Calm amid the chaos - Inside Man City's first week of 115 charges hearing

Manchester City are in the eye of the storm this week, but as the winds batter the doors down outside, it turns out the calmest place to be is inside the confines of the City Football Academy.

Trial? What trial? If this week was the biggest of the season so far on the pitch, there was an even bigger battle taking place 200 miles away in a court room in London. Not that you'd know about it from inside the City bubble.

Unless you have avoided all forms of media this week, you have probably heard about City's 'Trial of the Century' that began on Monday. City's lawyers have spent 19 months preparing their case and finally got the chance to start presenting it this week. The hearing will last a few weeks longer, and it will be 2025 before a verdict is given.

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As much as everything changed this week, absolutely nothing changed - apart from the relentless volume of articles and TV packages about the trial. For a news item where there is ultimately no new news, it carries a remarkable interest among fans of all persuasions- because it's the biggest sports story in years.

On the Manchester Evening News, our best-read City stories have almost all been '115' updates - whether that punishment possibilities over punishments, opinion from financial experts or explainers of how the trial will unfold. But only a select few know what is actually happening in that courtroom.

The most revealing 'leaks' have been City's lawyers arriving for work at the court. Those leaks have been contained at the door and rightly so.

Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak made a semi-public