Sunderland were 1-0 up against City at half-time in the 2014 League Cup final, and for 45 minutes at Wembley they had every reason to believe a famous afternoon was taking shape.
Fabio Borini’s early goal had given Gus Poyet’s side the lead. Then, ten minutes into the second half, Yaya Touré produced one of the defining goals of his City career, curling an extraordinary long-range effort beyond Vito Mannone.
Samir Nasri put City ahead barely a minute later before Jesús Navas completed a 3-1 victory. More than 12 years on, nothing has changed about the quality of Touré’s goal or what happened on the pitch.
What has changed is the context in which that trophy can now be remembered.
Wilson revisits City’s 2014 Wembley triumph
In a Guardian column examining how City’s trophies should now be viewed, Jonathan Wilson returns to that League Cup final following the independent commission’s findings against Manchester City.
Wilson describes City during that period as being involved in what he calls a “prolonged and calculated act of cheating”. That is Wilson’s take, rather than the wording of the commission, but it follows a verdict that found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League.
Our Man City guilty verdict explainer covers those findings in detail. City strongly reject the conclusions and have lodged an appeal.
The commission found that commercial arrangements were used to disguise funding and artificially increase City’s reported revenues. It also examined payments associated with former manager Roberto Mancini, including money recorded through a separate consultancy agreement rather than his City employment contract.
Those findings don’t alter the score at Wembley. They do, however, provide information that wasn’t available to Sunderland supporters watching their team come so close to ending a 41-year wait for a major trophy.
Sunderland were left wondering what might have been
Victory would also have secured Sunderland a place in the following season’s Europa League. Instead, City’s rapid second-half turnaround delivered Manuel Pellegrini his first trophy in English football.
That is where Wilson’s wider argument becomes uncomfortable for City supporters. The question isn’t whether Touré really scored that goal or whether City won 3-1; both remain part of football’s record. It is whether trophies won during the period covered by the commission’s findings will now be viewed in precisely the same way.
There has been no ruling stripping City of the 2014 League Cup, and Sunderland have not retrospectively been awarded it. City’s appeal against the wider commission verdict is now under way, meaning the legal and disciplinary process itself has not reached its conclusion.
But the publication of the findings means discussions about City’s success during that period now take place with information that wasn’t available when those trophies were won.
Touré’s goal remains a magnificent piece of football. Nasri’s finish still transformed the final moments later, and Navas still sealed City’s victory. The football hasn’t changed. The debate around the era has.
As Wilson’s full column explores, that leaves City supporters with a question that goes beyond what appears beside the club’s name in the record books: will the trophies from that period ever be remembered in quite the same way again?
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