Guardiola's former coach vows to keep medals as City's appeal looms

A former coach on Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City staff has issued a blunt refusal to hand back any medals if the club is stripped of titles following its guilty verdict on 114 Premier League financial rule breaches. City have lodged their appeal against the ruling, which covers alleged spending offences between 2009 and 2018, with a final judgement expected within 12 weeks of the appeal’s submission — placing the outcome around Christmas.

According to The Times, the unnamed coach — described as a “more established” member of Guardiola’s backroom staff — made his position clear last week: “If they [the Premier League] think they are getting my medals back, they can f*** off.”

The defiant tone echoes a broader mood among those connected to the club. A separate source, described by The Times as a “long-serving senior member of the medical team”, reportedly told friends at dinner three months ago: “We won’t get done. Maybe a fine or something. Nothing more serious than that.”

Guardiola himself responded to the verdict with a social media post that stopped short of addressing the specifics, instead seeking to reassure supporters that the club would “get through this together.”

The punishment landscape remains uncertain. A substantial fine is widely considered the minimum outcome if the guilty verdict is upheld on appeal, while a significant points deduction has also been raised as a possibility — one severe enough, in theory, to threaten City’s Premier League status. Title stripping remains on the table as well.

City won three Premier League championships during the period covered by the charges — in 2012, 2014, and 2018. Manchester United finished as runners-up in two of those seasons and could be awarded retrospective titles, while Liverpool would stand to benefit from the 2014 campaign.

The prospect of recovering medals distributed across those title-winning squads presents a logistical and legal challenge in itself — and, based on at least one former staff member’s response, not everyone intends to make that process straightforward.