THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 82

Author

Howard Hockin
January 23, 2026

Hello, and welcome to Issue 82 of the 93:20 Newsletter. It’s not been a great week for City, so I do feel the need to comment. Plus all the usual guff, of course. It’s another bumper issue.

Remember, you can help me sustain this newsletter by making a donation, if that’s agreeable to you. Do not worry, if not. It’s therapeutic for me to type furiously once a week – or so Dr Jones tells me. And it may allow me to do more football-centric bonus newsletters – and the return of fake WhatsApp chats at United of course!

As you may have noticed, this newsletter doesn’t tend to discuss much actual football, not from City anyway, preferring to comment on the wider issues. We have podcasts for that, though I may branch out in future and have separate football-centric releases, if time allows, as noted in the intro.

But after a horrible few days, following an excellent week, and the inevitable “Pep needs to go” calls online, I thought it was time for a few thoughts. I’ll be brief (by my standards).

Was the derby City’s worst performance under Pep? With context, pound for pound, it was for me. It could easily have been 5-0 to United – probably should have been. That United squad is not bad. It’s very good in fact, just not brilliant. Far short of one of Europe’s best, but good enough, and on its day can beat anyone at home. Me and Ahsan were no doubt ridiculed when we recently did our hot-take predictions for 2026, and said United would improve, and I think may have predicted Champions League qualification. Amorim was sacked soon after. But they are 5th , which should qualify, and they only need competent management to stay there or climb further, considering the issues so many clubs are having. No clubs above them won at the weekend – it’s almost as if no one wants to win the league.

I can step back and see some context now the dust has settled. An entire defence was missing, but Pep exposed the team further with baffling tactics, leaving huge holes in front of that inexperience. I simply cannot comprehend how it was this bad, and it certainly ranks above the 4-0 defeat to Everton, in Pep’s debut season, considering the personnel available. And then the Bodo performance was perhaps even worse, but considering the travelling party, perhaps slightly more understandable, against a side for whom a six-week break had clearly agreed with them.

The fall off a cliff has many blues worried. It has me worried for the immediate future, because if the reason is that the likes of Foden and Haaland are quite simply exhausted, then it poses problems with must-win games coming every few days, considering the paucity of options. City can handle a one-week funk, but one that extends past a month will be terminal. Ultimately, when we discussed the “Pep out” calls on the Bodo review pod, my views were quite simple. Yes, Pep has made mistakes this season, as all managers do. With hindsight, he would no doubt have done some things differently, as all managers would. He perhaps may also need to take some blame for the injury crisis, due to his lack of faith in the squad as a whole, leading to overplaying players – it’s not something that can be fact-checked. But whether you want to call the current season a transition or not, the upheaval over the last year has been immense, on and off the pitch. There were 23 players in City’s Champions League final squad in 2023, 13 have since left, and that will have risen by up to five by the start of next season. This is essentially a new team, a younger team, and there will be bumps along the way. I would not expect the mountain-sized bumps of the past week, but that’s sport for you. I have been quite zen about the current season (as zen as I can be) as City’s previous recruitment sleepwalk would take time to fix. You could buy all the players needed in a single day, and you would still need time for it all to fit together. I expect Anderson to be signed in the summer, and I expect the squad that starts next season to be very strong and more well-rounded. We’re just building towards that and have to see what happens in the meantime. My concern is not over quality – it is whether Pep finds the next version of City. I’m not saying he won’t, I’m just not prepared to declare he will. This season is transitional, but there are issues he is still far from resolving, such as effective build-up, our shape out of possession, and more. Nothing terminal, just something Pep and his team needs time to work out (and recruitment is part of that) – and with the schedule, there is precious little of that. Ultimately, I will judge him on next season – if it does not go well, he will probably leave with our eternal thanks. If it goes well…..who knows? There many be more chapters to write. The talk of him leaving from media circles is pitiful wishful thinking from them, and Pep is energised to build the next great side, have no doubt about that. He will understand what caused the last week to occur. The reasons Pep would move on are well-documented and will not change – if he feels he has lost the players (he clearly hasn’t, and won’t), and the need for a break in the most stressful of occupations. I very much doubt new tactical trends that he doesn’t agree with would drive him away.

