Will Manchester City's 115 charges ever get resolved? 🤔 | ESPN FC

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:03]Oh boy.

[00:00:04]>> Welcome in to the latest edition of Extra Time. We've got Jack and I. The reason I'm laughing is that we started the show 15 minutes late because of Robo's technical issues.

[00:00:13]>> And Robo is not the best technical person that no in the first place. Calm.

[00:00:18]He's not a calm influence either.

[00:00:20]>> When you think of calm and relaxed, >> patient, >> patient, Robo isn't the top of your list. How were you, Robo, during it all?

[00:00:29]I was completely calm. I knew it all come right in the air down my hand and somebody came up.

[00:00:35]>> I wasn't getting I wasn't having a hot flush. I wasn't getting agitated at all as you know. Dan, >> would I do would I be like that?

[00:00:44]>> Robo, I've seen you stress and it's very funny.

[00:00:47]>> Uh we've done this already. What are the thoughts on Athletic response on their social media platform and how they used AI to create fake offers for the likes of Pedri Lame and Rafinia? Are they just salty? I'm sure with all your social media accounts, you've been following this very closely, Robo.

[00:01:05]>> Oh, absolutely. Yeah, you know, all my social media accounts. Yeah, I'm all over it. I saw all the sort of sarcastic comments that uh that they made and uh yeah, it was it was quite funny, wasn't it, to start with. Um, will Alvarez go to Barcelona? That's the key question. I think he probably will in the end.

[00:01:22]>> There you are. Traditionally, Premier League manager of the year goes to the manager who won the league. But this season, so many outstanding small English teams winning European trophies or lead their club to European spots.

[00:01:33]Shouldn't the voters pick someone else?

[00:01:35]Who are these voters? And are they just lazy?

[00:01:39]>> Oh no.

[00:01:40]>> I think Arteta deserves everything he gets.

[00:01:45]>> That's not what you were saying a few weeks ago, Dan, is it?

[00:01:48]>> Sorry, Rob. You got technical issues again. to a second.

[00:01:55]>> So, they're either lazy or they're stupid.

[00:01:58]>> Oh, wow.

[00:01:59]>> And they're also different from the people before. I I I looked at this. Um, basically every single year, um, for like the last 12 or 13 years, it's been the guy who won the league. That's correct. The one exception was Jurgen Klopp, the the year he finished second on like 99 points. They said, "Oh, we can't give it to to to Pep again." Um, but what's really weird, there was a time immediately before that when they felt very different. I looked at the list of managers of the year and you had like Harry Rednap winning it.

[00:02:30]>> Wow.

[00:02:31]>> 2009, I think. Alan Paru, Tony Pulis winning it. Um so they go from making these let's say interesting choices um or or you know choices for clubs that had maybe overachieved with with more limited budgets to suddenly oh let's just give it to the winner. So, I don't know if somebody upstairs says like, "Guys, you've taken this too far. You're being stupid." Uh, and so they just decide to hand it to the winner, right?

[00:02:57]I think bottom line is Arteta is very good. He's not the only one who's been tremendous this season. Leola, pick your poison. There's a lot of guys who've done a phenomenal job.

[00:03:08]>> Who would you have, Robo?

[00:03:12]>> Who would I have? I think I have done a fantastic job at Bournemouth. They play good football. They've overachieved, I say. And they do spend a lot more money than people give them.

[00:03:20]>> Didn't win anything though, did he?

[00:03:21]Palace Palace won the Conference League.

[00:03:23]Villa won Europa League. Arsenal won the Premier League. Count. Yeah, that doesn't count, >> right?

[00:03:28]>> No, I'm going to go for Iola uh and the Brenford manager cuz Brenford at the beginning of the season when they lost their manager to Spurs. Do you know his name? Bend his ass to Thomas Frank.

[00:03:38]>> No, I don't off What impression he made. Give him the he did the best job. He did the best job. There we go.

[00:03:48]>> For Gab with 15.

[00:03:50]>> They finished much higher than they were meant to >> with that guy.

[00:03:54]>> Well, so did Sunderland. Everyone had Sunderland going.

[00:03:56]>> Keith Andrews. That's his name.

[00:03:58]>> Andrew for Gab. Oh dear. Serious Gab. Here we go.

[00:04:04]>> Oh boy.

[00:04:04]>> With 115 charges ever be settled in my lifetime? What's taken so long for a judgment?

[00:04:12]>> I wrote a whole article about this like a year ago. why it's taking so long.

[00:04:16]>> Did you miss it, Dan? Did you didn't read it?

[00:04:18]>> I I was looking up the Brenford manager.

