Pep Guardiola is expected back at the Etihad Stadium next week, and the timing of the visit is doing a lot of work. Manchester City host Paris St-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday 14 October. It will be the club's first home match since an independent commission found them guilty of the majority of the 115 charges brought by the Premier League, and the first time Guardiola has been back since he walked away at the end of last season.
He is set to watch from the stands rather than the touchline. Enzo Maresca is the man in the dugout now.
A homecoming nobody planned this way
Guardiola spent a decade in charge at City and left with six Premier League titles, including a run of four in a row from 2020-21, plus the Champions League, three FA Cups and five League Cups. A return of any kind was always going to be an occasion. Returning in the middle of the worst week in the club's modern history is something else.
Earlier this month the commission ruled against City on breaches of financial regulations covering the seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The report stated the club had falsely inflated commercial revenues by 830 million pounds through what it called "sham" contracts. City continue to deny wrongdoing and have appealed.
Guardiola's position has not moved
The 55-year-old did not hedge in the aftermath. He posted a message backing the owners and the leadership, naming chief executive Ferran Soriano, the chairman, the players, staff, Maresca and the supporters, and said he was behind the club more than ever. "We will get through this together," he wrote.
That is consistent with what he said while still in the job. Asked about the charges in November 2024, Guardiola said he would still be there even if City were relegated. He is no longer there in any professional sense, which arguably makes turning up at a Champions League night the more pointed gesture.
Two weeks that will set the tone
City come out of a three-week international break into a fixture list that offers no gentle reintroduction. Maresca takes his side to Anfield on Sunday to face Liverpool at 16:30 BST, in an away end and an atmosphere that will not need any extra provocation. PSG, the reigning European champions, arrive three days later.
Senior figures in the English game have already voiced concern that City could line up in next season's Champions League even if the eventual punishment includes relegation. Nothing about that is settled while the appeal runs. What is settled is the picture next Wednesday: a full Etihad, European holders in the away dressing room, and the manager who built the era now under scrutiny sitting among the crowd.
Fixture context: Liverpool v Manchester City, Premier League, Sunday 11 October, 16:30 BST. Manchester City v Paris St-Germain, Champions League, Wednesday 14 October, Etihad Stadium. Guardiola, 55, managed City from 2016 until the end of last season, winning six Premier League titles, the Champions League, three FA Cups and five League Cups.
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