It’s been an extremely difficult few days for Manchester City.

The Premier League club were hit with a two-year ban from the Champions League and slapped with an additional £25 million fine for “serious breaches” of UEFA’s financial regulations last Friday.

City confirmed they were not surprised by the ruling but will submit an official appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in an attempt to have the punishment overturned.

The Premier League, meanwhile, may conduct their own separate investigation to find if City are guilty of breaching financial rules.

It’s possible - although perhaps unlikely - that City would then face the prospect of being kicked out of the Premier League if found guilty of any wrongdoing.

The Independent say that the Football League recently changed their rules so that any club in that situation must start again in League Two.

The idea of Man City being demoted to League Two may sound incredibly far-fetched at this stage but it’s certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.

Indeed, Pep Guardiola has already spoken to his players about the idea of competing in English football’s fourth tier, according to Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol.

He claims that Guardiola has told his players: “Whatever league we are in, I will still be here. Even if they put us in League Two, I will still be here. This is a time for sticking together.”

Very interesting.

Many people expect Guardiola will leave the Etihad Stadium if City’s punishment is not overturned by CAS.

But the revered Catalan coach, who has been strongly linked with Juventus, clearly plans on staying for the foreseeable future.

Can you imagine Pep coaching against the likes of Grimsby, Oldham and Mansfield every week?

It’s not exactly what he signed up for when he took the City job back in 2016.

But you have to admire his loyalty.

Meanwhile, City’s CEO Ferran Soriano is understood to have told the players: “Trust me like I trust you, this will be dropped.”

It seems those at the top of the club are confident their appeal will be successful, but it’s certainly a nervy time for everybody associated with the club.

If the worst does happen, at least they’ll still have one of the world’s best coaches in charge of the first team.