City could have four players on opposite sides when Croatia face England in Rijeka at 5pm, providing some welcome football amid another day dominated by the consequences of the club’s financial verdict.
Marc Guéhi and Elliot Anderson are with Thomas Tuchel’s England squad, while Joško Gvardiol and Mateo Kovačić could feature for Croatia. Elsewhere, fresh reports have raised questions over City’s wage bill and what could happen if the eventual sanction removed them from the Premier League.
Here’s our late-afternoon round-up of the main City stories from Saturday.
Four City players could feature in Croatia v England
Guéhi and Anderson both featured as England beat Czechia 2-0 on Tuesday, while Gvardiol and Kovačić were involved as Croatia lost 4-1 against Spain.
That creates the possibility of four City team-mates sharing the pitch in Rijeka this evening. Our full guide to City’s international involvement today also includes Vitor Reis with Brazil and Enzo Fernández and Gerónimo Rulli with Argentina later tonight.
Nico O’Reilly would have provided a fifth City connection to the Croatia-England game but returned to Manchester after withdrawing from Tuchel’s squad through injury.
City wage detail emerges amid relegation uncertainty
Another significant detail to emerge today concerns what would happen to City’s wage bill if the club were relegated.
BBC Sport reports that the majority of City players don’t have relegation clauses in their contracts, with deals generally fully guaranteed. As we looked at earlier today, dropping out of the Premier League therefore wouldn’t automatically trigger percentage reductions across the squad’s salaries.
Erling Haaland is among the players whose future would inevitably attract enormous attention in that scenario. The striker is contracted to Man City until 2034, although relegation remains only a potential sanction and City’s appeal against the commission’s findings is under way.
Expulsion and EFL claim raises stakes further
Journalist Duncan Castles has also raised a more extreme scenario, claiming City could ultimately face expulsion from the Premier League if their conflict with the competition continues to escalate.
Castles went further by suggesting the EFL could then refuse to admit City into one of its divisions. That is not a punishment announced or proposed by either competition, and it would be very different from conventional relegation, but the claim adds another question to the growing debate around City’s future.
As we reported in more detail earlier, Castles also suggested potential consequences could extend to City’s owners, directors and executives. Those remain scenarios raised by the journalist rather than confirmed outcomes.
For the next few hours, at least, attention can return to the pitch. Guéhi, Anderson, Gvardiol and Kovačić could all have a part to play when Croatia and England meet at 5pm, before Argentina provide further City interest later tonight.
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