Ruben Amorim at Leeds during the Christmas festive run without 11 first team players and AFCON V Michael Carrick at Leeds with a near full squad and a recent transfer window at Leeds….One was sacked after their performance, another is calling it “progress” and celebrating it.

They have 40 odd charges for hiding information and literally stopping the auditors from investigating them. If the evidence was so clear they wouldn't have spent 4 years cloaking everything. They are, without question, the worst thing to ever happen to British sport.

Five games, five wins, top of the league. Manchester City, a fortnight after an independent commission found they systematically broke the Premier League's financial rules for nine straight seasons. So what exactly are we all watching? Not asking for the season to be scrapped. That's daft, and it punishes nineteen clubs who've done nowt wrong. But I'd like somebody at the Premier League to explain why the table at the top of every sports page is one they already know is wrong. Because here's where we actually are. The commission has ruled. City lodged their appeal on October 1st. No sanction has been announced. Nobody knows when it will be. Sky are reporting that Premier League clubs themselves don't expect City to even BE in this league next season if the appeal fails. And in the meantime, the league just carries on. Points are awarded. Positions are published. Clubs are planning January windows around a table that might be fiction. Think about who that actually hurts. Not City, they're fine, they're top. It's the club that goes down in May by two points and later finds out the table was never real. It's the club that sacks a manager in February over a league position that gets rewritten. It's the staff at a relegated club losing their jobs over a season nobody can stand behind. Real money, real people, decided by a table the league itself can't vouch for. And the bit that genuinely sticks in the throat. Everton got docked ten points, mid season, reduced to six. Forest got four. Both for single PSR breaches. Both punished DURING the season it mattered, so the table stayed honest. Eighty charges over nine seasons, plus thirty five for refusing to cooperate with the investigation into it, and somehow that one has to wait. Carragher's right. Do it this season. Whatever it is, apply it now, to this table, the way it was applied to Everton and Forest. Because every week this drags on, the Premier League is asking us to treat a standings table as real while quietly knowing it might not be. Due process matters and the appeal has to be heard, I'm not arguing with that. But there's a difference between due process and letting a club sit top of a competition for an entire season while the punishment for breaking that competition's rules sits in a drawer. The league's credibility isn't damaged by what City did ten years ago. It's damaged by what the league is choosing to do about it now. Nine seasons. Then three years of charges. Then a verdict. And still, somehow, nothing. Who's season is this, exactly? 🖤🖤 #PremierLeague #MCFC

You signed Trafford, then Donnuruma. Savio, then Ndiaye and Semenyo. Bravo, then Ederson. Phillips and Reinjders, then Anderson. All players who weren’t good enough, then replaced with money from inflated sponsorship. You don’t spend it better, you just cheated.

Manchester United's 'ticker' banner depicting the last time Manchester City won a trophy is back up at Old Trafford. The banner was a fixture in the 2000s, but was taken down after City won the FA Cup in 2011, by which time it had risen to ‘35 YEARS’. United fans have made their own ruling on City’s guilty verdict on Premier League charges, wiping all the trophies won since the Abu Dhabi takeover, and reinstalling the counter at ‘51 YEARS’, dating all the way back to their League Cup win in 1976. 📸 @lauriewhitwell 🔗 nyti.ms/4jg3FZP

Hope you enjoy Carrick-ball lads. This is what you wanted.

EPL will never retain its integrity if Manchester City are not removed from the league let’s be real.

"Get lost! How dare you ruin what's part of our country, our DNA in this country." Ian Holloway had some very strong words when asked about the Man City charges.

Another thing that needs checking is the money Man City supposedly get from selling their players. The numbers arent realistic enough (despite their reputation as decent sellers). I believe it's a big scam that could expose many clubs, including City's frequent transfer partners

The Coates family are worth billions, yet throughout their ownership of @stokecity we've still had to operate within the same rules as everyone else. They've invested hugely in Stoke-on-Trent, creating jobs through Bet365 and contributing millions to local charities, education and the NHS. But none of that gives them, or anyone else, a free pass on football's financial regulations. If the allegations against Man City are proven, the ramifications are enormous. The damage done to the integrity of the game would be immeasurable. Yet all we seem to hear is denial and deflection. Personally, I hope the Premier League throw the book at them.

‼️ City Are Guilty. Now Make the Punishment Fit the Crime I’ve written a lot about the Manchester City case over the years and people have often asked me the same question: What punishment would you impose if the findings survive appeal? Well, here it is. Finish this Premier League season, but impose a points deduction sufficient to guarantee relegation and, subject to acceptance, allow the EFL to place them wherever they see fit. Then: - No parachute payments. - 30 point deduction the following season. - 20 points the season after that. - 10 points the season after that. - Three years of severe transfer spending restrictions. - Strip the domestic honours directly affected, including those after the initial investigatory period, and leave them vacant. No retrospective champions. - Pay compensation where rival clubs can demonstrate genuine financial loss. And finally, any owners, directors or senior executives implicated in the wrongdoing (potentially: Sheikh Mansour, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Ferran Soriano, Danny Wilson, Claire Catlin, Txiki Begiristain etc.) should face the regulator’s suitability process and, where they fail it, be banned from English football. I don’t want Manchester City Football Club destroyed forever. City supporters, Liam Gallagher included, didn’t devise financial schemes or sit around boardroom tables constructing sham arrangements. I want the competitive advantage gained through years of rule breaking destroyed, and those responsible held accountable. One enormous points deduction followed by promotion and business as usual wouldn’t cut it. The consequences should follow City for years. Because if nine seasons of serious financial wrongdoing can ultimately be overcome with one bad season and a large cheque, what deterrent is there? Make the punishment hurt. Make it last. Make sure nobody ever considers doing it again.

Quick note. Manchester City's owners (the UAE government) gave money to premier league match officials Michael Oliver, Darren England, Dan Cook and Stuart Burt. Nothing to see here, though.

As much as it pains me to say it I fookin respect Man United as a football club. Liverpool United and Arsenal built absolute monsters over generations history trophies supporters worldwide fanbases. Proper football institutions. Then Chelsea and Shamchester City turned up with the billionaire cheat code and started waving the credit card around like a pissed up lottery winner. So this “Red Cartel” shite absolutely kills me. The Reds built the fookin castle you gang of crabs just bought one. 🦀😂

The Premier League has been around since 1992. 34 years. City have been cheating since 2009. 17 years. The Premier League has been tainted for 50% of its entire existence. The future of the competition is at stake. City must be banished from it.

I think a lot of Premier League fans will disconnect from following football on a weekly basis if the sanctions aren’t in line with the seriousness of the charges. It’s a dangerous path. We cant be expected to watch a fraudulent league for decades

🚨 Manchester City’s appeal could face a major complication after previous statements made by their own main sponsor, Etihad Airways, resurfaced. 🔸 In 2015, Etihad told the US government that claims Abu Dhabi’s government paid for its Manchester City sponsorship were “false”, insisting the deal was funded from its “own liquidity”. 🔸 City are now expected to argue as part of their appeal that additional sponsorship funding came from the Abu Dhabi government — rather than the club’s owners, ADUG. The 2015 Etihad statement therefore appears to contradict a key part of City’s appeal case. (Source: Sky Sports)