Manchester United legend Gary Neville has used the recent hot water rivals Manchester City find themselves in to take a subtle jab at the Red Devils' neighbours.
Pep Guardiola's side have been embroiled in controversy after being charged by the Premier League who claim City have been guilty of 101 breaches of the league's financial rules. The investigation conducted by the league has gone on for more than four years.
City issued a statement announcing their "surprise" at the charges whilst welcoming the review and insist there is "irrefutable evidence" supporting their position on the matter which the club feels will put the issue to bed "once and for all".
Neville has since had his say on the situation while appearing on Sky Sports' Overlap debate show. The ex- England international explained how he felt City recording higher amounts of revenue than the likes of United or Real Madrid was a sign something wasn't right.
He also saw it as an opportunity to send a reminder of who the biggest club in Manchester is.
"When Manchester City started to present sponsorship or commercial revenues that were higher than Manchester United, Real Madrid and Liverpool, people would have started to think something is wrong," Neville claimed.
"City can never be as big a club as United on the global scale, when it comes to power. However, City do have greater revenues at this moment in time. That is something that is slightly unbelievable, and they’re going to have to answer.
"The owners have to clear themselves because if they do find themselves guilty, it will be a real problem for them, and it will be really damaging to their reputation."
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If Neville declaring that City will never be as big as United wasn't quite enough to get under the skin of the Etihad faithful, his bold suggestion that if football was about true sustainability then the Red Devils would win the league title every year might.
"If football was about true sustainability, Manchester United would probably always win the league. Their revenue is so high, that they would have so much money to spend on players, that it would become very unfair on the rest."
City said on Monday that they were "surprised" to have been charged by the Premier League with 101 alleged breaches of financial rules spanning from all the way back to 2009/10 up until 2017/18.
Unlike the UEFA punishment City were hit with in 2020 which was eventually overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, there is no clear method of appeal to these charges for the reigning Premier League champions.
It remains to be seen what kind of punishment City would face if they were to be found guilty of these alleged breaches in financial rules at this stage.
