This feels very different to the UEFA episode. Make no bones about it this is a complete witch hunt. During the last legal battle the owners/club remained dignified and followed the legal advice by remaining quiet and reserved through the media. What concerns me with the PL charges - being so many of them - is that this is an outright attack on the very fabric of the club, the soul of our beloved City is under siege. The press have been briefed and have gone into full vulture mode. I simply cannot believe that our owners after following the highest paid advice about the business would be so stupid to flout the rules so blatantly.
For me the time has come to fight fire with fire. We must get in front of this today. This will not go away and we need something more than a paragraph or two stating surprise at timings etc. We need a blunt media briefing denying it all. We are a professionally run organisation but one thing has always irked me - our media & communications team are not the greatest. From getting players name to pictures wrong on the official website to most importantly a reserved approach to many journalistic whispers of how bad an oil run club is - we have been treated at times like the devil and yet not once have really gone at the media about it.
I really hope that we don't, through any appeals process, take a plea and accept even one or two charges taking a fine or a small point deduction. This is different to Juve or Rangers cases because we know any admission no matter how minor will stick with us forever. There are those who are fully determined to ruin our club and send us back to where they see we deserve to be. Any admission of guilt will stay and our success will always be tainted. For this reason alone the club if truly innocent, need to act.
They need to publicly make a statement denying it all. They need to infer that there are fractions behind these accusations. They need to call out the role of other clubs in trying to stop us. They need to state how the club have always been run and what positives have been achieved for the community. They need to remind many how they have not run the club through debt.
Of course if they have conducted the business in line with other organisations, accepted standard practices if you will that blur the lines of legality they need to call out their advisors and accountants that must be party to it. They must similarly call out other clubs who follow similar industry practices. Yes they may risk action against such accusations but as I said this is a co-ordinated attack on our soul.
I'm not a legal guy but one thing is clear any amount of shit sticks and they need to act to stop it now. They must not let the manager or the players have to be the face of their club. I'm sure many fans like me have been inundated with friends who follow other teams jumping all over this with wild insinuations - easy to ignore but not nice to defend from afar.
Finally I know they will try and keep the playing and business side separate but perhaps we will learn a bit from the Villa game. If as with the last UEFA attack they come out and play as if under a siege we will know the exact discussions between owners and team. If the play with apathy or a resignation of the inevitable we should all be worried. I have to think it will be the former. Pep himself has shown signs of fatigue in recent weeks so I just hope he's up for another fight against the integrity of our success.