Jose Mourinho is at it again! He has hit the headlines after suggesting he still has a chance to win the Premier League with Man United if Man City are punished over their 115 charges.
Man City‘s long-awaited hearing over their eye-watering charges of financial breaches from the Premier League started last month, and a verdict is expected by the end of the year or early 2025.
If found guilty, the punishments could include points deductions, fines, transfer bans and potentially even being stripped of titles they won during the period in question.
The charges are between the period of 2009 and 2018. Liverpool, of course, came second in 2013/14 to City, as did Mourinho’s United in 2017/18.
In total, the Manchester club lifted three titles during the years under investigation, with United finishing second on two occasions (2011/12 and 2017/18) and Liverpool once (2013/14).
Jose Mourinho hasn’t given up on the 2017-18 Premier League title… ? (or his bonus! ?) pic.twitter.com/RhUV72eJjH
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) October 23, 2024
Now managing at Fenerbahce, Mourinho was asked about his former club ahead of their clash in the Europa League, and he brilliantly used the opportunity to shine a spotlight on City’s case.
“As you know, we won the Europa League [in 2017] and we finished second in the Premier League [in 2018],” he told reporters.
“I think we still have a chance to win that league because maybe they punish Man City with points, and maybe we win that league and then they have to pay me the bonus and give me the medal.”
A little grin at the end of that particular answer did not go unnoticed!
City won the title by 19 points that season as the Premier League‘s first centurions, a title that has certainly been tainted in the wake of their charges.
English football, and the Premier League, face an unprecedented situation if City are found guilty, but you can bet Mourinho will not be the only one in line waiting for the status quo to be restored.
If the league titles were to be re-awarded, City would drop to seven and Liverpool’s tally would be taken to 20 and Man United would jump to 22 – that gap wouldn’t last long, though!
Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, recently spoke of how he feels some want to see his club wiped “from the face of the Earth” as he continues to staunchly defend City.
He said: “I’m sorry, I want to defend my club, especially in these modern days when everyone is expecting us not [only] to be relegated, to be disappeared off the face of the Earth, the world.”
