But City will also have the small matter of Guardiola’s future to resolve – an elephant in the room of a different kind. The City manager’s contract expires at the end of next season and he did not sound like a man certain to extend it by any means when the subject was raised.
“The reality is I am closer to leaving than staying,” he said. “We have talked with the club – my feeling is that I want to stay now. I will stay next season and during the season we will talk. But [after] eight or nine years [at City] – we will see.”
City could face an unprecedented range of punishments including points deductions, sweeping fines and the ultimate sanction of expulsion from the League should they be found guilty of the charges that now cast a shadow over a second consecutive title win. But the prospect of Guardiola calling it a day a year from now presents all kinds of other threats and unknowns.
Liverpool’s departing manager, Jurgen Klopp, made an interesting point when he suggested over the weekend that, for all the furore around the charges, City would not have won four in a row had they not had Guardiola in charge, praise that almost brought the Catalan to tears on Sunday as he reflected on their rivalry.
City may be one of the best-run clubs in Europe but, just as Liverpool fans are now unsure how a post-Klopp world will look, City without Guardiola will instantly be weaker. They need only look across the road at the state of Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement to know how devastating the impact of losing a master manager can be.
Sounding starting pistol on another busy summer
Equally, City’s executives will know that this summer may be the last – for a while at least – from which they are operating from this level of strength.
Guardiola responded to City’s latest title success by declaring they had “got the message from Mikel [Arteta] and his [Arsenal players]” and that they would “have to make the right decisions in the next years because they [Arsenal] are here to stay”.
It sounded like Guardiola sounding the starting pistol on another busy summer and City will doubtless view it as a prime opportunity to strengthen, particularly with all the uncertainty ahead and some of the pillars of their success not getting any younger.
Kyle Walker celebrates his 34th birthday next week and Kevin De Bruyne turns 33 next month. John Stones is 30 on Friday and Bernardo reaches the same milestone in August. Renewal will be required and City can at least head into this window free from the stresses that may soon be around the corner.
“Are you watching Arsenal?” chanted the City fans as they revelled in another title success. They were and they probably have their own view on things. Some Arsenal supporters, who now know how their Liverpool counterparts felt in 2019 and 2022, could be heard chanting “you’re cheats and you know you are” outside the Emirates as they headed home to reflect on what might have been.
City emphatically refute such suggestions but a season of reckoning awaits.