Distracted Man City stars are not invincible - why 115 charges verdict is already taking its toll

· Mirror

Manchester City's players will now have major questions over what the future holds following a seismic week in relation to the 115 charges which have been brought against the club

Footballers are often painted as invincible superheroes. And Manchester City footballers are used to winning trophies year in and year out so probably feel invincible. They are generally sheltered from real life worries and stress.

But even City stars must have been rocked the seismic news of City being found guilty of breaching Premier League spending rules. The talk since Friday’s bombshell has been about the scale of the punishment, whether City will be relegated, expelled from the Premier League and potentially banned from the transfer market. In fact, it has been the only thing every football fan, every player and everyone in the game has been talking about.

And so it would be incredibly naive to suggest that City’s England players would not have been thinking and talking about it.

You only had to look at England’s performance against Spain to think the City contingent had been distracted.

Elliot Anderson was well below his incredibly high recent standards at Wembley against Spain on Saturday. Yes, Anderson was facing high class opponents who made it more difficult for him to play his game. For City lately, Anderson has been getting the ball, protecting it and hitting record numbers of passes. Controlling the game. Anderson lost the ball, was crowded out and, even though he was by no means the worst player, he was not at his very best against Spain.

Marc Guehi is so reliable, so consistent and yet he ran into trouble - and Lamine Yamal - to gift Spain the opening goal. Guehi was playing a slightly different role, pushing on to Dani Olmo and stepping out but even so he does not normally make mistakes.

Nico O’Reilly made an error leading to a goal. It cannot be a coincidence. I’ve seen former players suggest otherwise but it was a theme.

Thomas Tuchel denied it. Was it a distraction? Tuchel said: “Not for me but I can imagine maybe for the Manchester City players but for me not and I will not comment on that because it is an ongoing court case so I will not give any comment.

> "I didn't make it a topic. It was not a topic for me. I hear the news as the latest person in camp. I was just thinking about Spain and training and meetings and media meetings and individual meetings. Not for me.

> “For the players, they have more time than me, they have one training session. I can imagine they talk about it. It is good they do. I didn't feel they were distracted.”

You can be certain the players have been talking among themselves. They will have been chatting, gossiping and even agents would have been making calls.

Some players take being on international duty very seriously in respect of when they are with their countries they really do not think, talk or gossip about club matters. But when a story is this big… they could be out of the Premier League, facing Champions League exile and where does it leave their club careers? Will they have to move?

You cannot tell me that the City case - and talk about the club being relegated to League Two - has got nothing to do with England players suddenly defending like they are playing in League Two.

Portugal’s Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias would have been gossiping. Are you telling me no-one has asked Erling Haaland?

A one percent drop in focus makes a big difference in the Premier League - and is probably even bigger at international level.

Some players have told their nearest and dearest they do not want to think or talk about it. Why? Because they are probably sick of thinking about it.

It is bound to impact them and that is why I find it hard to believe it did not impact them on Saturday - and is a concern for the rest of this round of Nations League games.

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