That was the Week that Was (Jun 24-29 2024)

Monday Jun 24:

The hero who hacked Man City’s emails and exposed them for all the shit they’ve been up to says he has more emails that prove their guilt and there’s enough there for the authorities to find criminal activity. I wondered why he hadn’t already released them, but it’s probably the smart thing to do to keep them back as an insurance policy so he doesn’t mysteriously “disappear”. He’s not taking on a football club here, he’s going up against the U.A.E. and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say his life is probably in danger.

This is from the Mirror and honestly I don’t know how this isn’t massive headline news everywhere. “Pinto, who has been in a witness protection programme since 2020 after being unmasked as the man behind the football leaks revelations, says he has handed over five hard drives which will implicate the club. The 35-year-old shared some hacked City emails with the media in 2018, but kept hold of the vast majority, which he says have now been shared with the relevant authorities.

“The Man City releases showed amounts of money being paid into by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities. These documents are from part of the Premier League investigation into City. I have now handed five hard drives to French and German authorities with millions of documents, including more on City and I have described what is on each. I am confident they will find criminal relevancy.”

Lot to unpack there, but firstly the question should be how come he’s had to go in witness protection? What are the authorities worried about here? Who would be a threat to his life? City’s owners? Noel Gallagher? Curly Watts? Little and Large? He’s having to live like Henry Hill in case the mafia come for him.

I didn’t know about most of that stuff in the Mirror. I thought the emails that were leaked were all he had but now we’re hearing that he kept hold of the “vast majority”. I mentioned above that it makes sense to keep some as an insurance policy but for the ones that we knew about to only be the ‘tip of the iceberg’ is quite the revelation. The ones that were released had them bang to rights. I read a few of them and their guilt is indisputable. Now we hear there are more that are even more incriminating? Fucking hell, this is the biggest story in English football in years but virtually nobody is even mentioning it.

Imagine if this was us, or United, or Arsenal. City’s irrelevance is working massively to their advantage here. Why has he handed the evidence to French and German authorities though? Is he afraid that if he handed them to the English authorities they might “go missing” perhaps? If so, he’s a smart cookie. I wouldn’t fucking trust anyone over here with this kind of shit either. Abu Dhabi would be on the blower to whichever fucking stooge happens to be Prime Minister and before you know it, government pressure would make it al go away.

Whatever happens to City, anything short of the being wiped off the face of the planet means they’ve got off lightly.

Meanwhile, Darwin scores for Uruguay in Copa America. He missed a few chances before that though so there’s enough for everyone there, lovers and haters alike. What a guy, always thinking of others.

We were linked strongly with Nico Williams today as there’s a buyout clause that’s only around £45m or something. He’s on massive wages though so we’d have to at least match those. Lots of people believe there’s something in this, my gut says there isn’t and I’m just waiting on the Pearce the Grim Reaper to shoot it down.