City fans know this story off by heart. Third tier in 1998-99. Takeover in 2008. Aguero in 2012. Guardiola from 2016. A treble in 2023.
Two things make it worth telling again now. Enzo Maresca has become City’s first manager since Guardiola in nearly a decade. And the 115 charges case, hanging over the club since February 2023, is still unresolved — its supposed verdict date has slipped past yet another deadline.
The story so far
City’s rise needs no dressing up. The 1999 play-off final against Gillingham set the tone: 2-0 down with ten minutes left, City scored twice and won on penalties.
Nine years later, everything changed. Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group completed its takeover on 1 September 2008 and signed Robinho by the end of the same day. Aguero’s title winner followed in 2012, Guardiola arrived in 2016, and four straight league titles came from 2021.
Why this summer’s different
Maresca is the first change of direction City have had in almost a decade. Fans have known one manager, one style and one voice in the press conference for years.
Whatever he does differently — in the transfer market, on the training pitch, in how he sets the team up — will be measured against a reign that delivered more than any club had managed before it. That alone makes this pre-season worth watching.
It’s arriving alongside a question the club still can’t answer. The hearing into City’s 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules concluded in December 2024. City deny every charge. A verdict was expected by spring 2025, then by the end of last season, then “within days” of the campaign finishing, then before the World Cup.
Each deadline has passed.
Three of City’s league titles — 2012, 2014 and 2018 — fall within the period the charges cover. Guardiola said repeatedly that he wasn’t worried about the outcome.
Other clubs have been less patient. Aston Villa and Newcastle, both operating under profit and sustainability rules City are accused of breaching, have argued it’s unfair to be held to those restrictions while City’s own case sits unresolved.
Possible sanctions range from a fine to a points deduction to, in the most extreme scenario, expulsion from the league — though City would be expected to appeal any finding against them.
Going into the new season
None of that changes what happens on the pitch. Maresca gets his squad, his Asia tour, his first competitive game regardless of when the commission reports.
But City start this era under the same scrutiny that shadowed the last one. In 2008, a new chapter reshaped the club completely. This one might too, whichever way the verdict goes.
For now, it’s the backdrop to City’s summer: a new manager fans are only starting to know, and an old question still waiting on an answer.
