Pep Guardiola vows to stay at Man City as he calls for quick resolution over Premier League charges

Pep Guardiola saying he won't walk away from Manchester City while they remain under investigation for financial breaches, but has called on lawyers and the Premier League to get on with the process to clear the cloud of suspicion over the club. I will stay next season. Will you be here next season? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will stay next season when 100 breaches for the Premier League ends us. Don't worry. We will be there. I know firmly what we want, we want on the pitch because we deserve it. So let's go. Come on. 24 hours. Sit down. Talk. Both sides. Lawyers. Present. Don't wait one year, two years. Why don't we do it quickly? Come on. And as soon as possible. For the benefit for everyone. We want to defend our principles and if the people doubt, it's OK. So let's go. Let's do it as soon as possible. Please. They will love it. Yeah, Jason, it's the big story, isn't it? The sun goes with Pep sorted out now. We heard the words there. 115 allegations against Manchester City from 2009 to 2018. Does he mirror a lot of people's sentiments in the game when he says that it needs to be resolved soon? Absolutely. I was at the game on Sunday and one of the pieces I was actually asked to write was addressing this very issue. We know that's a surreal situation in a way, obviously Manchester City being presented with the Premier League trophy by Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League and obviously has who has brought the Premier League, brought the charges against Manchester City. So we've got this kind of strange situation where it is a cloud. It's a cloud over Manchester City. It's a cloud over the Premier League. Some people are talking about there being an asterisk next to the sort of the trophies that Manchester City are winning at the moment. So it's causing an awful lot of upset at City. Obviously, Beaman did not deny all the charges. And one thing that is causing a great deal of confusion and a great deal of frustration is just how long this is all taking. It's taken us an awful long time to get the charges brought against Manchester City and legal experts are talking about two to four years now. And that's incredibly frustrating that we're going to have to probably wait that length of time with this yes, but always associated with Manchester City. There'll be those people who just assume they are guilty. There will be those Manchester City fans who are absolutely vehement. They are innocent. And until we know the truth with the inquiry from the Premier League, we're going to have this question. Always. Everything that Manchester City do is going to be affected by this. And it's very difficult. I'm sure Tom finds this. Well, it's very difficult as a sports writer to try and get the balance sometimes between talking about Manchester City as a fantastic football team, a brilliant manager who speaks so eloquently as he did again today. And yet, you know, this accusation, these accusations, 115 charges, which are a lot of charges and 30 of these charges involve basically a failure to comply with the inquiry, which goes to the heart of what Guardiola is talking about in terms of having it dealt with tomorrow. Well, I guess a lot of people would say, well, what about Manchester City's part in this and whether or not they've been obstructive or helpful? And it just becomes a very difficult situation all round. And unfortunately, the pace of change in the Premier League and what's happening here is outstripping the possibility of justice being done quickly. You know, we have such a complicated case and it won't be expedited quickly or will be years rather than months, unfortunately. And that's just we're going to have to live with it for the next season or two. Yeah, Tom, you want to pick up on that point about the time scale, whether Guardiola might be worth speaking to his own lawyers, because this is in the Telegraph, Jason's paper by James Ducker, Northern Football correspondent, Guardiola judge, FFP case now. But in here, in the third paragraph, it's emerged last week City had lodged legal challenges against the charges and disputed of the Arsenal supporting barrister who's heading up the disciplinary process in a move that could further delay a case. Legal experts have estimated that could take two to four years to resolve. Do you feel that Guardiola's hopes for a resolution then may drag on a bit? Absolutely. Yeah, I fear this is the one wish that Pep Guardiola might not be granted at Manchester City. It was it was only last week that City lodged those series of legal challenges against the 115 breaches, which included disputing the legality of the investigation and the involvement of the barrister who supports Arsenal. And the result of that is that it's going to make the process even longer than it would have been. And it's hard because we don't have precedent. It's hard to work out how long this is going to take. But when you look down at the championship, the process has taken between 18 months and two years. So I don't think this is going to be resolved as quickly as Pep Guardiola wants it to be. And I even wonder, despite him talking about being here next season, I wonder