Manchester City are alleged to have broken a shedload of Premier League financial rules – but what would football have looked like if they hadn't?
Just in case you have been living under a rock over the last week, the Premier League have charged Manchester City with an astonishing 101 breaches of their financial rules.
In short, should an independent commission find City guilty of the charges, the club will be viewed to have systematically cheated the system since their big-money takeover back in 2008.
As of right now, no punishment is off the table – whether that be a fine, transfer ban or even expulsion from the Premier League altogether. City could even have Premier League titles or domestic cups taken off them, as Juventus did following the scandal of the 2000s.
The concept of history essentially being re-written like this – if the breaches did in fact take place of course – got us thinking. Specifically, what would English football have looked like if City's apparent infractions hadn't taken place?
What if the Citizens were not able to blow their competition out of the water with league-high wages, record infrastructure investment and huge transfer fees? What if they weren't Premier League big dogs, merely a small fish in a giant pond?
Here are ten things that might have happened on that alternate timeline…
Getty ImagesLiverpool would have another title
This one is fairly obvious.
During the 2021-22 campaign Liverpool pushed Manchester City all the way, losing just twice all season and amassing a stunning 92 points – which was one fewer that City managed.
Would City have got over the line without their embarrassment of riches? Almost certainly not.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesHaaland would be Chelsea's perfect number nine
Chelsea have long been cursed on the striker front, with a string of high-profile – and expensive – recruits failing to make the No.9 shirt their own.
How different things could have been this season if they'd managed to blow Manchester City's bid for Erling Haaland out of the water in the summer of 2022.
Getty ImagesJack Grealish would be tearing it up at Aston Villa
Needless to say that Jack Grealish's £100m ($121m) move – a British record fee before Chelsea's coup of Enzo Fernandez this winter – would never have occurred without City's riches.
Few other clubs could have matched the winger's exorbitant release clause, meaning Grealish would still be flying for his boyhood club. How Villa would take that right now.
Getty ImagesSomeone else might have won the Carabao Cup for once
Liverpool being crowned last season's winners was a welcome break from the norm. Before that, City had won five of the last six, taking their tally to six trophies since the takeover.
Despite many fans rubbishing the League Cup in its early stages, most eventually recognise it as a vital opportunity for silverware. Without City's flagrant dominance, someone else might have actually had the chance to win it.