OUR CHIEF SPORTS WRITER TAKES AIM AT ALL THE BIG ISSUES
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IN THE well planned world of Pep Guardiola, he was expecting to lift the Champions League trophy in Istanbul tomorrow night.
But even someone as maddeningly meticulous as Guardiola couldn’t see Covid-19 coming, leaving those best-laid plans in tatters.
Yet the Manchester City boss is not about to give up on his dream of landing the biggest prize in club football for a third time as a manager and lead his club to their ‘Holy Grail.’
There’s no doubting Guardiola’s obsession with getting his hands on the cup Brian Clough once dubbed ‘Big Ears’ again remains as fierce as ever.
We got a little insight into this last week when his squad was the last to return to training following the green light to do so by the Government and Premier League.
With Liverpool out of sight in the title race, this told us Guardiola now regards the league campaign as being written off. All he is bothered about now is fine-tuning his stars for another assault on their footballing
Everest. City can still become kings of Europe, of course, and the path to the Ataturk Olympic Stadium is open for them.
The reigning Premier League champions have one foot in the quarter-finals following a stunning 2-1 win at Real Madrid in the first leg of their last-16 clash.
Elsewhere, holders Liverpool, City’s new nemesis, have crashed out, Barcelona are not the force of old and once European specialists Real are dispensed with there would be little left for Guardiola’s men to fear.
But there IS much to fear – and here’s why. Should City go on to win the competition, then there will always be a huge asterisk alongside the achievement.
For starters, if City triumph in Turkey there will be no fans there to witness it. To make matters worse, City could well be striding up to collect their silverware having been thrown out of next season’s competition.
Their appeal against a two-year ban from European club competition from UEFA for committing “serious breaches” of FFP rules will begin on June 8 at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
With the Champions League scheduled to be completed in August, would UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin even be willing to hand over the trophy to City captain David Silva and allow it to be taken back to Manchester if the winners aren’t even allowed to defend it?
City know winning the Champions League would leave UEFA in a hugely embarrassing situation, yet with no fans expected to be able to attend games next season as well as this one, would the potential offer from CAS of a 12-month ban be such a bad thing for Etihad bosses to accept?
This would be tantamount to City admitting guilt, so is unlikely to happen, but there’s no hiding from the fact football could be heading towards a truly farcical situation.
And if the ticker tape rains down on City this summer, it will be well and truly tainted.
THE words of Jose Mourinho will have set alarm bells ringing in the ears of Tottenham superstar Harry Kane.
Spurs boss Mourinho believes the days of Premier League clubs spending “rivers of money” should be over because of the coronavirus.
Mourinho doesn’t expect his club to spend big in the transfer market and warned other clubs should also be respectful because of the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic.
The Portuguese believes he will have to deal in free transfers, loans and swap deals instead.
This might be true, it might not be, because there’s no doubt Manchester United and City will continue to spend big, despite the difficult circumstances ahead.
But even if Mourinho does have to turn into a wheeler dealer, he would be better served keeping the prospect to himself, because what he said will have done little to make striker Kane think Spurs remains the right home for him.
The north London club need serious quality if they are to challenge for the top honours – and Kane wants to see evidence the club has ambitions to match his own.
The Three Lions captain might just have his answer now.
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