Pep Guardiola is no longer the manager of Manchester City, of course, but his ties to the club will never be severed. He had too much success to easily be forgotten. He has also stood up for City despite a recent guilty verdict on financial fair play charges. But he likely will have to answer more questions next week.
That is because Guardiola will be attending Man City's next Champions League match, which will be on Wednesday, October 14, at Etihad Stadium against Paris Saint-Germain. The positive part is that the match is at home, but if Pep meets with reporters, he will likely need to set a lot of time aside to give his answers.
He might be wise to just avoid speaking with the media. He obviously isn't shy and isn't going to back down from what reporters are asking, but he might be limited in what he can say about the club's recent issue.
Pep Guardiola set to be at the Manchester City-PSG match next week
Guardiola has already said he would defend the club that employed him for most of a decade. The timeframe of the charges City was found guilty of did encompass Guardiola's tenure as manager, but only the first couple of years. The timespan of the alleged rule-breaking was from 2009 to 2018. Most of that did not involve Guardiola.
How much he knew and how much he didn't remains in question, and he might have known very little. That doesn't mean reporters aren't going to ask him about the situation when he reportedly appears to watch City take on PSG. Perhaps he is watching from a box somewhere and is not in a situation to have to answer queries.
To be fair to Pep Guardiola, while he won 20 trophies with Manchester City, most of those came after the years in question. Of his six Premier League titles, five came after the 2017/18 season. The season he led City to the Champions League title was 2022/23.
Maybe one of the sanctions against Man City will be to take titles away during the time span the accusations were said to have occurred, but if titles are stripped, that shouldn't include most of Guardiola's. At least, one could think that should be the case.
The truth is, the foreseeable future is going to be full of Manchester City drama. When will the appeal of the guilty verdict be heard? When will any punishment be decided? What will happen in the upcoming matches -- will players be distracted by what is going on? Lastly, what, if anything, will Guardiola say to the press when he attends City versus PSG next week?
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