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Former Man City defender Kyle Walker admits he may have to get a tattoo removed if the Citizens are stripped of Premier League titles.
It was announced during the recent international break that Man City have been found guilty of 114 of 115 of their charges after being accused of breaching the Premier League’s financial fair play rules.
Man City have made an appeal against the decision and continue to deny any wrongdoing – but speculation continues about the potential punishments they could face.
There has been speculation that Man City could face anything from a point deduction to expulsion from the Premier League and the stripping of titles.
Former England defender Walker, who is now playing for Burnley in the Championship, helped Man City build their recent success by being part of Pep Guardiola’s side who won four Premier League titles in a row.
Walker said in an interview with talkSPORT: “[I’ve got] ‘four in a row’ tattooed.”
When pushed on whether he would seek removal if Man City are stripped of those titles, Walker added: “Well I’m probably going to have to do that bit! I’ll try and keep it on, but hopefully we don’t get things taken away.”
Speaking about the impact of the guilty verdict on his former colleagues, Walker said: “It’s the big elephant in the room we’re probably all going to be asked when doing interviews or whatever. It doesn’t look great.”
Walker continued: “Let’s not hide from the fact they’ve been found guilty but they’re going through an appeal.
“As a player all I can say is all we did is go out and play our best as a team and I’ll defend the players for the rest of my life, because I feel what we did and achieved in that time was incredible and probably won’t be done ever again. But from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look great and we have to address that.”
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard thinks the most suitable sanction for Man City would be a “multi-year punishment”.
Gerrard told The Overlap: “In terms of how I feel, I potentially could be affected if you like, I wouldn’t want individual players to give stuff back, that wouldn’t be right. But the club, they have to be stripped…
“There needs to be an example set, historically whether that’s a star throughout all the years of their achievements, because then it doesn’t matter whether the titles are stripped or not, as soon as that star is there, then everyone knows that [success] happened because of what we all know happened.
“And then there needs to be a punishment moving forward, I don’t know what the right one is… I don’t think its fair on the Championship if they go down, because they will be one of the three teams that come up, so that takes a slot away from the Championship so it’s not fair on the EFL.
“Or the teams playing against City week in, week out. I think it’s more moving forward in the Premier League, to punish them over a period of time, multi-year punishment, that would be my opinion, I’m not saying that’s the right opinion but that’s just how I feel.”