**Manchester City have been found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League.**
Three and a half years since the news first broke, we’ve finally got an answer, and the footballing world has been full of debate. Are City cheats? Are the rules stupid? How should they be punished?
However, quite selfishly, as a West Ham fan, I haven’t really thought about any of that. My first thought after seeing it was, ” Can we sign Divine Mukasa permanently now?”
Well. I think it will all depend on their punishment, and as things stand at the moment, there is only speculation about what that might be.
The biggest rumour at the moment seems to be that they are going to start next season with a huge points deduction, which could mean they are likely to be a Championship club going into the 28/29 season.
If this is the case, I can’t see Mukasa signing permanently in the next summer window. Even if their points deduction comes in before the end of the season and they are a Championship club next season, I feel like Mukasa is exactly the sort of player alongside the likes of Divin Mubama, Rico Lewis, and Max Alleyne that would stay around.
However, there is also a chance that the EFL could reject taking Manchester City, which would mean they could be relegated all the way down to non-league. This is obviously very, very unlikely to happen, but if it did, Mukasa would almost certainly be leaving along with the whole City squad.
I think the most likely punishment will be to deduct them points every season over the whole period they were ‘breaking financial rules’; this would mean City would remain in the Premier League, but would be unlikely to be challenging for titles over the next few years.
I think this would make it even more unlikely for the Hammers to sign Mukasa. Their top top players will likely leave, and Mukasa can take that position off of, say, Foden or Cherki as he looks to become a Premier League player.
I think these City charges are a bad thing for our hopes of signing Mukasa. Their likely points deductions are likely going to stop them from challenging for the Premier League for a while, or be relegated to the Championship for the season. I think City would love him to stay in the event of either of these, and Mukasa too would stay in Manchester.
But we’ll see. Mukasa has had a brilliant start to the season. Let’s hope it continues for the rest of the season and we are promoted back to the top flight.