions in 2018.

If our most successful modern club have assembled their haul of trophies by cheating the system then does any of it really count?

This will be the question pondered with some enthusiasm by City’s rivals at home and across the continent over the weekend and we already know the conclusion they will reach. They will forever believe that City — in the middle portion of Abu Dhabi ownership at least — have bought their success by foul means.

In terms of reputation, UEFA’s judgment last night is bordering on catastrophic for City.

It goes against everything they claim to stand for, against everything they have told us. It means — if all appeals subsequently fail — that history will have to be rewritten. Wherever they go, a whiff of dishonesty will follow.

But the implications for City this morning go beyond those concerning credibility and fairness. They reach deep inside the most fundamental part of the club and tap manager Pep Guardiola squarely on the shoulder. Yes, this is about numbers and pound signs and interpretations of complicated UEFA regulations that may not have been terribly well thought-out in the first place. But this is about football, too, and this may yet be the greatest threat to City of all.

Guardiola, for all his preaching about style and the development of footballers, is a coach who exists to win. Like all the great football people, second is nowhere to Guardiola.

He has won handsomely in England — two Premier Leagues and three domestic cups in three full seasons — but has fallen short in Europe. He has not won the Champions League since 2011, two managerial postings ago.

That is almost a nine-year cycle that a coach who arrived in England at the peak of his powers remains obsessively desperate to break. Yet, as it stands this morning, the Catalan — who will be 50 next year — is now quite literally out of the game.

The practicalities and the complexities of football’s legal system will mean that what will surely be a drawn-out appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport could yet see them play European football next season. But beyond that? Nobody — least of all Guardiola — can really be so sure.

As of last night, they are no longer members of the elite club. From Guardiola’s point of view, he might just as well be coaching on the moon.

Contracted to the club until the end of next season, Guardiola has recently been giving a Kevin De Bruyne body swerve to questions about his future. Maybe now we understand part of the reason why.

This is Guardiola’s fourth season at City as it is. If he doesn’t win the Champions League this time, how long will he wait? Two more years before he gets to have another go? It seems rather unlikely.

So this feels like a tipping point for City and their manager and just as club officials will now seek to protect and project their reputation, so will he.

A self-proclaimed man of principle, Guardiola has faced questions about the transparency of his employers’ conduct before and has understandably hidden behind the fact that UEFA had proven nothing.

But what now? Where does this leave a man who for so long has constructed a reputation around the most earthy, balletic beauties of our sport? What will it say about his achievements here if they were — in part at least — purchased on the never-never?

This is Guardiola’s quandary now. He has friends at City. That, to some extent, is why he is here in the first place. They have been telling him for a while to ignore the noise, that UEFA’s fair play rules have always been designed to punish the upwardly mobile anyway.

And they may have had a point. Strip it all away and much of this does not seem terribly fair. But that is of no comfort to Guardiola this morning.

City might not have liked the rules but they did know about them from the get-go. It may will be that this is where this business eventually starts and ends.

This story will certainly play out for a good while yet. City’s aggressive stance last nightht — and the fact that UEFA suggest est they have never really complied mn with the investigation — suggests that the club always suspected this is where it was heading.

They believe they are victims in this and in some quarters they will find a sympathetic ear.

But their manager never r really did like to hang around nd in one place for too long.

He now has his own reputation ation to think about. If he wants to push against the door, he now findss that it is already partly open.