Manchester City: Enzo Maresca offers strong support to the team.. "Ignore the noise"
On the pitch, Manchester City answered the storm in the most emphatic manner imaginable. Sunday took them to Anfield, where they dismantled Liverpool 3-0, preserving their flawless start to the campaign. Yet the noise beyond the touchline refuses to die down, and the demands for Sheikh Mansour's ownership to face proper scrutiny — and for the club to be put up for sale — only grow louder with each passing week.
Internal problems at Manchester City
Since the verdict landed, the pressure bearing down on the ownership has only intensified. Writing in the Telegraph, Jamie Carragher argued that "the club can only heal and recover from the shame of their guilt once the custodians recognise they have failed in their duty and sell up," adding that the position of every executive involved had become untenable.
Others have reached similar conclusions from different angles. UAE specialist Christopher M Davidson told The Athletic that the Abu Dhabi ruling family is likely to feel "embarrassed and disgraced," and predicted they would "cut the losses" rather than permit the ownership to be "forever tainted in England." Attention has also turned to the Independent Football Regulator, which has made clear it holds the power to compel owners to sell.
Against all of this stands Khaldoon Al Mubarak. The chairman has insisted time and again that there is "no intention to sell," putting a $10 billion valuation on the City Football Group. For now, the man at the top is holding firm — even as the chorus calling for change swells around him.
Enzo Maresca backs Man City
Enzo Maresca's approach, on the touchline, boils down to a single instruction: shut it all out. Once the dust settled on that emphatic victory at Anfield, the head coach turned to his players and told them the only answer worth giving is another performance. And the response from the stands suggests his message has found fertile ground.
A fresh chant honouring Sheikh Mansour has taken hold among City's support, a telling sign of where the faithful place the blame. For a large chunk of the fanbase, the villain of this saga is not the man who has bankrolled the club's transformation since 2008 — it is the Premier League's rulebook itself.