Steven Gerrard has accused Manchester City of stealing memories from him, his team-mates and rival sides during the nine-year period in which the club was found to have broken Premier League financial rules.
Speaking on The Overlap Daily podcast, the former England midfielder said he had heard City players, fans and celebrity supporters insist that nobody could take their moments away. But he countered that the City players, owners and everyone connected with the club should think about the memories they had potentially stolen from everyone else over that nine or ten year period.
Gerrard captained Liverpool to a second-place finish in the 2013-14 season, when Manuel Pellegrini's City won the title by two points. One of the defining moments of that title race was Gerrard's famous slip against Chelsea, which allowed Demba Ba to score and ultimately cost Liverpool the match and, arguably, the championship.
City were found guilty by an independent commission of breaching more than 100 Premier League financial rules between 2009 and 2018. In that period they won three Premier League titles, three League Cups and an FA Cup. The commission concluded that the club had disguised around £830 million of owner funding through sham sponsorship arrangements, allowing it to spend significantly more than allowed under spending limits.
At Anfield on Sunday, when City beat Liverpool 3-0 in their first match since the commission's findings were published, Liverpool fans unfurled a banner above the player tunnel reading Gerrard Premier League Winner 2014. However, Gerrard himself made clear he would not expect players to give up their medals or that titles should be reassigned retrospectively.
Former City captain Vincent Kompany, who won four Premier League titles at the club and is now Bayern Munich's head coach, said he remained proud of what the club achieved on the pitch during his eleven years there, adding that as a player he was not involved in the financial matters.
The row over what the guilty verdict means for medals, titles and sporting legacy is likely to run for years. City have appealed the verdict, insisting the commission's judgment contains material errors and is unsafe, and the sanctions process that could strip titles or impose points deductions is yet to begin. For Gerrard and the generation of players who competed against City at their peak, the debate is personal: a question of whether the defining moments of their careers were contested on a level playing field.