Maresca admits he'd call City 'cheats' if he wore a United shirt

Enzo Maresca's got a funny way of defending his club. The Manchester City manager basically admitted on Tuesday that yeah, if he were a rival fan, he'd probably sling the same insults everyone else is. But he's not, so he won't.

City just got hammered with over 100 Premier League charges for financial rule breaches, and instead of pretending it didn't happen, Maresca's leaning into the awkwardness. Asked whether the verdict had somehow bonded the squad, he sidestep most of it but landed on something oddly honest: the fans are hurting way worse than the players or staff.

The comment came after City demolished Liverpool 3-0 on Sunday—their first match since the guilty finding dropped. A convincing win, sure, but Maresca seemed less interested in riding that momentum and more focused on acknowledging what everyone's actually thinking. The supporters have to live with this stuff. The players? They just play.

Rúben Dias, wearing the captain's armband, played the diplomatic card. "We're calm," he said. "We trust the club." Standard stuff when your organization's in the dock, but Dias sounded like he meant it. There's a weird kind of unity that happens when everyone's under fire together.

Maresca's approach is different from the usual corporate speak you get from managers in trouble. He's not pretending the charges don't exist or that City's reputation is spotless. Instead he's sort of saying: yeah, it looks bad, and I get why you're furious. If I weren't getting paid to be here, I'd probably think the same thing you do.

It's a refreshing bit of honesty in a situation that's anything but refreshing for City fans. The club's facing potential points deductions, transfer restrictions, or worse depending on how the independent commission rules. But for now, there's a 3-0 win at Anfield in the books and a manager willing to admit he's not blind to how this all looks from the outside.