THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 31

Author

Howard Hockin
March 14, 2025

Hello, and welcome to Issue 31 of the 93:20 Podcast Newsletter, and more general chat in an eventful week, thankfully involving matters away from City. Boring not playing during the week, isn’t it? I am quite enjoying it though.

Warning:- I am straying into talking about actual football matters, regarding City. I shall be brief, or as brief as I can be, which is not remotely brief. See the last sentence for evidence.

So, after the key issue of determining the meaning of life, the next big talking point is this:- is football changing? Is the set up of the successful football team morphing away from the prototype defined by Pep for over a decade? With City’s defeat last weekend, criticism of Pep was a strong theme, and that’s nothing new for the season. There has been a growing body of work, in tweet and article form in recent months that perhaps the struggles of Pep this season are more telling than simply attributing it all to an off-season. A sense that a new brand of football is taking over, and Pep may well be left behind. To be honest, some of this comes from the section of fandom that has been desperate to see Pep fail for nine years, and want to reconnect with the giddiness they felt at the end of his debut season in England. But there will be plenty of blues that will feel the same way, that perhaps it is time to move on. A dangerous risk for sure, as the grass is unlikely to be greener on the other side, in fact it may be parched. But I get it – even as a fan who idolises Pep, there has to be an end date, and a time when you as a fan just want something different. I would not want Pep, or any manager, to be in charge for the rest of my life. Change is good, even if it brings some short-term suffering. That is a different argument however, to the one that suggests that Pep is being left behind and needs to adapt.

The truth, as I see it? We can’t truly judge Pep until he has the team he wants, and a squad where the majority do not pull a hamstring turning on a kettle, and then decide if football has moved on from him. Thing is, City have never played the same way as everyone else, and there is more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. There will be articles written and opinions expressed about what is the current dominant style of play in world football, but even if there is one, that does not mean that twenty other methods cannot succeed. Look at the Klopp v Guardiola era. Pep will definitely have to blend in youth, energy and intensity, but that does not mean systems must change. Tweaked yes, but not changed wholesale.

Anyway, I have suggested to Bailey that this is a Hub episode that needs to be done in the coming weeks, to examine if Pep is as well-equipped as ever to take City forward. That’s not to suggest he is not the man for the job, of course, but it is worth a tactical deep-dive. Whatever your doubts, he will get the opportunity to build the next Manchester City team, and his new contract showed he is up for the challenge. Let’s reconvene in a year – then we will have a clearer idea of what the future holds, for City and beyond. Hopefully by then we will be talking about just football too, and not how much Lord Pannick has made that week.

I have been working on a “United’s new ground looks like a circus” series of jokes since yesterday, and am hoping to debut them next week – got to be quick, and get in there before anyone else notices. Quite the optics to announce the world’s greatest ever stadium, that will be visible from space, whilst simultaneously announcing that you are too skint to feed your own staff. Apparently this shiny new stadium will have a scoreboard AND a staff canteen.. 
One thing I did not see mentioned is this – is it not a bit weird to be modelling a ground on the devil, even if it is your nickname? Bit satanic for me, like the old mills that used to dominate the area. Also, it’s important to note that the reality never resembles the artist’s impression. Still, no one is thinking or talking about the weekend demonstrations now, are they? Another week of PR for Offshore Jim. A man who wants us to believe that without his necessary actions, without snatching that £50 bonus off the steward of the week, United would have gone bust by Christmas. That’s the United that splurged £200m in last summer’s transfer market, presumably when Ratcliffe was already aware of United’s financial situation, having bought a minority share after all, and the United that had £97m in the bank last Christmas. They are never going bust. More blustering PR, fed via his client journalists. Anyway, he has progressed to slagging off individual players now, so it’s all going swimmingly. Though after the win v Real Sociedad, with no help from the referee whatsoever, we must wonder if United are now BACK?

Again.

It was of course joyous to see Liverpool crash out of the Champions League, a natural consequence of which was to speculate on how unfair it was that Liverpool had to play such a good side at such an early stage of the competition. Is the new Champions League format flawed? Yes, but only in as much as every format has been, but in a different way. Liverpool drew PSG, one of the form sides in Europe, and I commented earlier this year that if City had not collapsed against Feyenoord, we may well have lined up against Liverpool over the past week, assuming we could get past Brest. But does that make the format flawed? The algorithms for the plotted draw are a bit weird, and I hate pre-defined draws, but Liverpool v PSG is not proof of a flawed process. They only met PSG because the French side were very much not the form side of Europe for much of the season, and scraped into the play-offs, like City. That could happen in the old format, drawing a team that just got through, but is capable of winning the whole tournament. It certainly isn’t perfect, and UEFA probably did not expect so many “big guns” struggling. If City, Bayern, PSG et al had finished in the Top 8, no one would be complaining. The old draw was flawed, with its 100 caveats, and so is this, but I would not say it is worse. Teams get unlucky draws, teams get lucky draws, especially if your Sheikh owner has paid to warm the balls. It is what it is. Aston Villa got Bruges, but they had knocked out 9th placed Atalanta in the play-offs.  I think it does show that finishing in the Top 8 is all that matters, and trying to get higher up that section is rather pointless, as you cannot predict your route as a team. Ultimately this may lead to plenty more dead rubbers, which is precisely what UEFA claimed this format would avoid.