I noted on the Bodo review the changing nature of football. Pep is trying to find a way, away from positional play, trying to forge the next dominant version in an ever-changing world. Arsenal are already there with recruitment, even if their forward is average, and an aspect of their dominance (of sorts) is the reliance on set pieces. Because ultimately, it’s just harder to dominate opposition teams in the Premier League nowadays, in open play, whatever your resources. Opposition managers are canny enough, and have reacted with new systems that negates many of the dominant themes of recent times. And Arteta realises this – that in some games, the tactics are not enough to break through – hence a focus, and subsequent reliance on set pieces. This season, 28% of goals in the Premier League have come from set pieces, and that excludes penalties. For Arsenal it is 33%. For City it is 15%, and 10% for Liverpool. Guess who is at the top of the table?
It’s part of the reason I get so exasperated on podcasts at how utterly terrible City are from corners. There has been glimpses recently of better times, but only glimpses – generally, the routine is Phil Foden putting an arm in the air before gently drifting a cross into the box. With Gvardiol out, the main weapon City used in recent times is now not available too. We have to be better, because games will always come around where the stubborn opposition, full of international players even if struggling near the base of the Premier League, will not bow to City’s play. Set pieces are the ultimate Plan B. And I will assume Pep would rather quit than ever utilise long throws, but we now have a player who is adept at them, and it’s easier to be accurate with one than it is a corner. It would be illogical not to utilise the tools at our disposal.

At least this weekend, new signings will be available. The outrage at City buying players, players the rival fans' clubs were also trying to buy, has been wonderful to witness. I know it's pointless me pointing out the disparity in how teams are covered by the media. The only consideration when a team like Liverpool spend half a billion is whether they are PSR compliant - that is it. With City, other fees and wages must always be added into the total. And this week, the financial details for 2024/25 show that Liverpool have the Premier League’s largest wage bill, and that was before the summer splurge. Wonder how this one will be painted? Money earned, innit?

The recruitment drive by City naturally resurfaced the 115 chat, which becomes even more tedious than before every time it has its week in the spotlight. Were other clubs expecting City to embargo themselves? They are not the ones releasing the decision, or in charge of the timing of its release -  until a decision is known they will - OF COURSE - carry on as normal - business as usual. Personally, I thought it would restrict our recruitment, and i was wrong. And was happy to be so.

As an aside, Jack Gaughan has noted in his latest piece that Guehi cost £20m flat, with no add-ons, and that his wage is nowhere near the £300,000 widely quoted. History doesn’t care about facts though, nor perception. The lies have been widely touted now, and that is the perception all rival fans will have of the deal, irrespective of the facts. That’s how it works with City. The desperation to portray City’s deals as far more expensive than the transfer fee suggests, which is true for every transfer, is an industry in itself. A fact-checking article from a respected journalist will not cause a ripple within the fake news machine.

There seem to be a lot of crisis clubs right now. Football in flux, as the record number of 0-0 draws may suggest. I had to laugh at someone on X blaming Pep for this – yep, it’s his fault that other teams are drawing 0-0 with each other. He has caused a boom in low blocks, but he’s not the one to blame for that. I guess no one is really, it was a natural consequence of his dominance, and of uneven playing fields that have always existed, but become potentially bigger the more money that flows into the English top-level game.Anyway, no Premier League side has won its last two games. A strange season, and not one to be making sweeping conclusions over, perhaps.

Finally, news reaches us all of plans for a Manchester United drama series to be made, possibly led by Jed Mecurio. So H was Harry Maguire all along?

This obviously lends itself to much satire, and we must assume certain events, such as rotten meat, toilet fetishes, managers boking colleagues’ wives and horse semen will not feature in this series. Let’s be honest, a City drama would have to omit a fair whack too. But the mind did wander as to which actors would best play some of the major people in United’s history? It’s a fun game to play if you’re bored.

Brian Cox as Alex Ferguson perhaps. James Nesbitt as Martin Edwards. Mick Hucknall as Paul Scholes. Brad Pitt as Luke Chadwick. David Beckham as himself. Toby Jones as Omar Berrada. Brett Goldstein as Roy Keane. John Cleese as Jim Ratcliffe.

Answers on a postcard please.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO THIS WEEK

THE MARKET:- EMERGENCY POD

Squeezed into the end of last week, and still relevant. Ahsan and Lloyd are back in the booth for an emergency Market pod discussing all the breaking Mark Guehi news!

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- ANAEMIC

Ahsan and Dom pick the bones out of Saturday’s shit show. This is a NSFW podcast. It’s also as reactionary as we allow ourselves to be. Listen to it once, then delete it and forget it ever happened.

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- BOZO GLIMT?

Ste is joined by Lloyd and Howard to pick the bones out of another horror show. Why, how, and what now? Plus much more.

THE HUB:- EPISODE 52

Bailey is joined by Sam and Ahsan to discuss the development of Matheus Nunes at City, from midfielder to right-back.

OPPOSITION FAN:- WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

Howard chatted to Wolves fan Luke about the most difficult of seasons, ahead of the weekend game.

THE WEEKEND SHOW

The usual packed show with Ahsan, Lloyd and Adam, looking back at a difficult week, what is all means, the weekend game, and much, much more.

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!