Enzo Maresca could use Manchester City’s guilty verdict to foster a “siege mentality” within the club, according to former City defender Danny Mills.
The Premier League confirmed earlier this week that Manchester City had breached the competition’s financial rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018.
City deny the allegations and have pledged to appeal the decision by Friday. Any sanctions will be considered at a separate hearing.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the club had “systematically broken Premier League Rules for nearly a decade” and called the ruling the “most significant” in the competition’s history.
Mills believes Maresca can frame the situation as a challenge for the squad to overcome. Speaking to Stats Perform, he said: “For Maresca, I think you can create that siege mentality and just go, ‘Look, all we can do is do what we do now and get as many points as possible and just play football. You’re all getting paid, lads. You’re still getting paid. It’s not a problem.’
“This is not going into administration and the club’s going to go bust, and next week you might not have a contract, or you might not have a job.
“This is not like League Two when it was happening with Bury and things like that. Completely different scenario. So, ultimately, if the Manchester City owners weren’t allowed to remain in charge, somebody would take them over.
“Wouldn’t be a big problem for them. We’ve seen what’s happened at Chelsea and everywhere else. So, yeah, I think you just have to say, look, ‘Let’s dig in, lads. It’s the world against us. Let’s just keep winning football matches and whatever stick we get, we’re going to get and it’s not our fault. It’s not of our doing, but we’re going to have to take it’.”
Pep Guardiola has publicly backed City, while Rodri said last week that the players would not view their achievements at the club differently because of the verdict.
During the period in which City were found to have broken the rules, they won three Premier League titles. They subsequently entered a period of dominance after 2018.
Mills rejected the suggestion that former City players would be eager to return their winners’ medals.
He said: “[The Manchester City players] would not have been aware that there was effectively cheating going on or sports doping, whatever you want to call it. I’m not sure many of the managers did either.”
Mills added that Roberto Mancini had said, “Well, it wasn’t my fault. Nothing to do with me,” while Guardiola had offered stronger support to the club.
He also questioned whether players would really give up the financial rewards connected to their success.
“There’s an appeal process we expect that will happen in the near future,” Mills said. “But it’s hard as a player. I’ve seen some pundits say, ‘They’ll all be wanting to give their medals back.’ No they won’t. If they give their medals back, are they going to give back their bonuses, their contracts, their investments? No, it’s not going to happen.”
City are top of the Premier League with a perfect record in 2026-27 and visit Liverpool in their first match after the international break.
