It feels like my club, Manchester City, have sailed into stormy seas this week, both on and off the field.

I will always believe it’s great to be a Blue, that will never waver, but these are the weeks when that loyalty might be questioned.

Off the field, the Premier League has charged City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules, following a four year investigation.

It has referred the club to an independent commission which will announce its findings in due course, though that could still be a long time in the future. If found guilty, it’s possible that City could be fined, have points deducted or relegated from the Premier League.

The club’s reaction was to issue a statement that, “welcomes the review” and suggests that it will, “impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of it’s position”, and, “we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.” A very robust defence of their position. They reacted in a similar way when UEFA banned them for two years, from the Champions League, which City successfully overturned through the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday 13th July 2020.

The worrying thing, from my point of view, is that these charges date back to the Roberto Mancini era, which UEFA weren’t allowed to charge City for and CAS can’t be involved in the Premier League case, because of the rules City signed up to.

On the other hand, City will have the very best legal team defending them, so at this stage I don’t know which way this will go. It looks like it’ll take a while to be resolved so this will be hanging over the club officials, fans, coaching staff and players, which is not ideal.

City’s defeat at Spurs on Sunday somehow seems a little less important when so much potential reputational and financial damage is having over the club like the sword of Damocles. The Blues loss at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium had felt inevitable.

City have never won there or even scored a goal. When I spoke to City fans after the game, for my Youtube vlog, the message I received loud and clear, even from those who didn’t want to be on camera, was that something is wrong behind the scenes.

The sudden departure of Portugal International Joao Cancelo, right at the end of the January transfer window, was a shock to us all. Pep Guardiola only praised his departing defender at his first press conference after the story broke, but there are many rumours of training ground bust ups, involving other players too, although we can’t know the truth because we weren’t there.

What we can see, for ourselves, is that Cancelo’s countrymen, Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias haven’t been the regular starters they once were.

Dias is apparently fully fit again, but the one time first choice appears to have be bypassed by Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji and even Rico Lewis in recent games. I was puzzled by the absences of Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan at Spurs too.

Neither needed a rest, there hadn’t been a game for nine days and won’t be another until Sunday’s visit of Aston Villa. Prolific goalscorer Erling Haaland looked a frustrated figure at Spurs, without the accurate supply of KDB passes.

Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez can’t do what De Bruyne can, or even Gundogan or the mysteriously absent Phil Foden can.

City travel to Arsenal next Wednesday. If they lose there, I believe the title race is over. With the dark clouds hanging over the club right now, that’s the last thing they need.     

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