Carragher warns Liverpool and United that City's guilty verdict ends their excuses

Jamie Carragher has warned Liverpool and Manchester United that Manchester City’s guilty verdict on 115 Premier League financial charges will strip away the cover those clubs have relied on for years, raising the stakes dramatically for managers Andoni Iraola and Michael Carrick.

City were found guilty of breaking the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018, with an independent commission determining the club used “sham” contracts to disguise over £830 million in funding. The club now face potential sanctions ranging from relegation and a points deduction to an unlimited fine or a transfer ban. City maintain their innocence, have appealed the verdict, and say they are confident of full exoneration.

Writing in his column for The Telegraph, Carragher argued that City’s dominance has long served as a convenient excuse for their rivals’ underperformance. “City have been a valid excuse for narrowly losing titles and trophies. For others, they have been a convenient one,” he wrote.

Carragher believes the fallout will be immediate and far-reaching. “For Liverpool, Chelsea and United, the timescale to become title challengers changes the moment City hear the outcome of their disciplinary hearing. The power shift will be instant and dramatic.”

He singled out Liverpool head coach Iraola, who has spoken publicly about building a long-term project at Anfield, as someone who will face heightened scrutiny if City are removed from the picture. “We are not in a world in which Iraola can talk about long-term projects,” Carragher wrote. “Once the two immediate obstacles to another Liverpool title in the near future are reduced to one, there will be an expectation for his side to make haste.”

Liverpool have finished second behind City on three occasions in recent years, and Carragher urged the club to channel that “grievance as a source of motivation” rather than treat it as a footnote.

At Old Trafford, Carragher suggested the pressure on Carrick and the Ineos hierarchy would intensify sharply. “No one thinks Michael Carrick’s squad are equipped to compete at the very top yet,” he wrote. “Remove City, and growing agitation about how Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Ineos hierarchy are going about their business will go up another notch.”

Chelsea, currently top of the Premier League having won all five of their opening matches ahead of Sunday’s trip to Anfield, are managed by Enzo Maresca and have claimed six of the last nine league titles — a run that now sits under the shadow of the guilty verdict.