Manchester City’s glory cannot be taken away from the players, says Kyle Walker

Manchester City’s glory years cannot be taken away from the players, despite the club being found guilty of all charges of breaching Premier League financial rules over a nine-year period, insists former captain Kyle Walker.

City have appealed against last week’s seismic judgment of an independent commission that they broke rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18, with the club found to have boosted their income by a staggering amount of more than £900m. Walker spent eight years at City from 2017 to 2025, winning the Champions League as well as 12 major domestic honours. “Obviously it doesn’t look great,” said the current Burnley captain on TalkSport. “It’s in an appeal stage so for me to start commenting on the legal action … it’s not going to do myself justice or anyone involved in it.

“But, at a personal level, I can say the lads, we spent many and many a great year celebrating many trophies and everything like that and that’s something that, whatever happens, they can’t take away from us because we’ve experienced them nights. So, whatever will be, will be, and it’s just down to the appeal now and what goes from there.”

Walker conceded City’s gulty verdict is not an easy subject for former players to discuss. “It’s something we don’t want to talk about because we want to be looked upon as winning them trophies, winning them the right way,” he said. “It’s very difficult because we’ve worked very hard for them.”

A City statement released last Friday read: “The club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.

“The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions relating to this case.”