Manchester United’s legendary former midfielder Paul Scholes has bluntly clashed with Wayne Rooney’s rejection of a retroactive Premier League title, describing himself as a “greedy b——“ who would happily accept another medal at the expense of Manchester City.
In the aftermath of City’s stunning guilty verdict in their case with the Premier League regarding mass accusations of financial breaches, one of the most potent areas of discussion has been a relitigation of the past.
City have been found to have misreported their revenues by more than $1.2 billion (£900 million) across the nine seasons between 2009–10 and 2017–18. During that period, the Etihad outfit won three league titles, the first of which was snatched away from a Manchester United side containing Rooney and Scholes with the last kick of the 2011–12 season.
Rooney has admitted that he “wouldn’t feel comfortable” receiving a medal for that title. “I don’t think we deserve it. We didn’t do enough that season to win the league,” he explained.
Scholes does not agree.
“Keep hearing ex-teammates saying they want trophies taking off them but they don’t want their medals…” Scholes wrote on social media, “f— that I’m a greedy b—— I want my medal.”
With 11 titles to his name, the Manchester United academy graduate already stands out as the second-most successful player in the history of the Premier League, falling two shy of his teammate Ryan Giggs. A dozen top-flight triumphs would take Scholes onto the same haul as a certain Lionel Messi (who won 10 La Ligas and a pair of Ligue 1 crowns), but it would appear that his hunger will not be sated.
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• Man City Charges: The Premier League’s Multi-Year Investigation Explained
• The Potential Punishments Facing Man City for 115 Premier League Charges
• The Premier League Champions If Man City Are Stripped of Titles
Will Man City Have Their Titles Redistributed?
The first point to stress is that City’s guilty verdict—which is not an “opinion,” as the club keep on saying, but the finding of an independent judicial commission after two years of deliberation—is subject to an appeal.
As City’s CEO Ferran Soriano was keen to stress in a wide-eyed message to all employees, the club are also prepared to explore “all other legal avenues” available, be that a further challenge to the Premier League or even involving the High Court of England and Wales.
It remains to be seen at what point of that process, if ever, City are handed any punishments by the Premier League. However, if it does come to that, then England’s top flight has the power to do absolutely anything, including giving Scholes a medal Rooney doesn’t want.
Nevertheless, the initial response to the official verdict was that Premier League clubs had “little appetite” to see City stripped of their titles, let alone to have those championships redistributed, per BBC Sport. Between the start of the period of investigation into City and the guilty verdict, almost half of the Premier League’s entire history has elapsed. Rewriting the record books for such a long period could bring the whole competition into disrepute.
On an individual level, there is an argument that redistributed titles would inspire little satisfactory retribution for the players. Former Liverpool center back Jamie Carragher made the compelling case that a title is not defined by the pot of silver which it brings.
“I’ve been very lucky to win a few medals,” Carragher outlined. “I never look at the medal years later. But my mind goes back to a moment, I get a feeling in my stomach. I remember the referee blowing a final whistle of a big game. Those players will never get that feeling and it was robbed by Manchester City. That’s what they haven’t got.”
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