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By Tony Attwood

The headline reads, “Manchester City start new legal action against Premier League over rules.”

And yes, you have not missed something because ManC has started another legal case before the end of the last one.   For we still don’t have an outcome to the 115 (now being reported as actually many more) charges against ManC, although the media, when they do report it, have been saying for weeks: “The result is due this week.”

What the Mancs are doing is what they have always threatened to do.  They are attempting to tie the League up in knots and drain it of resources so that in the end the clubs find 90% of their budgets are going on fighting the Mancs.  According to Manc Theory, at this point, the rest of the clubs give up, saying they want to spend their money on transfers, not legal fees, and offer to settle on whatever terms the Manc demands.

And those terms are simple: let us spend what we want, let us do what we want, let us win the league how we want.

Now of course the internal thinking processes of the clubs not in the Manc Group (ie excluding Aston Villa, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest – and possibly Chelsea – although the latter has been sitting on the fence for so long it is impossible to understand why their bum hasn’t got sore) is that if they can win, they can impose all sorts of sanctions on the Mancs including a 200 points penalty which takes them down to the National League.

But (and the Mancs are of course well aware of this) if they can’t, the rest of the League do have one more trump card to play, which is a mass resignation from the League and the setting up of a new League.   The only question is how Uefa would respond.  They could say, “We recognise the Premier League” in which case the League, at that point run by Manc, Villa, Newcastle and Nottingham F, and perhaps Chelsea, would recruit 15 clubs from the Championship, and form a new National Premier League and apply for places in the Champions, Europa and Conference Leagues.

The Reformed Premier League (including Arsenal) would however protest that with 15 members of the current Premier League, they are clearly the inheritors of the four spots in the Champions League for England.

Along the way, both the Reformed PL and the Real PL would issue invites to Rangers and Celtic to join, making the situation even messier as suddenly Scotland would be tangled up in blue too [that’s partially a Bob Dylan quote.  Untold Dylan can be found here].

Would either side give in?   It is difficult to see that they would since both sides are run by men who are absolutely not used to losing, and who have invested fortunes in getting to where they are now.

Of course, the media, which refuses to cover any of the story properly, possibly (and I have no evidence of this) because the Mancs might have said that some of the access and free “refreshments” would no longer be available if they published any of this story, would be stuck.  They would then probably simply publish this as breaking but rather tedious news.

As a hint of what is to come Aston Villa issued a letter which has reached the media which says, “It is now abundantly clear that any vote (if passed) will result in immediate further litigation by Manchester City FC and an associated defence by the EPL (English Premier League), incurring material further costs and unnecessary distraction and devotion of time to this issue.”   That is a preliminary to saying to the League “stop fighting, you are not going to win.”

But there is one more thing of note.  We are now in a positon where half of the Premier League is owned by American individuals and companies:

• Arsenal: (Stan Kroenke)
• Aston Villa: (V Sports)
• Bournemouth: (Bill Foley)
• Chelsea: (Clearlake Capital)
• Crystal Palace: (John Textor)
• Everton: (Friedkin Group)
• Fulham: (Shahid Khan)
• Ipswich Town: (Gamechanger 20)
• Liverpool: (Fenway Sports Group)
• Manchester United: (Glazer family)

Now this list shows that only one of the Americans has broken ranks and is siding with the Arabs at MannC, (ie Villa) and it is being said that they are coming under pressure to switch sides.   Of course, these giant American sports corporations are not natural bedfellows, but when opposed by something akin to Manchester C, they do see where their best interests lie, and can and indeed do work together.

The media is,  as we see daily, behoven to the ManC telling of the tale.  Thus they remain quiet, but the forces ranged against ManC are powerful, just by dint of numbers.   We are getting towards the final punch-up.