By Tony Attwood
We have all known for a very long time that the threats of relegating Manchester City through the entire football league and dumping them in the Conference were never going to happen – amusing though those ideas were. The threats allegedly made by Manchester City were such that the League itself was having to contemplate how far it was going to fight the inevitable legal action.
So we had the situation in which the threat remained that the club might get a financial penalty that might mean nothing to them, given that the club is, or at least has been in the past, funded by much of the world’s oil supplies.
However, now the story is being widely circulated that ManC have a penalty of sixty points deduction, which would leave the league table reading….
**1**
**Arsenal**
**31**
**21**
**7**
**3**
**61**
**22**
**39**
**70**
2
Manchester United
31
15
10
6
56
43
13
55
3
Aston Villa
31
16
6
9
42
37
5
54
4
Liverpool
31
14
7
10
50
42
8
49
5
Chelsea
31
13
9
9
53
38
15
48
6
Brentford
31
13
7
11
46
42
4
46
7
Everton
31
13
7
11
37
35
2
46
8
Fulham
31
13
5
13
43
44
\-1
44
9
Brighton and Hove Albion
31
11
10
10
41
37
4
43
10
Sunderland
31
11
10
10
32
36
\-4
43
11
Newcastle United
31
12
6
13
44
45
\-1
42
12
AFC Bournemouth
31
9
15
7
46
48
\-2
42
13
Crystal Palace
30
10
9
11
33
35
\-2
39
14
Leeds United
31
7
12
12
37
48
\-11
33
15
Nottingham Forest
31
8
8
15
31
43
\-12
32
16
Tottenham Hotspur
31
7
9
15
40
50
\-10
30
17
West Ham United
31
7
8
16
36
57
\-21
29
18
Burnley
31
4
8
19
33
61
\-28
20
19
Wolverhampton Wanderers
31
3
8
20
24
54
\-30
17
20
Manchester City\*
30
18
7
5
60
28
32
\*1
\*60 points deducted for breaking the League’s financial rules.
This would mean that if the Mancs win their remaining eight games, they will have 25 points, which might be enough to keep them in the Premier League next season. For this not to be enough, the Mancs could have a less-than-perfect run through their last season, or Burnley would fail to get the necessary six points that would take them up to 26 and above ManC even if the Mancs won all their remaining games.
So the Championship would seem likely but not utterly certain. And the question would then be, what would this mean for their squad if they did go down? Do they have contracts that include clauses guaranteeing the sale of players in the event of relegation, or in the event of the club not being in the Champions League? This also leads to the fact that one more club might be able to take up a Champions League place.
Clearly, some of their players would not want to play in the Championship having been playing in the Premier League this season and so would want to move in the summer – although obviously they are tied to ManC for their remaining eight games.
In fact, it is quite possible that all of their players might demand transfers in the summer. That would be interesting since it seems likely that ManC would not try to spend their way out of the problem by paying above the odds for Premier League players who would be unwilling to play in the Championship even if it is just for one season.
But these are uncharted waters. We are still getting information on this issue and will update this piece as more info, or at least most thoughts, become available.