The majority of people involved in the game speak it with a high degree of sophistication.
asserted
majority → involve → sophistication
Minor deviations from the familiar, almost imperceptible to outsiders, can set off alarm bells:
asserted
deviations → set → bells
what’s really going on there?
asserted
what → go → ?
What’s she hinting at?
asserted
she → hint → What
But it’s an argot developed to talk about football, and when applied to other subjects, it can sound extremely jarring.
asserted
it → ’ → subjects
There’s an appealing quirkiness to him that suggests he has a higher-than-usual level of self-awareness.
uncertain
he → ’ → awareness
He doesn’t mind stepping outside the norms, being a bit different.
asserted
He → mind → norms
“It was tough,” he said.
asserted
he → say → ?
“It was hard but we showed amazing character from back to front.
asserted
we → show → front
[It’s] important to stay strong mentally, stick together and do what you can do something about, and the thing we can do something about is to play good football and fight together.
asserted
we → ’ → football
That’s the only thing we can do.”
asserted
we → ’ → ?
Strip away the context and he could be talking about an injury crisis, or perhaps the resignation of a manager or a suspension to a key player.
uncertain
he → strip → player
The tropes are familiar: it was hard but we stuck together and so we prevailed.
asserted
we → stick → ?
“You want to win games, it’s as simple as that,” he went on.
asserted
he → want → that
This was a mental battle, [it’s] never easy coming back from internationals.
asserted
it → ’ → internationals
But of course this wasn’t really about coming back from internationals; that’s not what made this difficult for City.
asserted
this → come → City
This was about the verdict of the independent panel looking into the charges brought against City, the fact that the club have been found guilty of the greatest act of sustained cheating in the history of English football.
asserted
club → look → football
Nobody knows what’s coming next.
asserted
what → know → ?
The gravity of the situation still seems to have not dawned on many in football.
asserted
gravity → seem → football
City, as is their right, continue to maintain their innocence and have appealed.
asserted
right → continue → innocence
The propaganda battle goes on.
asserted
battle → go → ?
If City had objected to the regulations they had every opportunity to raise objections and vote against them.
asserted
they → object → them
They did not.
asserted
They → do → ?
They agreed to the regulations, and while everybody else played to them, they did not.
asserted
they → agree → them
The excuse that they only spent what others did but that they operated under stricter controls because of a lack of historic success is not merely irrelevant but entirely bogus: in the nine years under investigation, City’s net spending on transfers, before taking into account wages, was over £1.2bn ($1.6m), around 50% more than any other Premier League side.
asserted
spending → spend → side
And for all their talk of being proud disruptors, of rebels taking on the “red cartel”, that spending transformed City into the most dominant side English football has ever known, with six league titles in seven years.
asserted
football → take → years
He is a footballer offered a very competitive salary to play alongside very good players for a very good manager for a club for which his father played.
asserted
father → offer → which
This is another of football’s absurdities: it’s always the manager and players who end up becoming the faces of the institution, being quizzed about things that have very little to do with them as the executives and directors responsible lurk away from public scrutiny.
asserted
executives → ’ → scrutiny
“My message to the players since we were together three days ago, when they all came back from their national teams, has been quite clear,” Enzo Maresca said.
asserted
Maresca → come → teams
’s about how we learn to deal with the noise and it’s our duty to make our noise.
asserted
it → ’ → noise
Our noise is to win games in the way we did today and to be happy.”
Which on the one hand is absurd: nobody knows whether the three points City claimed at Anfield will still be theirs by Christmas.
asserted
City → win → Christmas
Nobody knows what division they will be playing in next season.
asserted
they → know → division
Nobody knows how bad the sanction could be.
uncertain
sanction → know → ?
And this is not some unfortunate event that has befallen City; this is the direct consequence of the actions of their directors.
asserted
this → befall → directors
But on the other, what else can players and managers do?
asserted
players → do → what
How else can they respond to this situation other than by being professional and trying to win games, even if none of it ultimately means anything?
asserted
none → respond → anything
What this is emphatically not, though, is just another football crisis from which City can move on by winning football matches.
asserted
City → move → matches
This is a crisis unlike anything English football has ever known, and it is one with which football’s language is struggling to cope.
-
This is an extract from Soccer Desk, a newsletter from the Guardian US.
asserted
This → know → US
The Aporia
