Key questions remain unanswered about the Man City Scandal – but are there one, three or seven?

It’s another Man City-dominated Mediawatch to the surprise of literally nobody, with the Daily Mirror asking three questions, or seven questions or more accurately one question yet to be answered, Harry Kane issuing a damning verdict on it all and Pep Guardiola breaking a silence.

Plus there’s some JJ Gabriel nonsense because even in the depth of their collapse City still aren’t the only show in Manchester.

Question everything

It seems to Mediawatch that Andy Dunn poses a pretty reasonable question in his latest Mirror column: were Man City still cheating after 2018?

But we struggle to get entirely on board with how the Mirror have attempted to frame that piece.

3 questions that still must be answered as scale of Man City scandal emerges

We’re going to try very hard to ignore just how hard that ‘3’ rather than ‘Three’ is making our teeth itch, because the actual point here is that Dunn does not in fact pose three or even, shudder, 3 questions that still must be answered.

For the 2017/18 season – a season which ended with Pep Guardiola winning the first of his six Premier League titles – Manchester City cooked the books to what was, even by their standards, a jaw-dropping extent.

According to the independent commission, they recorded sponsorship income as £145.73million. It turned out only £11m of that was genuine. The other £134.73m was paid by the club owners.

Of the nine seasons of eye-watering financial transgressions, this was City’s crowning effort. Their previous ‘record’ had come in the 2016/17 season when they added £129.59 million to the real sponsorship figure of £11m. It was clearly building towards a crescendo of cheating.

But what happened after that?

What happened after the 2017/18 season?

Did it just stop?

Lads, those are all the same question. A fair and valid question. But not three questions. And definitely not 3 questions.

But just as the Mirror ask did City just stop? so we must ask why they stopped at three? Given that elsewhere Dunn says:

Seriously, are we to believe they decided to go straight at the start of a 2018/19 season that brought another Premier League title? Seriously, are we to believe they abided by every financial rule when winning Premier League titles in 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24?

And

Did that deceit just stop in 2018?

And

What we need to know next is… are they still cheating?

We make that seven – or, if you absolutely insist, 7 – questions that still must be answered.

While also revealing that Dunn has warmed enormously to a theme that he clearly feels allows him to say City were still cheating after 2018 without actually saying City were still cheating after 2018.

Kane unable

Mirror website headline:

Harry Kane gives verdict on Man City charges hours after explosive Premier League statement

Harry Kane quote:

“I can’t comment on it now. I’m sure in the next days it will be spoken about in a casual way. I always say when we’re here we’re with England.

“We have our England head on and those guys [Anderson, O’Reilly and Guehi] will deal with it obviously when they are back. From our point of view it is all about Croatia on Saturday.”

A reminder that Man City aren’t the only cheats. And we’re not talking about Harry Kane here, even if he does sometimes go to ground too easily.

Football friends

Pep Guardiola in 2022:

“I said to them, ‘If you lie to me, the day after I am not here. I will be out and I will not be your friend anymore.'”

Pep Guardiola in 2026:

“I want every single Man City fan to know I am here; more than ever. I am, always have been, always will, be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran, the players, staff, Enzo and you, our unique supporters.”

Perhaps the most astonishing thing to come from all of these shenanigans is the discovery that he really was a bald fraud all along. What a twist.

U haul

Remember in the dim and distant past of a couple of weeks ago when the biggest existential crisis befalling a huge Manchester football club was the fact a 15-year-old with a bolshy dad didn’t want to play football for them any more? Better times. Simpler times.

But worry not. The JJ Gabriel discourse may have taken a back seat but it hasn’t disappeared altogether. Oh dear me no. The Daily Express bring us a significant update.

Man Utd news: JJ Gabriel U-turn performed after secret transfer meeting with ex-manager

Just in case you’re in any doubt about the significance of this JJ U-turn, the standfirst doubles down.

Manchester United have been in the news during the international break, with JJ Gabriel making a transfer U-turn.

See? A ‘transfer U-turn’. Only one thing a ‘transfer U-turn’ from a player who has stated a desire to leave can reasonably mean, isn’t there? Has to be that he wants to stay, doesn’t it?

LOL, LMAO etc. Obviously it doesn’t mean that. But the real fun was never in ‘does it mean what it says it means’ because we all know it doesn’t. No, the fun here lies in what has actually happened that has given the Express what they consider sufficient artistic licence elasticity for that headline.

While Gabriel does not seem to have relented, he has reinstated certain posts to his Instagram account following a wholesale deletion. Two posts have reappeared on the profile.

The first shows Gabriel after he signed a long-term deal with Nike in late 2025.

The second depicts the 15-year-old receiving the Under-18 Premier League Player of the Season Award from 2025/26, beaming alongside Alan Shearer and his trophy.

You almost have to grudgingly admire the hustle. Almost.

There’s more, though.

Instagram allows users to archive posts and restore them to their feed at any time.

Users may also retrieve deleted material within 30 days of removal, though it remains unclear which method Gabriel employed.

You can’t tease us like that, Daily Express! Please, we beg, find out immediately. The suspense is killing us.

In true 3 questions style:

How did JJ Gabriel reinstate his Instagram posts?

By what method were JJ Gabriel’s Instagram posts restored?

Two previously deleted JJ Gabriel Instagram posts have returned to his feed, but how?