Our regular Q&A this week looks at Manchester City’s North Stand and the futures of some of Pep Guardiola’s key men.

A lot can happen in a week, and it’s certainly been an eventful time at Manchester City since our last Q&A. Pep Guardiola’s side knew their Premier League destiny was in their own hands a few days ago, with maximum points from their remaining league games ensuring they would be crowned champions. That is no longer the case.

The disappointing 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night saw Arsenal stretch their advantage at the top of the table to seven points. But you can guarantee that won’t be the last twist in this pulsating title race.

City have also been drawn against Real Madrid in the Champions League, of course. City will travel to the Spanish capital next week for the first leg of their last 16 tie, but before then they head to Newcastle as they look to keep their FA Cup hopes alive.

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With so much going on at the club, we’ll be hosting weekly Q&A sessions with our chief City writer Simon Bajkowski. The day of the week it comes out on may change depending on what City’s schedule looks like, but essentially this is your chance to get an answer on anything you want – simply pop your question here at any time of the week and Simon will pick them all up and wrap everything up in one place.

“Do you think that the club & the supporters groups should launch a campaign for ‘Two ends are better than one’. 1894 would prefer to remain (wrongly imo) in SSL0 and NSL2 appears to be in limbo with no distinct ‘atmosphere’ identity. Imagine the atmosphere if NSL2was populated with 6000 noisy, Mancunians complementing 1894 & SS. Two ends are better than one !!” Andrew Hulme

Are they expecting to open the extended North Stand seating for any games this season? Tommy

Hi Andrew, I will pass your thoughts onto the marketing team at the club. Or maybe they’re reading this and can take it from the horse’s mouth. You would think that the club already have slogans thought up given every aspect of the new entertainment district has its name and the branding in the North Stand has been so prominent for so long. You are right though that, as I wrote this week, it really isn’t clear what anybody wants the North Stand to be.

There are going to be thousands of rail seats and new Flexi Gold tickets in the seats so there is an opportunity to make it for singers but it needs to be openly advertised like that pretty quickly if that is what is desired (I’m sure the club would say they want this but they haven’t done much in practice to back this up). There are new hospitality sections though as well and the club will want to find a balance. I’m expecting the noisiest part of the ground to remain the bottom tier of the south stand but it would be nice if they had something new to bounce off.

As for when the North Stand will open, that also remains to be seen. As far as I’m aware it is still expected to be this season, but with the test events that are needed before tickets can be sold there aren’t many games left this season. Having said that, there’s the potential for the last game of the season to be at home against Aston Villa so even one game would be better than nothing.

Has the 115 charges been dropped? Oliver

I hope so Oliver, so we can all move on with our lives and never talk about it again. Sadly, as far as I’m aware we are still waiting for news of the verdict from the hearing that finished 15 months ago. Only Richard Masters can answer if he knew it would take this long when the Premier League laid all of the charges against City in 2023 but it is a pretty sorry state and needs to be carefully managed – especially now City are approaching the home straight of another title race.

City fans won’t want a verdict announced between now and the end of the season because so many people will say City are guilty regardless (they will likely get fined for lack of co-operation as a minimum) and it could distract the team, but Arsenal will be screaming for any help that they can get. As soon as justice is ready, there is an argument that it should be released immediately. That is up to the Premier League though, who have to make sure this situation doesn’t damage their reputation and competition any further.

We don’t want ex Chelsea boss as peps replacement if it happens? Mark Eastwood

What are the chances of Pep leaving and Maresca replacing him as of now ? Ben

An interesting time for two questions about Enzo Maresca to pop up, given there haven’t been anything recent linking him to the City job. Guardiola’s departure remains unknown, with more comments this week about the energy he gets from adapting his team to cope with new challenges in the league. Does that sound like a manager who won’t be seeing out his contract? It’s very possible he is rejuvenated because he knows he only has to keep going until the end of the season and then he is done, but there is plenty to be excited about with this young team and the January signings are already talking about how much Guardiola has improved them.

Maresca is one of the candidates liked and respected by City for his work – Guardiola has given plenty of praise to his effort at Chelsea – but, as the questions suggest, isn’t likely to be a popular choice with supporters. In that sense though, will anyone other than Vincent Kompany be? Replacing Guardiola is in the same ballpark as United replacing Sir Alex Ferguson, even if City feel they are far better prepared for it.

It will take some getting used to for fans, who can’t have the same expectations – they just need a manager who gives them enough for everyone to get behind them. Maresca could be that man – timing may dictate things as much as anything – but patience will be required if he is.

Why does Guardiola so used to very small squad knowing fully well that when injuries set in, the team becomes depleted and they struggle to survive as a result of the absence of key players? Charles

It’s a question that won’t go away for Guardiola, and in the middle of City’s injury crisis this season a lot were saying it very loudly. You could put the injuries in one season down to bad luck, but when it happens in consecutive seasons is it poor planning? There is an argument that the increasing demands of the schedule give needs for an increasingly large squad.

However, City weathered the storm in January and their injury situation now looks a lot better. With a smallish squad, Guardiola is at the point where he is able to rally everybody for the final few months of the season and tell them their contribution will be important whereas with a bigger squad some would be case aside. That is a strategy that has given the manager immense success, so it feels foolish to deviate from it.

Hi, we have a question: What is Bernardo Silva’s future and situation with Manchester City in light of the circulating news about him? Will he leave at the end of the season or stay? Abood

I want to know what’s going about Rodri contract and also our captain Bernie. Ahmad

There’s lots of interest from supporters about whether Bernardo Silva will stay in a way that there really wasn’t last season. The captain’s future is similar to the manager in the sense that it is under lock and key – Silva told us at the beginning of October that he had made a decision so even if it doesn’t change the fact it hasn’t leaked is telling. It would be a surprise if Silva stayed, but City will keep working until the day he does leave to offer him the chance of another year in basically any capacity because of how important he has shown himself to be again this season.

Rodri’s future is also coming into immediate attention. It hasn’t been seen as a priority by either side while the player has been coming back to his best from injury and City will like to think they have lots of credit in the bank from the way they have treated him around last season both with the ACL and with the Ballon d’Or. It’s a niggly one because there will always be links with the top Spanish clubs but for the time being both player and club are comfortable without having anything signed.