THE nightmare scenario has been staring Manchester City in the face for some time now.
If the Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds City’s two-year Champions League ban, leading players would surely be banging at the exit door.
Pep Guardiola has dropped the biggest hint yet he is ready to stay at Manchester CityCredit: PA:Press Association
And what about Pep Guardiola, with just a year left on his Etihad contract? Would he really have the motivation to continue?
There has been much muttering on football’s grapevine about the Catalan during the lockdown.
In early April, Guardiola had been devastated by the death of his 82-year-old mother, who had contracted coronavirus.
Such a loss would have made many people re-evaluate their lives and it was said that, quite understandably, Guardiola had little appetite for the Premier League’s Project Restart.
It can hardly have helped that City’s remaining league campaign effectively consists of ten dead rubbers.
Even if they are allowed in Europe next season, they cannot realistically finish outside the top four.
And, of course, they have no chance of catching Liverpool — the runaway leaders who will probably be confirmed as champions even before their Etihad trip on July 2.
Although, there has been some black humour inside City about social-distancing measures meaning they may not have to offer the customary guard of honour to Jurgen Klopp’s team.
The appointment of Juanma Lillo is a significant one to the future of the Man City bossCredit: Getty Images – Getty
City were the final Premier League club to return to training last month, another suggestion that motivation levels might not be at their highest.
So while the name of Juanma Lillo may be unfamiliar to most English football fans, his appointment last week as Guardiola’s new No 2 is a significant one.
The nomadic Lillo — a Kevin Keegan lookalike who has managed in China, Japan, Colombia, Chile and Mexico, as well as his native Spain — has a patchy record. But he is held in the highest esteem by Guardiola.
Lillo is one of those men spoken about in coaching circles as if he were some sort of Jedi Knight.
He began managing in the Spanish fourth division at the age of 20 and was a pioneer of the 4-2-3-1 formation which has since become football’s stock in trade.
Guardiola worked under Lillo at the end of his own playing career with Mexican club Dorados de Sinaloa and the curly-haired Obi-Wan Kenobi character became his mentor as a coach.
Dorados were relegated under Lillo and Guardiola actually got his guru the sack as manager of Almeria in 2010 after his Barcelona inflicted an 8-0 home defeat.
Yet Guardiola swears by his fellow footballing obsessive and so Lillo’s appointment, in place of Mikel Arteta, is the strongest suggestion yet that City’s manager has no desire to walk out before the end of his contract.
This is not the action of a manager preparing to skidaddle — whatever the outcome of this week’s secretive CAS hearing in Lausanne.
City’s lawyers were hard at work yesterday trying to persuade an unnamed tribunal — of course, justice is never seen to be done in football — that the club were not guilty of serious breaches of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules.
They would probably erect a statue of their eminent QC, David Pannick, if he gets them off the hook.
No Lawman would be so highly regarded at City since Denis Law helped relegate Manchester United with a back-heel in 1974.
Since Uefa’s old romantics announced their punishment on Valentine’s night, City have been strangely confident of claiming what would be an unprecedented win over European football’s governing body.
They are convinced that they have been victimised by Uefa and that an independent hearing will clear them — no matter how much of an open-and-shut case it appeared to be, judging by email evidence gleaned by a Portuguese hacker.
Guardiola has been reassured of City’s innocence by a club hierarchy he has long trusted — and soon we will find out whether that trust has been misplaced.
Should City fail and face two years out of European competition, their silver-service assister Kevin De Bruyne has already admitted he will want out.
It is likely other key men will have similar feelings with Raheem Sterling appearing to have been making eyes at Real Madrid before lockdown.
With David Silva retiring, Vinny Kompany yet to have been properly replaced and all-time record scorer Sergio Aguero now 32, a changing of the guard was needed at City, even without another wave of uncertainty caused by a Uefa ban.
Had Guardiola been tempted to cut his losses and go — after setting a Premier League points record and securing a domestic Treble in the last two seasons — then the Abu Dhabi project would be facing the prospect of meltdown.
So whether or not Lillo is the genius Guardiola cracks him up to be, his arrival certainly alleviates the sense of impending doom around the Etihad.
For now it is over to the lawyers, but even defeat in court may not spell Armageddon for City.
FIT AS A FIDDLE
ACCORDING to one leading Premier League player, we should not be worried about players being ring-rusty and lacking fitness when Project Restart kicks off next week.
“From what I’ve heard, players have been running further and harder than ever during lockdown,” he tells me.
“It’s the only way they have been able to legitimately get out of the house.”
Pep Guardiola vows to come back ‘stronger, kinder and fatter’ in heartwarming plea to fans amid coronavirus crisis
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