whether this could end up being the thing that pushes him out of the club, that this lingers, these clouds above him and the asterisks against every title he wins, the constant questioning. He hasn't experienced this before at other clubs. And I wonder whether that will break on him so much that he does end up getting so frustrated he leaves. Yeah, Jason, I suppose that's something Guardiola has talked about. Roberto de Zerbi's legacy, hasn't he? But it's clear legacy is important to him. Will he not like this asterisk hanging over the achievements? Is that the root of his comments here in an extent? Yeah, yeah, to a degree. Absolutely. But I actually think, knowing a bit about him, that he might go the other way and he might actually use this as a reason to stay because he'll feel this is unjust and he'll want this sorted out and he won't want to walk away in the current situation. However, if they are found guilty, I think that will make a big difference to Pep Guardiola because he will feel he's been misled by Manchester City. And I think at that point, I'd be very, very surprised if he stays at Manchester City, because obviously he has taken them at their word and that they are innocent. And he has he has believed them and they've been very forceful in the case they put to him. But I think to the outside world, he will almost feel it's them against us, that I have to fight for my club, I have to fight for my people. And he did that very passionately, if you remember, when the charges were brought in the first place. And I think today's press conference was an extension of that. It was another example of him saying, look, if we are if we're going to fight this, if we're going to find out whether we're innocent or guilty, let's get on with it now. And I think he's obviously showing his frustration, but also his passion for the club and for the cause. So I think it possibly might drive him to stay longer, really. The feeling that, you know, the world is against him and against Manchester City. Jason, still with you, stay with your Telegraph paper as well. And this isn't just Manchester City being affected by the situation, is that Everton's survival may only put off Day of Reckoning. Just consider this as well, because presumably Leeds and Leicester in particular are frustrated by the lack of clarity over Everton's situation. Yeah, and this goes to the point I've already made about how the Premier League is almost outstripping the possibility of, you know, these things being checked. So far, we've got the profit and sustainability rules. And obviously the allegation is that Everton have breached those. And I think when those charges were brought two months ago today, actually, I think there was a hope from some of the clubs, obviously, who are also threatened with allegation that it might be expedited quite quickly. And obviously they would hope that it would be a sanction involving points deduction. Now, that's never actually happened before in the Premier League in this sort of case. But unfortunately for them anyway, we're going to go into next season. It looks like with that case not being dealt with, at which time Everton could be a Premier League club or a championship club, or they could be championship clubs. And then how will they feel about the fact that Everton say they are found guilty, are punished, possibly with a point deduction. The points could have made the difference and kept either of Leicester or Leeds up. So it's an incredibly complex situation. And unfortunately, it just can't be dealt with quickly enough. Obviously, it's gone to now to an independent inquiry outside the Premier League's hands. So that is just going to have to be due process. But unfortunately, we just can't get this handled quickly enough to be dealt with this season. Obviously, you'd want it to be dealt with in this way. And we almost had this sort of situation last year, if you remember, with Burnley as well. Obviously, question marks over their finances. So the financial complications around clubs in the Premier League are so great and so complex now that it's causing all sorts of headaches at the top and the bottom of the table. Is it diminishing the Premier League, do you think, Jason, in terms of its status and the appeal? Yeah, it's a really good point. I mean, diminishing it, it's a hard accusation to level on the Premier League. But it's not satisfactory, is it, really, that we've got the situation we've got last weekend. We had the Premier League champions crowned and yet there were those question marks over their finances. This weekend, we'll have two clubs going down and one may survive with a question mark over its finances. So it's not right, really. And it can't be something the Premier League likes in terms of the look. It doesn't look great around the world. We've just seen with Juventus in Italy, the mess they've made that the Italian authorities have made of the points deduction with Juventus. They docked them 15 points. They restored them 15 points. They docked them 10 points again last night. We don't want that sort of scenario. So maybe the accusation level in Italy is they've dealt with it too quickly. So we don't want that to happen either. But at the same time, it is it is tainting the Premier League.