Former Manchester City captain Kyle Walker has insisted that the memories and achievements of the club’s players cannot simply be erased following the Premier League’s landmark ruling against the club over financial regulations.
Walker, who spent eight seasons at Manchester City between 2017 and 2025, spoke after an independent commission found the club guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules during the 2009/10 to 2017/18 period.
The ruling has cast a fresh shadow over one of the most successful eras in English football, with City’s remarkable rise to domestic and European dominance now being discussed alongside the financial case.
However, Walker believes the players who celebrated those victories on the pitch should not have their personal experiences taken away from them.
Speaking on talkSPORT, the current Burnley defender acknowledged the seriousness of the verdict but stopped short of offering a detailed opinion on the legal proceedings because Manchester City has already appealed the decision.
“Obviously it doesn’t look great,” Walker said, while noting that the case remains at the appeal stage.
The former England international explained that he did not want to interfere with an ongoing legal process, but maintained that the nights he and his teammates spent celebrating major victories were real experiences that could not be erased.
For Walker, the issue goes beyond medals and statistics. He pointed to the years of work, the celebrations and the emotional connection between the players and supporters during his time at the Etihad Stadium.
During his spell at City, Walker became part of a side that dominated English football and eventually conquered Europe.
He won the Champions League with the club in 2023 as part of City’s historic treble-winning campaign. He also collected 12 major domestic honours during his time in Manchester.
Those successes have now become part of a much wider debate about how the club’s achievements should be viewed following the commission’s findings.
Walker admitted that the situation was uncomfortable for former City players because they wanted their achievements to be remembered as sporting successes earned on the pitch.
“It’s something we probably don’t want to talk about because we want to be looked upon as winning those trophies, winning them the right way,” he said.
The defender also highlighted the supporters who travelled across England and Europe to follow the team during its most successful years.
He specifically recalled the 2023 Champions League final in Istanbul, where City defeated Inter Milan 1-0 to finally lift the European trophy for the first time in the club’s history.
For Walker, those memories belong not only to the players but also to the supporters who experienced them.
The independent commission’s findings relate to alleged financial breaches spanning nine seasons. The Premier League said City was found guilty of all charges concerning serious financial-rule breaches during the period and of three of four alleged failures to cooperate with the league’s investigation.
Manchester City has strongly rejected the findings and has appealed the commission’s decision.
The club said it believes the ruling contains significant errors of law, principle and fact and maintained that it remains innocent of the accusations. The Premier League confirmed that City’s appeal had been lodged, with the appeal process being conducted privately.
That appeal now represents the next major stage of a case that could have significant consequences for Manchester City’s reputation and sporting history.
For Walker, however, the legal battle does not change what he and his former teammates experienced together.
Whatever eventually happens with the appeal, he believes the memories of lifting trophies, celebrating historic victories and sharing those moments with supporters will remain part of the players’ lives.
The debate over Manchester City’s legacy is therefore likely to continue, particularly as football waits for the outcome of the appeal. But Walker’s message is clear: whatever the final legal consequences may be, the emotional experiences of the players who lived through City’s golden era cannot simply be rewritten.
