Louis Philippe

Hello.

And bonjour, ça va, Philippe Auclair.

Bonjour, ça va, mon cher.

Oli G on our Reddit page says, how weird is it going to be to see the Manchester derby in the championship next year? Gup Foppington says, can someone eternal sunshine of the spotless mind football from my brain, please? Sincerely, a Manchester United fan.

But again, there was a lot of journalism took place, whether it was like you writing stuff, us writing stuff, other people.

And I also want to credit Paul Brown and Philippe Auclair at Josimar, who wrote a huge number of stories on this guy.

But it has taken years.

It's taken years to get to this point.

I should be on the terraces this weekend watching my team, West Brom, take on Birmingham City in a local derby.

I hope you wish us well, Philippe.

I will wish you well against everyone other than West Ham United.

That is my club visiting you in the championship this year.

actually it would be a better atmosphere probably than the Manchester Derby maybe it would be angry like

well Philippe Auclair said that with us last weekend the atmosphere is going

to be weird he was worried on behalf of them and what's going to happen but we actually put that to and we put it to Sam Lee didn't we and we put it to a couple of others I think it's more like and it's a good point it was like the Premier League is it's very much a safe space isn't it generally speaking for crowd trouble like it's like gone are the days of you know the end of Thatcher and late 80s and early 90s So there'll be a lot of verbals you'd imagine.

I don't know if there'll be that angry about it.

We were doing it from, uh, upstairs in Union Chapel.

There was myself and James, there was Amy Lawrence, Philippe Auclair.

We spent the first 45 minutes talking about Mikel Arteta being appointed as manager because that was what people were thinking.

We all thought that's what was gonna happen based on the information that we had.

City stated the commission's findings include clear material errors of law, principle and the fact and is unsafe.

So it's gonna be fascinating to see because, uh, uh, I, I listened and I would recommend, um, to anybody interested in the subject to, to take a, a listen to, uh, uh, Philippe Auclair, uh, on The Guardian Football Weekly this week, uh, and his monologue off the, the top of the show as Max, uh, Rushton, uh, introduces him.

He, uh, he pushes back sharply against City's attempts, uh, and Pep Guardiola in particular to minimize the ruling, uh, or portray the club as victims of an unfair process.

Uh, you know, he went on to emphasize that the independent commission's findings leave zero doubt, and quote in his words, "It's a verdict.

So there'd be something of a ghost season to play out ahead for the balance, and we're gonna see that first game at Anfield in a few days' time.

Um, potential license revocation by the football regulator.

Um, so to your point here, um, and uh, I, I listened to Philippe Auclair on the Guardian Football Weekly, and as expected, the investigator himsi- himself came right off the lo- long run.

Uh, he, he made, uh, Dennis Lilly look like he was coming off the short run-

The English FA say they'll monitor the situation closely and will take action where appropriate.

Journalist and football writer Philippe Auclair joined Colin Boohig on Off The Ball Breakfast this morning and believes that City won't get off the charges.

instinctively and in your own reporting and research on this, do you think that there's any way Manchester City, quote unquote, get away with this?

No.

Hello, and welcome to The Guardian Football Weekly.

Philippe Auclair off his long run.

Manchester City is still the only story in town.

Pep Guardiola says he's here more than ever, despite not actually being there.