Former Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera is bitter over the Premier League title that he was deprived of during Manchester City‘s decade of rules breaching.
Manchester City were last month found guilty on almost all of the 100-plus charges of serious breaches of Premier League financial regulations between 2009 and 2018.
Herrera, who played for Manchester United from 2014 until 2019 and is now on the books of Real Zaragoza, told the Mario Suárez podcast: “I would have a Premier League title.
“It really changes the picture when you have a Premier League Former Man United midfielder Herrera on City breaches: ‘Damage irreparable’.”
There have been calls for Manchester City to be stripped of the three Premier League titles won during the nine-year period. Herrera won four trophies in his five years at Old Trafford but the Premier League was not one of them.
Under José Mourinho, Manchester United finished second, 19 points adrift of City in the 2017-18 campaign.
“It was the year [2018] when Mourinho said that bit about ‘I give a lot of credit to this second-place finish because nobody knows what’s going on behind the scenes’,” Herrera, 37, said.
“Mou [Mourinho]’s like The Simpsons — whatever he says, it ends up happening. And he’d already been saying that something strange was going on.
“You have to follow the rules, and what was happening wasn’t right — we all realised that. I’ve had friends who’ve come to Manchester and they couldn’t get tickets to go to Old Trafford, yet the ones for the Etihad were being given away for free. They don’t have the fan base, but they spend as if they did…”
Herrera said he sympathises with Manchester City players and staff.
“Nothing to say about the players, nothing to say about the manager [Pep Guardiola],” the Spaniard said. “They deserve all the credit in the world for what they’ve achieved.
“If I were a Manchester City player, I’d be angry; I’d be furious with those in charge because they’ve tarnished and cast doubt on everything the team has achieved over the years.”
Sanctions have not yet been announced but Herrera agrees with former Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney that the punishment must be significant considering the “irreparable damage” it caused other clubs.
“For me, it has to be something big, something that sets a precedent — as Rooney said recently,” Herrera said.
“It has to set a precedent so that the next person who says, ‘I’m going to inflate the revenue illegally’ will think, ‘No, I won’t do it because I’ll get relegated.’
“Nottingham Forest were sanctioned [with a four-point deduction in the 2022-23]; Everton were sanctioned [with a 10-point deduction in the 2021-22 season].
“The damage they [Man City] have caused is obviously irreparable.
“In terms of revenue, Tottenham finished fifth for three consecutive years and failed to qualify for the Champions League. That has a significant financial impact on Tottenham.”
