Mauricio Pochettino has questioned how the Premier League policed its financial rules during his time in England after reports that Man City were found guilty of the vast majority of the charges brought against them.
The former Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea manager believes supporters “lived through a period of deception” and has contrasted City’s reported breaches with the financial restrictions he worked under at Spurs.
Pochettino asks ‘where were the controls?’ after City verdict
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, Pochettino argued that no eventual sanction could undo what happened during the seasons covered by the case.
“Whatever punishment [they choose], it’s impossible to turn back time,” he said. “It’s done a lot of damage, more than anything the guidelines.
“At the end of the day, many clubs followed the rules and some didn’t. Maybe they thought that the punishment [wouldn’t come for a lot of years] – what are they going to do? An economic punishment? Docking points? It’s really hard.”
No sanction has yet been confirmed, and City’s position remains that the Premier League process is ongoing. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has also reiterated the club’s confidence in proving its innocence.
Pochettino’s strongest criticism concerned his five-and-a-half years at Tottenham, where the club went through two consecutive transfer windows without making a senior signing while the new stadium was being built.
“Where were the controls? That’s what gets my attention. Where were the controls?” Pochettino said.
He recalled working first at Southampton and then Tottenham before pointing to the restrictions Spurs operated under while attempting to challenge towards the top of the Premier League.
“If a team like us, Tottenham, was fighting for titles with those above us and every year in the top four, getting to the semi-finals of Champions League without being able to do a transfer for 18 months, all because we needed to get used to the [Premier League financial controls]?
“They were so strict with us but also so lenient with others. Because of that, that’s why I say: it’s all very strange.”
“Maybe we could’ve signed some (more) players”
Pochettino also suggested Tottenham might have been able to strengthen sufficiently to change the outcome of title races had every club been operating under the same conditions.
“Maybe with the same rules, if we apply the same things, maybe we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals,” he said.
“It’s not me complaining. It’s the truth. If they admitted they broke the rules, the Premier League title was for the second best team.”
That is Pochettino’s interpretation of events rather than a conclusion reached by the Premier League. There has been no decision to reallocate any title won during the period covered by the charges.
City’s rivalry with Pochettino’s Tottenham produced some significant games during those years, although their history stretches considerably further back. One of the most memorable meetings remains the dramatic 2004 FA Cup comeback against Tottenham.
“Remains ongoing…”
The club’s success during the modern era has included a succession of Premier League titles and records, including the historic achievement covered by Read Man City earlier this year.
City continue to dispute the findings being reported. Their official position is that the process “remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed”. At the same time, Al Mubarak has told supporters that the club’s determination to prove its innocence is as strong as when the case began.
The situation has inevitably brought renewed attention to City’s previous financial dispute with UEFA. The club were banned from European competition for two seasons and fined €30m in 2020, before the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban and reduced the fine to €10m.
That was a separate case under a different regulatory process, so its eventual outcome does not establish what will happen in the current Premier League proceedings.
Pochettino’s intervention instead centres on something broader: his belief that clubs weren’t competing under financial controls that were applied equally during his years in England.
For a manager whose Tottenham side regularly competed near the top of the Premier League without signing a player for 18 months, the reported City findings have prompted a question he was prepared to ask twice: “Where were the controls?”
City’s development during the Guardiola era, including the methods used to build one of English football’s dominant sides, is explored in our piece on Pep Guardiola’s approach at Manchester City.
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