Carragher: Strip City of titles, axe the owners for financial breaches

Over 100 breaches. That's the rap sheet. February 2023. These aren't minor infractions; they stretch from the 2009/10 campaign straight through to 2017/18. During that murky period, Sky Sports reminds us, City 'won' three Premier League titles, an FA Cup, three League Cups, and a Community Shield. Quite the haul for a club apparently playing by different rules.

City, naturally, denies everything. They're appealing the verdict by Friday, 2 October. Chief executive Ferran Soriano's take? Just a "Premier League conspiracy theory." Right. Because financial rules are purely theoretical when you're Manchester City.

For Carragher, stripping those honours is the bare minimum. Appropriate punishment, he calls it. But the real sting, he points out, isn't just about polishing tarnished medals. It's deeper. It's the emotional satisfaction – the pure, unadulterated joy players, clubs, and supporters felt in those trophy-lifting moments. City's actions? They've poisoned all of it. Forever.

His words ring true: "Those players will never get that feeling." Carragher gets it. Those trophy-winning highs? They're supposed to be etched in memory, permanent emotional timestamps. City, by their own hand, erased them.

Ownership? Carragher doesn't mince words. The people running this club, he argues, have no business in English football. Not after a decade of rule-bending and then doubling down with defiance when caught. He nails it: How can owners who thumb their nose at scrutiny, who operate beyond any real accountability, pass a "fit and proper" test? They can't. The club's reputation, already in the gutter, stays there until the top brass walk away. Or are shown the door.