Tony Pulis says he feels ‘cheated’ after Man City guilty verdict reports

Former Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has said he feels “cheated” following reports that Manchester City were found guilty over financial breaches, and suggested one of the trophies won by the Etihad club during the period in question should be handed to Stoke City.

Pulis made the remarks in a BBC column and they were reported by Daily Post and Complete Sports.

He recalled being in the Stoke dugout for the club’s first FA Cup final in 2011, a match Manchester City won 1-0 with a Yaya Touré goal. Both outlets reported Pulis revisiting that defeat as he reflected on the recent reports about City’s finances.

Pulis said he does not realistically expect City to hand back medals or titles, and that a points deduction and large fine are more likely outcomes. “We lost, but to a team that have been found guilty of breaking the financial rules set out by the Premier League,” he wrote, according to the reports.

The former manager told readers he still felt deprived of the chance to celebrate the FA Cup moment with Stoke-on-Trent fans. He said other clubs affected by City’s success between 2009 and 2018 would be considering their legal options, the reports added.

Daily Post said available information indicated Yaya Touré’s transfer fee alone exceeded the combined value of Stoke’s starting XI in that final. That detail was included only in the Daily Post report.

Daily Post also reported that Manchester City are waiting to learn the sanctions and have confirmed they will appeal. Neither outlet included details of any formal punishments or a timeline for them.

Pulis mentioned Roberto Mancini as the City manager at the time and described City’s 2011 squad as containing world-class players. The remarks were presented in both reports as Pulis’s views in his BBC column.

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