After Arsenal dismantled Manchester City during August’s Community Shield, Enzo Maresca had seen enough to make a change immediately.Mikel Arteta’s team physically overpowered them in a 3-0 defeat, which Maresca accepted as likely when naming a team including four World Cup stars who had barely completed a training session beforehand. More concerning was the way in which Arsenal nimbly evaded a defensive set-up that relied upon player positioning over a relentless press.Maresca vowed to alter his approach: City would lean into aggression and hunt from the front to unsettle opponents, which has prompted helter-skelter matches and made them the most watchable team in the Premier League.The Italian’s rapid change to his defence comes in direct contrast to how his bosses have treated their own over the last week. Unbending and unyielding, City’s executive arm is taking the guilty findings of a three-person independent commission on the ‘sham’ sponsorship contracts and disguised funding schemes as high as it can. With the same ‘irrefutable evidence’ around the source of finances, with Lord Pannick to argue on the facts of law and process in front of appeal judges.City’s players were told the majority of this when a video from chief executive Ferran Soriano dropped in all employees’ inboxes at around 5.30pm last Tuesday, shortly after the League’s explosive statement with the jaw-dropping judgment.With the squad returning from the extended three-week international break on Thursday to prepare for the Anfield cauldron on Sunday, this is the inside story of how the biggest bombshell in Premier League history landed at City HQ – as the players prepare to enter the wreckage for the first time. Man City’s players found out about the Premier League’s explosive statement last Tuesday at the same time as the rest of the world The Anfield bearpit awaits on Sunday as City’s players get their first taste of what it will be like after the independent commission’s guilty verdictA matter of days before their world fell in, it was ‘bonus week’ at the City Football Academy, with staff across all departments of the business remunerated for last season’s domestic cup Double. Five-figure sums were sitting in bank accounts on the fateful Tuesday.Only seven days before, the Independent Regulator was ratifying the appointment of Claire Catlin as the new chief finance officer, joining from the Moto service station operators. A lively start to life in football for her, with no fewer than eight job opportunities across the club posted over the past few days.As the Soriano video landed, England weren’t far from kicking off in Prague, with Nico O’Reilly and Marc Guehi wearing quizzical expressions when photographed listening to audio off a mobile phone.Thomas Tuchel has since admitted that his City cohort, which also includes Elliot Anderson, were naturally worried throughout the international camp, although lauded their professionalism during meetings and training sessions. The charges and the verdict were an almost constant topic around the breakfast and dinner tables, an inescapable hum to their four Nations League matches.Some of City’s players have been in regular contact with their representatives over the past week and a half, peppering them with often unanswerable questions. Clearly and understandably confused about their immediate futures.When Guehi, Anderson and Josko Gvardiol convened inside the centre circle after the 7-0 demolition of Croatia on Saturday, it was not difficult to guess what might be under discussion. Anderson snaffled Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic’s shirts as keepsakes.There has been a distance from the furore back home over the break, especially when cocooned in a camp. Away from the online tribalism, the daily debate on punishments or validity of City’s confidence of exoneration. Away from staff calling line managers worried for their jobs and becoming victims of abuse in the street. Players haven’t seen any of this but that stops from this weekend, when they go to Liverpool with a 100 per cent record and sit three points clear at the top. Anfield represents a monumental test, a stadium at its most ferocious when either Manchester club turns up – and especially so with something resting on the result. England weren’t far from kicking off in Prague when the League’s statement landed, with Nico O’Reilly (right) and Marc Guehi (left) pictured listening to audio off a mobile phone Thomas Tuchel (right) admitted that his City cohort, includes Elliot Anderson (centre) were naturally worried throughout the international camp, although lauded their professionalism City’s squad all return to training on Thursday. Six years ago in the wake of their Champions League ban, ultimately overturned by CAS, there was a talk delivered by Soriano to explain the situation. Maresca must be acutely aware of the tone to strike, the interactions with his players – all of whom have warmly taken to him over the past three months – are some of the most important of his coaching career.Sources close to players have pointed to how no two people are likely to digest the developments in the same way and that will take some serious man management from the head coach. There is defiance among some, that they are insistent on winning the title – whatever that feat or state of the table might look like by the end of the season – and that there are no thoughts about bailing out.Others though are naturally more nervous. There have been agents discussing ‘just cause’ provisions in contracts – options held by club and player – and whether severe punishment amounting to relegation may give reason to rip up contracts. But equally, they are stressing a wait-and-see approach ahead of the appeal.Many agents will be going back over the deals they signed for their clients – none of which have relegation release clauses in them. There are normally three main elements to a City contract: a basic wage, a Champions League qualification bonus and a further bonus based on percentage of achievable minutes played across a campaign. Given City’s sustained success, those make up what is in effect a guaranteed salary.For some players the portion of their salary in their total pay will be at 60 per cent, with others nearer 75. But all of them work within City’s wage and bonus structure and the extras represent a hefty chunk of their pay. A £300,000-a-week deal might equate to £200,000 up front. It’s understood that the bonus for minutes played is only stipulated in contracts as being valid in the Premier League, Champions League and domestic cup competitions, so those would be voided in the eventuality of relegation as well as the European bonus.All of that is under consideration for representatives but their messages to clients have been to concentrate on what they can affect, starting with Liverpool on Sunday. As Gianluigi Donnarumma’s agent said on Wednesday: ‘Nothing will change for us or for Gigio. The club has spoken with Gigio and everyone is calm. Now there are important games against Liverpool and PSG, then sporting justice will take its course. But Gigio has had reassurances from City.’Those who know Maresca revealed this week that he has been preaching the same, cutting a relaxed figure when going about his daily routines in Cheshire. ‘All I can do is the football,’ he has smiled with friends, in a direct contradiction to the stony-faced picture of him driving to work on Monday.He knew that this jolt might be on the horizon when taking over in the summer. Like Guardiola, Maresca was provided assurances by the club. Rather unfairly it will be him who faces the music at Friday’s press conference. While formerly an assistant manager and Under 21s coach, Maresca was not here in the years in question. Antoine Semenyo was pulled from an engagement with a sponsor on Monday and no City star spoke about the charges to the media during the international break. Trips to Anfield have been fractious enough at the best of times for City, and they must now face the searing hostility post-guilty verdict Liverpool fans ‘greet’ Pep Guardiola in 2022. Enzo Maresca, his assistant then but not around for the years under scrutiny, will have to bear the brunt of the fallout Those who know Maresca revealed this week that he has been cutting a relaxed figure when going about daily routines in Cheshire. ‘All I can do is the football,’ he has smiled with friendsMaresca’s public appearances prior to now have been impressive, a hint of mischief – as seen when throwing a look to Wayne Rooney live on Amazon after winning in Porto ahead of the Manchester derby – mixed with clear ideas on what he is seeing from his team.Maresca knew City’s squad needed a push, a new voice, and has been enthused by a group with curious minds and eagerness to learn. Also helping is the training ground gym’s modernised expansion – a hit with players, with a new broom and music in open training so loud that broadcasters pitchside have asked in vain for it to be dialled down. Whether the mood remains as spirited now will become clear over the coming weeks as hostility cranks, with one fan on the Blue Moon Podcast likening the trips around the country to The Dirty Dozen.There is an unknown to this, to how the characters may react to a baying public. It’s not the same squad as 2023, when the initial charges dropped and City romped to a Treble in response. And rivals feel a sense of vindication from the commission’s guilty verdict, emboldened to unify in their deafening vilification.Maresca will have to lean into that, will need to use his start to life at the Etihad Stadium to provoke a response. For while the majority of Premier League viewers will vow to consign the coming weeks and months to the bin as the legal warfare continues, it matters to those players and it matters to their manager.