Manchester City’s achievements will always “belong to us” even if the club is stripped of its Premier League titles, says manager Pep Guardiola.
During that time, City won three Premier League titles, two of which were under Spaniard Guardiola.
“Nobody can remove it, the feelings, the good moments, the bad moments,” he said.
The first of City’s titles came in 2012 through Sergio Aguero’s memorable last-gasp winner on the final day against QPR, while in 2014 they finished first after a late run pipped Liverpool by two points.
The Reds were top with three games left, but a slip by captain Steven Gerrard saw Demba Ba go on to score as Chelsea beat them 2-0 at Anfield. Liverpool then drew 3-3 at Crystal Palace after being 3-0 up, while City won all their remaining games.
“Absolutely, they belong to us,” added Guardiola. “Regardless of the sentence, they belong to us.
“The moment from Sergio Aguero, with (Mario) Balotelli slipping him in. I don’t know if we are responsible for Steven Gerrard slipping. In that situation at Anfield I didn’t want that, for respect for Steven Gerrard, but is it our fault?
“The Premier League will decide but I know what we won, and the way we won it, with the effort we put in.
“For something that happened in 2009 or 2010 – I don’t know how long ago it was – this is not going to change that one second.”
The Premier League has referred City to an independent commission, who can impose punishments ranging from a fine and points deduction to expulsion from the league.
The Premier League also accused City of not co-operating since the investigation started in December 2018.
City, who were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, said they were “surprised” by the charges and are supported by a “body of irrefutable evidence”.
On Friday, Guardiola claimed the other 19 top-flight clubs had been the driving force behind the charges implemented by the Premier League.
In 2020, nine clubs – Burnley, Wolves, Leicester, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea – wrote to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) to request City’s two-year European ban for contravening Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations was not delayed during their appeal process.
Their request was dismissed and City won their appeal to Cas.
Guardiola said jealousy is “part of the sport” and that “when a team is winning you want to beat them”.
He added: “But what these nine teams have done, I don’t forget it. They want the position in the Champions League for the big amount of money to pay for the stadiums they built.
“They can be suspicious, that is OK, but (they should) wait. We can go with our lawyers and say, ‘Listen, we have done this and this’, as happened with Uefa.
“Wait, they didn’t. Not even one second.”
