Danny Mills believes Man City’s players won’t be too bothered if their medals are taken away as a result of the club being condemned for breaching financial rules. 

Last month, City were found guilty of 114 of 115 charges levelled at them by the Premier League in one of the biggest scandals in sporting history. They maintain their innocence and are appealing the verdict. 

City were blasted by the Premier League for making ‘sham’ agreements to manipulate their financial accounts to the tune of £900million over a nine-season period from 2009-2018 which saw them win eight trophies, leading to many reflecting on how that timeframe should now be judged.

If their appeal fails, potential sanctions could include points penalties, relegation and stripped titles.

But Mills, who played 54 times for City between 2004 and 2009, felt the removal of titles and achievements would be an arbitrary measure. 

Speaking to Gambling.com, the guide to the best online casinos, Mills said: ‘You can’t take away those moments from players and fans. 

Danny Mills believes Man City’s Premier League titles shouldn’t be stripped as a result of their financial rule breaches

Mills said that you can’t take away ‘the moments and memories’ from those achievements

‘It’s very difficult retrospectively to go back and punish people where they’ve had all the accolades, they’ve had the open-top bus rides, the bonuses, the extended contracts – all those things off the back of it. 

‘If you say City didn’t win the title in 2019… yeah whatever, we know City won the Treble and four titles in a row. 

‘What are we suddenly going to go? Well, actually, they didn’t win four titles in a row. You can’t (do that), you can’t take away the Treble, the Aguero moment. It’s very difficult to rewrite the history books in that way.’

During his career, Mills, who also earned 19 caps for England, won the EFL Cup with Middlesbrough in 2004 and also got promoted to the Premier League through the play-offs with Charlton in 1998. 

And the former defender used his own personal experiences to highlight his point as to why authorities shouldn’t take action in this way.    

‘If you came round to my house tomorrow and said “can I have your medal?” I’d say: “Yeah, go on. I have to go find it but you can have it”, he added. ‘The actual medal means nothing.

‘It’s a symbol of a memory. You can melt my medal down. You can do whatever you want with it but it doesn’t mean I didn’t win it. Someone can buy it off me yet it’s still my medal. 

‘That day is still my memory, holding the cup in front of the fans. Taking medals and trophies off players doesn’t really change anything.’

Mills also backed City’s players to not be impacted by the recent events off the pitch 

City’s players returned to training on Thursday ahead of taking on Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday in a mouthwatering encounter where the reception is set to be extremely hostile.

Mills though felt City’s players won’t be affected too much by what has gone on and backed them to ‘thrive’ on the atmosphere and pressure this weekend, while he also believes it will be an ‘easy team talk’ for boss Enzo Maresca. 

Mills said: ‘I’d say: “The world’s against you, everybody hates you. Go out there and make them hate you even more by winning more football matches and don’t let them get to you. What will be will be in terms of the punishment, but it’s not our fault”.

‘Of course the squad will talk about it but I don’t expect it will affect the players once they cross the white line.’