Enzo Maresca tells us the feeling is fantastic. Not good. Not steady. Fantastic. And the players, he says, don’t care too much about the noise surrounding Manchester City and its 115 Premier League charges.
Let us be precise about the noise. It is not a tabloid rumour. It is a list of 115 alleged breaches of financial rules, a number so large it has its own gravity. Somewhere in the middle of that list, a squad is training, passing, and feeling wonderful about it.
This is the modern sporting condition at its purest. We used to ask what happened. Now we ask how everyone is feeling about it, and the answer comes back in the register of a wellness retreat. Vibes are a currency that never devalues. You cannot audit a vibe. A vibe will not appear before an independent commission. Nobody has ever been fined for being in a good mood.
I am not calling the players villains. Most of them are young professionals who were told to focus on the next match, and focusing is what elite athletes do. But the club’s public stance has drifted from ‘we will engage with the process’ to ‘we are fine, honestly’, and that difference matters. One is a defence. The other is a mood board.
The charges will be decided by people who have never kicked a ball. Until then, the honest position is not fantastic. It is unresolved. Put that on a t-shirt and I will buy two.