Wayne Rooney, Manchester United’s all-time top scorer, has taken a surprisingly lenient stance when it comes to reviewing the crimes of Manchester City during his playing career. Suffice to say, his former teammates have not taken the same stance.
Three years after the Premier League first accused City of more than 100 breaches of rules relating to financial regulations, the side from the blue half of Manchester have now been found officially guilty by an independent commission. The Premier League gleefully reported the news with a stinging statement but Rooney, whose Manchester United side were denied the 2011–12 top-flight title by City on goal difference, used far softer language.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable about accepting another Premier League medal if I’m being honest,” Rooney told The United Stand podcast earlier this week, “because I don’t think we deserve it. We didn’t do enough that season to win the league.”
“They might take them away but I wouldn’t want it because I don’t feel as a team we deserved it that year because we obviously didn’t finish first,” he argued. It was not a stance shared by his teammates that season.
2011–12 Premier League Table
| Statistic | Man City | Man Utd |
|---|---|---|
| Position | 38 | 38 |
| Wins | 28 | 28 |
| Draws | 5 | 5 |
| Losses | 5 | 5 |
| Goals For | 93 | 89 |
| Goals Against | 29 | 33 |
| Goal Difference | +64 | +56 |
| Points | 89 | 89 |
Former United center back Rio Ferdinand led the counter-argument, promising to confront his City counterparts at the next available opportunity: “When I see Joleon [Lescott]—I’m actually going to go to his house and just say, ‘Listen, hand it over.’
“You can’t really sit there and say you were champions, can you?”
“Seriously tho. Ryan Giggs should have 14 Premier League titles.” Rio Ferdinand
United’s goalkeeper for that second-place finish in 2011–12, David de Gea, joined in on the pile-on. “So,” he asked. “Let’s talk. How many Premier League titles have I won then?”
MORE FALLOUT ON MAN CITY CHARGES VERDICT
• Seven Takeaways From Official Report Into Man City’s Nine Years of Cheating
• Premier League Stun Man City With Scathing Official Guilty Verdict
• Man City Charges: The Premier League’s Multi-Year Investigation Explained
• The Potential Punishments Facing Man City for 115 Premier League Charges
• The Premier League Champions If Man City Are Stripped of Titles
Should the Man City Players Be Blamed?
Sergio Agüero probably didn’t have inflated sponsorship negotiations on his mind when he slammed in a 94th-minute winner into the roof of Queen Park Rangers’ net with the last kick of the last game of the 2011–12 season. The guilt lies with individuals far removed from the field but, as the most prominent profiles related to the club, the players are naturally under scrutiny.
Rodri has been one of the most prominent ex-City players to defend his personal achievements but former Manchester United captain Roy Keane was adamant that all the club’s affected rosters should have their records wiped. “If I was a player, I’d be 100% sticking those medals in the bin,” the ITV pundit seethed. “Of course you would, it’s cheating. They won it on the pitch because cheating was going on.”
Rooney, however, argued in defense of City’s on-field contingent: “I’m thinking as their players, they’re there doing everything they can to win the Premier League title and in their minds they’ve done it.
“And, if those players have got no understanding of what’s going on above them, then if that happened to me—if all of a sudden Manchester United have been doing the same and I’m getting my Premier League medals taken away from me—I’d be absolutely devastated.”
