Manchester City Poised for Tough Year with Charges Heard and Pep’s Scheduled Departure

A lot can change in a year, of course, but City head into the campaign with a doomsday double-header of dilemmas.
It seems likely that their case regarding their alleged 115 financial rule breaches will be heard this year – a scenario that could see a number of sanctions imposed upon them.
And there’s also the spectre of Pep Guardiola’s contract, which is set to run out at the end of the season…
The Cityzens will head into the 2024/25 campaign with dreams of another double – at least.
They will kick off the season as favourites to win the Premier League title for a record fifth consecutive year, while the Champions League winner odds also make them the 5/2 market principle ahead of Real Madrid, Arsenal and Bayern Munich.
There will be no shortage of football tips columns predicting that they will achieve exactly that given the galaxy of talent at Pep’s disposal, but ructions off the pitch could yet play a part in undermining their efforts on it.
The Premier League have set the precedent with points deductions handed out to Everton and Nottingham Forest last term, while there’s a chance that Leicester City will also start the new campaign with a similar sanction hanging over them – but the consensus is that the trio’s flouting of Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR) is nowhere near as egregious as Manchester City’s.

The club’s hierarchy have done an excellent job of keeping the dire situation on the hush-hush, particularly given the severity of the charges against them – Premier League chiefs will argue that City have been ‘bending the truth’ of their financial reporting, and failing to assist the EPL’s investigations, for the best part of a decade.
If found guilty of some or all of the accusations, City could be hit with a points deduction so severe that relegation from the Premier League is inevitable – or they could be expelled from the EPL outright.
This is unchartered territory, which a potentially unchartered outcome to match…
Having watched his old ‘frenemy’ Jurgen Klopp sail into the sunset having left Liverpool at the end of last season, Pep will now be considering his options.
His contract runs out in May 2025 – so far, there’s been no movement on an extension and the Spaniard has spoken publicly of a lack of ‘motivation’ having won everything there is to win in Manchester.

It will be interesting to see if any forthcoming charges against City will galvanise Pep, perhaps forging a will to help get the club back to the top if they face a mammoth points deduction or enforced relegation.
But there’s also the lure of a move elsewhere – his former clubs, Barcelona and Bayern, are both struggling in their own individual ways and you wonder if an emotional return, particularly at Barca, would appeal.
It has been suggested that another club within the City Football Group network, Girona, could be forced to give up their head coach, Michel, to the Cityzens after he guided the unfashionable Spaniards to their highest-ever finish in 2023/24.
City’s cash-rich owners will move heaven and earth to keep Guardiola at the club beyond the end of his contract, but there’s only so much that money can buy – motivation is not a commodity that can be bought or sold.
And that could leave Manchester City with a double-headache come May 2025…