Opinion: Guehi to City? The 115-Charge Elephant That Everyone Pretends Not to See

So here we go again.

Manchester City are on the brink of signing Marc Guéhi. Another elite defender. Another hefty fee. Another “perfectly normal” January deal from a club supposedly sitting under the weight of 115 unresolved financial charges.

And we’re all just meant to nod along.

Crystal Palace admit the deal is “in the final stages”. City are suddenly the only club able to make it happen now, rather than on a free in the summer. Liverpool, Arsenal, Bayern Munich? All interested — all apparently powerless. City? They snap their fingers and the market bends.

Nothing to see here.

Let’s be absolutely clear: no other club in this league could behave like this. Not Liverpool. Not Arsenal. Not anyone who has to live in the real world of profit, sustainability rules, and transfer consequences.

Yet City, with their injury crisis self-inflicted by years of squad churn, are allowed to spend again. And again. And again.

Fifteenth signing in a year.
£1.75 billion spent since 2016.
Another £60m+ attacker already done.
Now Guéhi, a player who was six months from being free.

All while the Premier League’s biggest disciplinary case sits gathering dust like an embarrassing family secret no one wants to acknowledge at Christmas.

Keith Wyness called it the “elephant in the room”. He’s being polite. It’s more like a wrecking ball smashing through competitive integrity.

City’s line — that they’ve provided “irrefutable evidence” — would carry more weight if the league didn’t keep letting them act as if they’ve already been cleared. No transfer restrictions. No oversight. No pause. No consequence.

Just business as usual.

And here’s the part nobody wants to say out loud: this suits the Premier League just fine.

Arsenal are running away with it. City are wounded. The title race is in danger of becoming boring — and suddenly, lo and behold, City are allowed to reload mid-season with elite talent.

If Liverpool or Arsenal were under 115 charges, they’d be frozen solid. Transfer embargoes. “Due process.” Stern lectures about sustainability.

City? Red carpet.

Guéhi doesn’t just “slot in”. He becomes another piece of a puzzle that should not be allowed to keep growing while the investigation drags on indefinitely. Every signing like this deepens the unfair advantage and poisons the well further.

And Liverpool fans have every right to be furious. Guéhi was our target. A sensible, strategic signing. Instead, we watch him head to a club that seemingly exists outside the same rulebook — again.

If this is what “fair competition” looks like, then the Premier League has stopped pretending entirely.

The charges aren’t going away. The questions aren’t going away. And neither is the stench around all of this.

But don’t worry — Richard Masters will tell us it’s all being handled “independently”, just as City sign another defender to chase Arsenal down.

Nothing to see here, apparently.

Except everyone can see it.