Man City sent major transfer warning as Premier League appeal verdict looms

Manchester City have been warned that their top stars will already be "talking to their agents about their futures" if the club's appeal fails. City have been found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League financial regulations between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons by an independent commission.

It was found that the club created "sham contracts" to artificially inflate their revenue, with Premier League CEO Richard Masters stating that the findings showed the club "systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade". However, City maintain that they are "innocent" and have launched an appeal, insisting they have "irrefutable evidence" that the ruling "contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe".

Former Premier League striker Dion Dublin has now shared his thoughts on the situation, with the possibility of serious sanctions hanging over the club if the appeal is unsuccessful. "Players will be talking to their agents about their futures, there'll be those conversations, I would imagine," Dublin said.

"They'll be chatting to their agents, and agents will be saying, 'Listen, let's see what happens at the end of this. They might even be putting things in place right now just in case, and maybe chatting to people.

Are they allowed to do it right now? Have there been conversations with agents, City, and players at City?

Again, you would imagine that'll all happen when this is all resolved. There will be players and agents talking, I would have thought, thinking to themselves, 'Yeah, I can't be doing this now.

I've got to get out,' or 'Everything's fine, I'm staying'. There's so much quality that most of that City squad, probably 20 out of the 35 strong, could start in most Premier League sides, probably 95% of all Premier League sides.

It's not going to be hard for them to find a club if they want to leave City, whether that is Manchester United or elsewhere, if it comes to that, because the quality that City have is just outrageous. A lot of players have left already, but there's still some real quality there.

So yeah, they won't find it hard to find a home if it comes to that. Even though the players probably wouldn't have consciously known about this while they were training, and they probably don't know all the ins and outs of what goes on upstairs with fees and who pays what, when you have to pay, and all the things City are being questioned about."