Manuel Akanji has opened up about the risk of being stripped of the honours he claimed at Manchester City, and offered a glimpse at the reassurances players have been handed.
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The fallout from the Premier League’s seismic guilty verdict is being felt well, as it turns out, by players well beyond Manchester City's current dressing room.
Many stars who helped deliver the club’s recent glories have since moved on and are watching the situation unfold with a degree of nervousness - and another has now spoken out during this extended international break.
Akanji, these days plying his trade at Inter Milan, has given a candid account of how it feels to be watching the story from the outside as a former player, as well as the message he says is circulating among those still at the Etihad Stadium.
Manuel Akanji has offered an honest assessment about his future at Manchester City following his loan move to Inter Milan.cityxtra.co.uk"Clubs don't always offer loyalty" - Manuel Akanji raises eyebrows with Manchester City exit comments
Manuel Akanji has offered an honest assessment about his future at Manchester City following his loan move to Inter Milan.
We were told to stay calm, says Akanji on Man City's charges messaging to former and current players
Speaking to Swiss outlet Nau, Akanji revealed he remains in contact with former teammates but is currently no better informed than anyone else. “I’m still in touch with a few players but I don’t know any more than you do,” he said, as relayed by Sport Witness.
“We were told to stay calm; that they had everything under control and nothing major had happened. I trust the people in charge at Man City that that’s the case.”
It is a rare glimpse behind the curtain, but continues the message that the club has broadcast at every opportunity even since the charges were first made public: that those at the top of the club remain unfazed by the commission’s findings and have confidence in their ultimate victory.
Akanji: I hope I don't lose my titles
It is understandable if the prospect of seeing the trophies he won wiped from the record is weighing heavily on the Switzerland international.
Across his years at the Etihad Stadium, Akanji gathered a pair of Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League, among other silverware. A dependable, versatile presence in defence, he was a key man as City completed the treble in 2023, starting a European final against the very club he would later move to.
“I hope I don’t lose my titles. That would be a bit of a shame,” he added. “But I’m only seeing it all in the news, too.”
As far as we know, his medals ought to be safe. The charges Manchester City were found guilty of concern the nine-season stretch between 2009 and 2018, years before Akanji arrived from Borussia Dortmund in 2022. Everything he won came well after the window in question.
A lingering unease raises eyebrows
Even so, the defender was not entirely put at ease, wary that the net might yet widen. The fate of the club's honours has become one of the controversy’s most often-discussed threads, with some rival clubs reportedly keen to see Manchester City's titles not simply reassigned but stripped away and left vacant.
Some have also floated the idea that honours won after the charged period could be pulled into the debate too, and Akanji sounded far from convinced his own medals were entirely safe.
“Who knows what else they might dig up?” he added somewhat cryptically.
That line is an apt window into the wider mood in and around the club at this moment in time. Until the appeal is heard and any punishment decided, nobody connected to City can be absolutely sure where this ends. Akanji and his fellow title-winners can only trust the club’s hierarchy and hope that what they earned on the pitch stays theirs.