What Enzo Maresca said about Man City charges right after Liverpool defeat

Liverpool and their rivals are being laughed at by Manchester City

Enzo Maresca smiles and holds up his arms. — (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Here at Empire of the Kop, we’ve tried to approach the City charges with a sense of nuance.

The potential ramifications of the Sky Blues’ guilty verdict will, one might reasonably imagine, have dire consequences that catch City employees and fans in their radius. And that is a shame, even if we can all agree that the potential punishment fits the crime.

However, it becomes increasingly difficult to harbour any sympathy for a fanbase and coaching team that laugh and sneer in the face of the biggest scandal in Premier League history.

Maresca may feel entitled to defend his club to the press, but there’s surely a better way than this: “After 10, 15 years when the organisation is winning titles, doing the right things in terms of winning titles, and then this happens […].

“I think it’s not a good feeling for them. But there is a process ongoing, we’ll see how it finishes.”

Right. Firstly, we have a problem with the notion that titles were won ‘doing the right things’, but then it seems like the Italian looks to salvage things in the latter half of his comments.

But then you surely can’t also be coming out with this in direct reference of the ongoing case: “You cannot imagine how happy I am [about the win against Liverpool… hopefully I can speak about this situation [the process] when we win the appeal.”

Do Man City feel the appeal is already a foregone conclusion?

Enzo Maresca shouts and gestures from the touchline. — (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Whatever way the appeal turns out, City has no objective way to justify their behaviour, from fans to the coaching staff.

Even should the current table-toppers miraculously snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat on the basis of a legal technicality, the club is tainted goods. There’s a huge question mark over how on earth a club with a considerably smaller global presence than, say, the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester United could show off revenue comparable to Europe’s elite.

Whatever legal skullduggery City wish to commit, there’s simply no justifiable explanation.

But perhaps the most shameful element out of all this is just how certain key figures at the club are with regard to the outcome of the case, despite the litany of offences uncovered by an independent commission. There’s no sense of “let’s just see how this all plays out and respect the legal process”. Enzo Maresca and Co. evidently believe, naively or not, that they’re going to come out of this with clean hands. And in the meantime, their fans are going to proudly proclaim in every subsequent fixture that they can get with anything. All while obliterating their opposition with a squad that was assembled, as many suspect, thanks to illegal foundations.