“Now, more than ever, we have to show them that we are not money, we are talent,” Pep Guardiola is understood to have told his Manchester City players at a training ground meeting on Saturday.



It came less than 24 hours after UEFA had announced that the club would be banned from the Champions League for two years for allegedly overstating sponsorship revenue and failing to co-operate with the subsequent investigation.



With Guardiola and his players returning to England on Friday night after their winter break, there was always going to be a team meeting before training and the resumption of their season, but nobody expected it to be under these circumstances.



Sources say the mood in the room was defiant, with one describing the message as being along the lines of, “If UEFA don’t love us, fuck it, we’ll show them.”



Guardiola was in full flow as he bid to rally his troops for their biggest match of the season, the...