[00:04:22]>> No, it's very simple. But the weird thing about this, and by the way, um I I saw somebody put up the stat, but Pep Guardiola was in Manchester City for 10 years. He spent seven and a half of those years under investigation. Uh, whatever way you think about it, whether you think the club are guilty or not guilty, nobody should be spending 7 and 12 years being investigated. Nobody. So, it's just so unacceptable that it's taking so long. The reality is nobody knows for certain. These three people have gone away. Um, it's been more than 15 months since deliberations, sorry, since uh uh since the case itself finished. They went away for 15 months and it's taken them this long to >> wow >> either figure out if Man City are guilty, if they're guilty, guilty of what, and then to write what they call the written reasons, which is kind of like the the legal thinking uh behind each one of the charges against them. Uh and they want to apparently make sure that uh it's the legal thinking is correct enough that it's not going to be challenged. So that's kind of the official answer. The unofficial answer is that these guys on the panel, they all have day jobs. Oh.

[00:05:38]>> And they're not getting paid that much to be on the panel and they have to they have mortgages to pay. So, they're not actually devoting this much time to going and producing the written reasons.

[00:05:49]Um because they might have other cases that they're involved in. I mean, they're lawyers after all. They're judges. So, the reason this is taking so long is that they're busy with other stuff and they're not prioritizing this.

[00:06:03]They already know, broadly speaking, you would hope, uh, how many of the charges uh, city are guilty are guilty of or not guilty of guilty of. Um, they just have to now take the time to do all that boring legal writing. Can't do that when you've got a day job.

[00:06:25]Okay, >> if you would have read the article, you would have gotten that whole breakdown.

[00:06:30]>> Guys, look, I'm sorry, but this really angers me. The bottom line, >> I'm not saying the Premier League is the most important thing in the world.

[00:06:40]>> But the bottom line is that it shouldn't take 15 months to determine the outcome of these things. 15 months, they're not talking to anybody. They're just sitting there with their legal books reviewing the testimony and the evidence in court.

[00:06:54]Um, I think along the lines when they review this, and I'm I'm going to speculate, Premier League should have come up with a much quicker process, >> should have given them more funding so they could go and focus only on this and get this wrapped up. Football, as Konathi said, football is the most important of the least important things.

[00:07:15]And I don't think this process respects football or football fans, let alone Man City or the other Premier League club.

[00:07:22]>> I'm going to ask this question instantly. Reverse.

[00:07:24]>> That was the extension on the on the article. Wait, wait, wait.

[00:07:27]>> That was the extension on the article, wasn't it?

[00:07:29]>> I just I just want to ask one thing, Gav.

[00:07:31]>> No, don't.

[00:07:32]>> Why when it comes >> Oh, no.

[00:07:34]>> Why when it comes to other clubs is everything so much quicker?

[00:07:39]>> Well, if you ask legal minds, they say, "But this case is so complicated. city are so ligious. If we get one comma wrong, uh they're going to they could sue, they could appeal. Um they come up with all sorts of reasons. Um other cases normally are a lot simpler, right? Hey, was the guy hiding behind the tree in the Southampton case? Was he filming or not? And then they asked and said, "Oh yeah, sorry. We've been spying." Okay, that's easy. Bish bash bosch. This is a lot a lot more complicated. Uh, it's actually 130 charges apparently, not even 115. They haven't even bothered to change the stupid name because it's been going on for so long. We start calling it, oh, 130 char. You know why? With 115 charges. They miscounted in the press release and they said 115 charges. And then people look at this. Wait a minute.

[00:08:33]You've actually charged them with 130 counts, not 115. Oh yeah, sorry. I mean, this is how-handed this whole thing has been. The the guy in the hotel room next to you, Gav, is gonna be like, "Why does he keep shouting 15?"

[00:08:50]>> Right. Shaka, who has the better season, Crystal Palace, Manchester United or Aston Villa?

[00:08:58]>> Aston Villa.

[00:09:00]>> You finished in Champions League spots.

[00:09:02]You You won the Europa League. Aston Villa >> for the panel. What on earth is happening to Syria?

[00:09:07]>> Oh.

[00:09:08]>> Oh, no. Panel panel. Really?

[00:09:12]It seems like it's one person in the panel.

[00:09:14]>> That that bloke at the hotel room next.

[00:09:16]Get ready.

[00:09:17]>> Why are all the coaches moving around from one team to another in spite of repeated disappointing results?

[00:09:25]>> Oh, you mean like uh Si leaving Lassio to go to Atlanta, Allegri stinking it up at Milan to go to Napoli.

