Following the big news that Manchester City was found guilty on 114 of 115 charges, fans’ reactions and comments have flooded social media, with comparisons between Pep Guardiola and Saul Goodman, a character played by Bob Odenkirk in gernre-defining crime drama and neo-Western TV series “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”, becoming widespread.
The news that City was found guilty by the independent commission is the biggest and most talked-about football news right now. Football pages, memes, and trolls are everywhere, speculating how the judgement is going to change the Premier League.
Manchester City was found guilty of 114 out of 115 charges of breaching the Premier League’s financial regulations. The news came from The Athletic, the sports journalism department of The Newyork Times.
The club was first charged in 2023, and they are being accused of not providing accurate financial information and details of payments to players and coaches.
The charges also included breaches of UEFA’s financial fair play (FFP) regulations and the league’s own profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).
Pep Guardiola stepped in as City’s manager in 2016. Under him, the club won the Premier League six times, including four in a row (2020-24), won the Champions League in the 2022-23 season, the UEFA Super Cup (2023), the FIFA Club World Cup (2023), three FA Cups, five EFL Carabao Cups, and three FA Community Shields. A total of 17 major trophies in his name.
His 2018-19 team became the first team in English football history to win a Treble, all three major domestic titles in a single season. He repeated the same in the 2022-23 season, adding the Champions League title to it.
Guardiola’s signing of players for a large sum of money from other clubs to build a trophy-winning squad earned recognition. Especially in the 2019 window he bought defender João Cancelo from Juventus for £27.4m plus Danilo and midfielder Rodri from Atlético Madrid for a fee of £62.8 million, thus resulting in City’s squad value over €1 billion.
In 2021, he also signed Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish for £100m, breaking the British transfer record. The signings of the players, along with the ongoing news about violations of financial regulations, have raised questions about Guardiola’s time at City, basically questioning the entire dominance.
However, he extended his contract till June 2027 in November 2024 and said he would remain at the club even if they were demoted as a result of any judgment due to the charges. But he resigned from the manager position in May 2026, which he revealed was due to personal reasons.
Fans are comparing Guardiola to Saul Goodman for the timely step down, and now the current manager of City, Enzo Maresca, has to deal with the headache.
In Better Call Saul, Goodman also escaped just as his criminal empire collapsed, as seen towards the end of Breaking Bad.
As soon as Walter White’s empire crumbled, Saul did not wait for the DEA to get to him; instead, he paid the Vacuum cleaner man to completely remove him from Albuquerque world. Fans find this pattern quite similar to Pep, as he cut ties with City exactly before the charges, and that too very abruptly.
Also, Saul Goodman goes into hiding in Nebraska in the series as Gene Takavic, where he changes his look and works at a local Cinnabon; fans are jokingly comparing this to Guardiola, who may also have to go into hiding from legal punishment if his involvement is investigated.
There is a flood of memes and comparisons of Pep Guardiola and other Man City-related personalities since the news dropped. The above meme by a user on X showcases the dynamic between Pep and Sheikh Mansour, the owner of Manchester City.
In the concluding scene of Better Call Saul, Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler share a cigarette when Kim visits him in prison, and Jimmy accepts his fate. In the same way, fans interpret Pep and Sheikh Mansour as a partners-in-crime duo.
Pep rose to the pinnacle of his career during the 2022-23 season. Manchester City won almost all titles and were close to another treble, with the Champions League in hand. He handed over a fully furnished, trophy-winning team to Sheikh Mansour, whose Abu Dhabi United Group acquired the club in 2008.
This is quite similar to Saul Goodman, as he, too, reached the top of his career and wealth, serving as the architect of the legal framework for Walter White’s multi-million-dollar meth empire. Put in simple words, he conquered the Albuquerque underworld.
But in both cases, their success got overshadowed by their past controversy. Though Guardiola won the Champions League in the 2022-23 season for City and all other titles he won after the news of 115 charges, all the achievements were only seen with the financial breach in mind by the audience. Similarly, Saul was haunted by the threat of federal indictment and the DEA led by Hank Schrader after him.
Users are also discussing that Man City will need a really good lawyer like Saul Goodman in the series who can get them off the hook using slick loopholes. Because if they are still found guilty on the re appeal, it would cause a heavy loss for the club.
Manchester City was investigated over an alleged financial breach between 2009 and 2018. The investigation by an independent commission started after leaked financial documents were published by a German newspaper, Der Spiegel, in November 2018.
The club has won three Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups and the Community Shield during the period when the breaches were found. As a response to the Der Spiegel scandal, UEFA ordered a two-year ban and a €30 million fine against City, but it was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) five months later, which reduced the fine to £8.8m.
Pep Guardiola, who joined Man City in 2016, has defended the club throughout his tenure when it comes to the charges. When asked in 2023, he said he believed Manchester City behaved correctly regarding the 115 charges levied against them by the Premier League and simply said: “I trust them”. Even before his departure, he enunciated that he had total belief the club acted in good faith.
Now, what will happen to Manchester City and what the consequences of the verdict will be is a hot topic of discussion. The expected potential punishments are highlighted in Rule W.51 of the Premier League’s handbook.
Punishments and further actions range from a reprimand to even expulsion from the Premier League. Some sources also say that the three Premier League titles won during the period of 2009-18 might be retracted and given to the second place teams or even significant points might be deducted.
In the current 2026-27 season, under Maresca, City is in first place in the Premier League points table, having won five out of five games. The club has responded to the report as follows:
“ The Premier League process remains ongoing with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality. The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”
The Premier League has not yet released a statement regarding the matter. It has been told that City will go for an appeal against the findings. At the same time, other clubs in the league have sought legal advice on claiming compensation regarding this matter. Football accounts and sports media are actively covering the updates, including the sanctions and possible player transfers. It is the first time a major club is being held guilty of a huge number of charges.