Maybe Liverpool were fatigued, and struggling with competing for trophies on multiple fronts. That’s fine, acceptable, and mirrors a hundred other teams’ experiences before them. It is also a reminder of just how hard it is to win multiple trophies in a season, especially THE Treble (there is only one true variation of the Treble).
I think a few of us probably realised, at least sub-consciously, that after the Treble, an era had ended. There was nowhere else for some players, and us fans, to go. We really had seen it all. Time to check out, and it should act as no surprise, even if some hindsight is involved, of the need for a rebuild. That Treble was surely one of the greatest achievements of any English football team, a team on its last legs by the end, because such achievements rely on far more than skilful players and a great manager. Resolve, character, and the ability to put everything on the line, as so many players did during the 202/23 season. In many respects, it makes last season’s title win all the more impressive – perhaps that was actually Pep’s greatest achievement? I’m not one to laud Alex Ferguson, though I am grateful for his role in laying the foundations for decades of ruin after he left, but he got one last season and title win out of his team before leaving. Pep is still here of course, but what he got out of the team last season has similar parallels.

Still, devastating to see Jamie Carragher, the little dancer, so morose on Tuesday night. Devastating.

You think you have been scarred as a City fan (at least those of a “certain” age). This must hit hard. Especially when they find new ways to be beaten.

Two things stand out here – the PR campaign for Jude Bellingham is unmatched. He was average during Wednesday’s match, but as we all know, he can do no wrong in the eyes of many. Secondly, this is some quite remarkable insight from Ollie considering he was at Elland Road watching Leeds United v Millwall. Which links in with Point 1. I think I know what happened here, in fact I am almost certain of it. After the Leeds match had finished., Holt watched the latter stages of the Madrid v Madrid match, saw Bellingham running around a bit, and felt compelled to tweet praise. Because – Bellingham, innit? The player who can do no wrong.

One more random thought, about all the talk in recent years about how City are ruining football, and the anti-competitiveness of it all. Seems the Premier League needs City more than it ever realised, especially if a close and exciting title race is important to the “brand”. Both times City have had an off-season in the last six or seven years, no one has stepped up to take their place. The only excitement left in the league is a race for European spots, and France’s best team running rings round the runaway Premier League leaders should be an eye opener to those who assume this league is miles ahead of all others.

Finally, as I go to press, Tommy Tuchel has announced his maiden England squad for the upcoming games, and it is truly horrific. A well-deserved recall for Jordan Henderson (ahem), Kyle Walker is back, but well-performing players such as Wharton or Gibbs-White have missed out. Tuchel’s sole aim is to build for the 2026 World Cup, and how on earth this squad does that is beyond me. But perhaps I am underestimating this Machiavellian genius. When he was announced as the England manager, this naturally triggered a few patriots who felt the England manager must be English (and yes, that is tongue in cheek. I know having that opinion does not make you some right-wing, racist bigot). So perhaps this squad has been picked simply to enrage certain Red Top newspaper journalists. In which case, I salute you Tuchel. And if the 2030 World Cup has 64 teams, as FIFA seem to want, then we may as well have some banter teams along the way.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE THIS WEEK

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- SIDEWAYS

Ste, Howard and Ahsan look back at another disappointing defeat, and again ask how much should be taken from it.

NO HISTORY:- BRAZIL

Howard and Joe take a look at the rich history of Brazilian players at Manchester City. What a journey it has been.

THE MARKET:- EPISODE 33

Ahsan is joined by Lloyd and Tom Harrison to deep dive on the summer window. From homegrown quotas to Florian Wirtz’s release clause all covered.

OPPOSITION FAN:- BRIGHTON

Howard chats to Kieran Maguire from the Price of Football podcast about football finances, a Premier League on crisis, Brighton, the weekend match and a whole lot more!

THE WEEKEND SHOW

You know the score. A bumper show as always, looking at the week that was, a big weekend match, and more.

COMING UP

Sadly, an international break approaches. But worry ye not. We will be as busy as ever, with the odd show taking a break from football as always, a quiz, reviews of Tuchel’s first matches, a pod with the Manchester Foodbank gang over ticket prices, and more.

PLUS – on next week’s newsletter, a WORLD EXCLUSIVE. I have managed to get my hands on another leaked WhatsApp thread, that will shock the world of football. A tiny sample below.

If you are not a subscriber to our player shows, then enjoy some free samples of what we are about. Every show we do will have a 15 minutes sample on Soundcloud, along with a full, free weekly Friday show, jam- packed with content. Give it a try!