I am absolutely delighted to confirm that I have now made a childhood dream come true. Alongside on my ongoing legal career, Alhamdulilah I am now a fully licensed FIFA Football Agent after successfully passing the exam at Wembley. ⚽️ The grind starts now! Excited to begin.

Don’t want to comment too much on the situation as a licensed football agent and a lawyer but this Manchester City case outcome will single-handedly determine the Premier League’s credibility. Politics and football must never ‘need’ to clash. Money should NOT buy everything.

**EXCLUSIVE** Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak met a senior UK government minister to discuss the UAE’s investments in Britain just days before the club’s guilty verdicts were announced. Al Mubarak asked to meet Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds on 14 September in his capacity as CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, sources tell Bloomberg. The pair held a private meeting in Downing Street on that date, the people said. Al Mubarak talked about current and future UAE investment in Britain, they said. The conversation covered the full range of the relationship including defence, security, intelligence and trade, they said. Eleven days later, on 25 September, the Athletic reported Man City had been found guilty of breaking Premier League rules. On 29 September, the Premier League confirmed Manchester City had been found guilty of artificially boosting its balance sheet by more than £900 million. The fact of the meeting so close to the verdict will raise further questions about the UK government’s handling of the case. Andy Burnham has faced criticism, including from his own ministers and officials, after he publicly suggested Man City’s Abu Dhabi owners should not be disqualified from running the club because of the investment they bring to Britain. Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Emirati officials have warned the UK government that the severity of the ruling could undermine their appetite for future grand-scale commitments in Britain. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Bloomberg warned weeks ago that political pressure would be applied from the UK to the UAE, and it is happening in front of your eyes. This is the very definition of sportswashing and why nation states should not be allowed to own football clubs. Andy Burnham cannot interfere.

"Do you apologise to football fans? The Premier League says 'sham' contracts, is this a 'sham' club?" @RobHarris questions Man City chief executive Ferran Soriano after the club was found guilty of all charges related to Premier League's financial rules trib.al/YimvoPJ

This is significant. Tribunals are often reluctant to declare someone "dishonest" as it is quite a high bar. Not here:

RT @ftblhassan: Slow news day @Telegraph?

INEOS and the Glazers aren't destroying United, they've destroyed it. United fans suffer while these billionaires continue ruining this beautiful club. Protests don't work. So let's hit them where it hurts. Give the companies below your review. #BoycottUnited #GlazersAndIneosOut

The worst thing? The cycle is going to continue with United hiring a COMPLETELY different style of a coach like a Howe or Nagelsmann and we are going to have to rebuild an entire XI because they play high energy, high pressing football that we don’t have the players for.

"Those players have got to work harder for Michael Carrick or it will cause him a massive issue" 😬 Gary Neville says the Manchester United players have been outrun in every single match 😳

Context is key. 4 points away from Top 4, the situation is retrievable, no doubts that the board will be seeing it purely on numbers. Unfortunately, the issues are far, far greater with the players WALKING. If the manager doesn’t see the issue, his downfall is looming.

Yeah unfortunately if Carrick genuinely doesn’t see the lack of intensity or energy as a worry, then we are finished and sadly, so is he. He won’t be Manchester United manager for much longer and the cycle is going to continue. #mufc

"They were absolutely mannequins!" Gary Neville says Michael Carrick has to stop defending the Manchester United players.

Personally I find the lack signings/personnel complain rather redundant when you are consistently losing to/getting outplayed by side who are worse than you

Michael Carrick isn’t going to work out is he, shouldn’t have given him the job in the first place. Another chop and change once again. Tired of the endless cycle.

Why Carrick is fixated on Rashford on the left side? Why has he abandoned Mbeumo as the 9? Lacey deserved minutes today. There is no pressing, there is no urgency and there is no fitness level. No individual returning player will single-handedly fix this either. #mufc

An underserved point even in the end. I wasn’t saying it before but now unfortunately serious questions need to be asked about Michael Carrick. No intensity, no cohesive attacking football and defensively all over the shop. Patience is wearing extremely thin. #mufc

The ZERO intensity and complacency is going to put us into a relegation battle. Neither team trying to attack or run. We are genuinely sleep walking into the bottom 3. Amorim 14th place type finish loading up again.

This is a completely predictable structural failure, I can grab this image 5-10x from the first half at different moments.

Very, very concerning half that. Getting sliced through by one of the statistically worst sides in the league, could easily have let in 3 goals if it wasn’t for Lammens. Rashford with 2 huge misses. It’s unforgivable how slow we attack - there is NO reaction from our losses…

Still persisting with Cunha false 9. Hope we win today, because we HAVE to win today but that front 3 in that current positional set up has failed. Let’s see post international break with Sesko and Amad back whether he sticks by it. Has to be Sesko or Mbeumo centrally. #mufc