Michael Carrick has a unique perspective on Man City's financial misdemeanours and the Man Utd head coach will be asked about it next week.
Manchester United players at Sunderland
Michael Carrick was in the Manchester United side that lost the title to Manchester City at the end of the 2011/12 season
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Michael Carrick isn't often lost for words, but a question posed at one of his press conferences last season was met with a response that showed he wasn't keen to revisit old ground.
It was a couple of days before United headed to Sunderland in May, the scene of one of the most disappointing days of Carrick's career. He was in the Manchester United side that won at the Stadium of Light in May 2012 and then waited on the pitch, expecting to be confirmed champions at any moment.
Instead, Sergio Aguero scored perhaps the most iconic and memorable goal in Premier League history. Manchester City snatched the title away and the Sunderland fans revelled in United's agony.
They mimicked the 'Poznan' celebration of City supporters and mocked United's devastated players as they came to terms with one of the most dramatic endings imaginable to a league season.
"Yeah, I can remember that. I’ve not forgotten it," Carrick said four months ago, clearly still feeling the pain of that 14 years on.
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Prompted to go on, he said: "It was a one-off kind of feeling and it wasn’t during the game. It wasn't until after the game. I didn't really know exactly where the land was at that point.
"So it wasn't until we kind of walked towards the edge of the pitch, and we had to deal with what was thrown out, so, um, it's in the past, you know, but, yeah, it definitely sticks in the memory."
That was an answer given in the context of how the Sunderland fans reacted that day, but you wonder how Carrick feels about it now, given that season is one of several in question now that it appears that City will be found guilty of the majority of the 115 charges levied at them by the Premier League.
At the very least, that campaign is set to be accompanied by a significant asterisk. Arguably, given it was only settled on goal difference, it's a title that should belong to United. Carrick might well feel cheated out of a sixth winners' medal.
He could even argue it could be seven, given he was in his final year as a professional in 2017/18, when United finished second to a runaway steam train of a City side. That Pep Guardiola team collected a century of points and ended up 19 clear of Jose Mourinho's United, but again, there is now a significant question of legitimacy around that success.
You can be sure that Mourinho will have something to say about it when he is asked at his next Real Madrid press conference, but how will Carrick approach the potentially thorny issue next week, when he speaks to the media ahead of United's game against Tottenham?
From what we have seen so far, the 45-year-old will seek to avoid headlines and controversy. He is cut from a very different cloth than Mourinho.
But among Premier League bosses, Carrick has a unique perspective given that City's alleged cheating cost him in his playing career, and if the Premier League makes the verdict official by next week, he has no reason not to offer his views.
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He has also spent the past six weeks or so defending his own club's low-key approach to spending. United are now pursuing a path of financial discipline and are determined to abide by the spending rules imposed by the Premier League and UEFA.
Carrick has recently been asked how United can possibly compete with City on the pitch if they can't compete with them off the pitch, but the reality is that the Blues are still gaining an advantage from the way they accelerated spending during the period related to these charges.
That should be a point that Carrick is keen to raise, and one that his bosses encourage him to as well. For all the legitimate questions about United's transfer spending and their own finances, it still isn't a level-playing field.
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Carrick showed in his final press conference before the international break that he can come out fighting when required. He will have strong opinions on this case and shouldn't be afraid of voicing them. He would win the respect of supporters if he did just that and could begin to create the kind of siege mentality that was so often a part of the dressing rooms he was in at Old Trafford as a player.