[00:09:34]uh because unfortunately we have a group of owners in Cydia and not all of them but who who are totally unimaginative when it comes to people who buy into uh the the fan reaction. and they worry about the media reaction and so you know they prefer going and like reheating people um you know we call it minata in Italy like you know when you reheat your soup you mean you make soup on a Monday and it gets served to you again by Wednesday over and over again that's what they're doing with these people >> and frankly embarrassing but there is a positive in all this clubs who don't do that do well look at in with ku look at ko with Fabregas. Look at Parma who they get this guy named Carlos Questa. Nobody knew who he was. He's like on the side of a milk carton. He was actually Arteta's like third or fourth in commanded Arsenal and they have a good season and they stay up. So when you think outside the box even a little bit, you get results. Otherwise, you go down the same nonsense with SI. Oh, and my favorite part, Reno Gatuzo to Lazio.

[00:10:41]Hey, how about that? He was so impressive beating Italy. Yeah, let's reward him with Latio. Come on now.

[00:10:48]>> Robert, the battle door ceremony is in October. Will you be going Oh, sorry.

[00:10:52]The battle ceremony is in October. Is going to be moving from Paris to London this year. Will you be expecting an invite and will you attend?

[00:11:02]>> Well, first of all, uh I won't be expecting an invite and if I was given an invite, I wouldn't go anyway because it's not something I particularly believe in. No, >> it's uh as as Frank Leur would always say, it's a team game and all that sort of stuff, you know, and it's not about individual players. Um, you know, the the the results are on the pitch. That's all you have to worry about. Good players play well and good teams win games. You don't need something else. And you get you win the league, you get a trophy. If you win the European Cup, you get another trophy. If you win the Carabal Cup, you get a trophy. You don't need a balon door to uh to put in your mental piece as well.

[00:11:40]>> What a massive surprise as an answer. Uh Gav, why do you always use full names of fellow ESPN pundits when you refer to them on the podcast?

[00:11:51]>> What refer?

[00:11:53]>> Yes.

[00:11:54]>> Well, because there may be some people, believe it or not, we have our own audience. There might be some people who don't watch the FC show and there might be people watch the FC show who don't listen to the podcast although very few and it's would be irrelevant to your question anyway. So yes, the reason I don't just mention Craig is that how the hell are they going to know who I'm talking about? They might not be watching the FC show. They might be thinking about another tall, grumpy Scotsman named Craig. So yeah, that's essentially the reason.

[00:12:24]>> I would say he's that tall. I'm quite short. Uh, what's the best meal that you've ever had while traveling? Let's start off with Mr. Marcotti.

[00:12:32]>> Ooh, >> the smokehouse in Cardiff where you had the peanut butter. What was it? The peanut butter martini.

[00:12:38]>> Yes. Oh, >> yeah.

[00:12:40]>> Um, I had a tremendous meal in uh in Rio de Janeiro actually. Um, I forget the name of the restaurant, but it was in sort of I think it's called Santa Mar, Santa Catarina, something like that, which is sort of this neighborhood overlooking uh overlooking Rio. While traveling, especially to a tournament, that was probably my number one meal.

[00:13:02]>> Nice one. Uh, Robert, do you have a favorite meal on your travels?

[00:13:07]>> I do. Yes. Um, I went I been to Cow Park and had a tasting uh menu there which was absolutely fantastic. And I went to Milan once. I think Gab was there and I ordered something. I wanted the menu uh along with Alli, but we weren't allowed to see the menu. So, I'm not sure not sure what the meal was in the end because Gab said we weren't allowed to look at the menu. If you remember that sort of restaurant where you look at a menu, >> well, to know what I'm going to eat probably, >> the guy tells you what you're going to eat.

[00:13:42]>> Honestly, you can't take these people anywhere.

[00:13:45]Shaka.

[00:13:46]>> Um, I went to Capri with my lovely wife many a year ago and everything there was really good. Dad, that's all I've got for you.

[00:13:54]>> Okay.

[00:13:54]>> Thank you very much, Shaka. Alli, >> you know this well, Dan, and I hope you agree with me. It wasn't just about the meal. It was also about the company Ptoriia Arlati.

[00:14:05]>> That was very nice in Milan. In Milan.

[00:14:07]Yeah, >> covering Champions League final.

[00:14:09]>> Yeah.

[00:14:10]>> My lovely wife was there. You were there as well. She She wasn't at the meal though, was she?

[00:14:14]>> Yes, she was. It was memorable that she was there. Yes.

[00:14:17]>> I don't remember that at all. I thought it was just me and you.

[00:14:19]>> And and Melissa was in that meal, too.

[00:14:21]>> She was.

[00:14:22]>> Yes. Where Gab was not allowing people to order from the menu.

[00:14:25]>> Yeah.

[00:14:27]>> That was awesome. That was That's a very very >> What a what a wonderful experience that was.

[00:14:30]>> Yeah, that was brilliant. Very nice. Uh that what a lovely way to end. That is it. That brings us the end of today's show. Just shout 115 for us again.

[00:14:38]>> Charges. I confirmed this press release.

[00:14:42]>> We will be back tomorrow for the Champions League final. Who will it be PSG or Arsenal?