As Liverpool prepare to host disgraced City in the Premier League on Sunday, we looked back at three seasons that could have been so much more without the Manchester side's financial breaches
Jurgen Klopp missed out on several trophies to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City during his time at Liverpool - now we know the scale of the advantage City had
Jurgen Klopp missed out on several trophies to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City during his time at Liverpool - now we know the scale of the advantage City had(Image: PA)
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One of the most tragic aspects of Manchester City's guilty verdict is that it leaves so much uncertainty for every other team that was affected by their nine years of sham contracts and artificially-inflated revenue.
If the Manchester club are stripped of titles retrospectively, it is impossible to say for certain who would have won them if all teams had played by the same set of rules - meaning fans will never know the full extent of what could have been for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool.
In case you've somehow been living under a rock for the last two weeks, that is now a live possibility. An independent commission has found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges they were hit with by the Premier League three-and-a-half years ago, with a strongly-worded statement from the league detailing the offences which distorted the real state of City's finances by more than £900m.
City have appealed the decision, and sanctions are yet to be applied. But from the perspective of Liverpool and other sides who were beaten to titles and lucrative league positions by City, no amount of punishment can make up for the moments and memories they were denied at the time.
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Though the financial breaches covered by the investigation are limited to the period 2009-2018, it is difficult to argue that City could have achieved the same success - including a memorable European treble-winning campaign in 2023 - without the foundation that was built by years of cooking the books.
With that in mind, and with City preparing to enter a cauldron at Anfield with Liverpool their next opponents on Sunday, we looked back at three seasons that could have been for the Reds.
2013/14
Steven Gerrard had to console Luis Suarez after Liverpool's 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace on the penultimate day of the 2013/14 season
Steven Gerrard had to console Luis Suarez after Liverpool's 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace on the penultimate day of the 2013/14 season(Image: Getty Images)
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A cherished season for a whole generation of Liverpool fans who were enthralled by the Reds' fast-flowing, all-out-attacking football as their beloved team came so close to ending a 25-year wait for a league title.
This was the season that Luis Suarez was undeniably the best player in the world. The Uruguayan scored and created at an astounding rate - 31 goals and 13 assists from 33 Premier League appearances a scarcely-believable return - with 'El Pistolero' arguably enjoying the greatest individual campaign the league has seen before or since.
To dismiss this as a one-man team would be wrong, though. Daniel Sturridge was the perfect foil to Suarez up front, with a young Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho complementing them both.
Jordan Henderson provided the legs in midfield, while Steven Gerrard produced his last great season for Liverpool that should be remembered for far more than just his fateful slip against Chelsea.
That defeat to Chelsea at Anfield ended an 11-game winning streak, kicked off with a 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal, that had put Liverpool on the verge of sealing the title with three games remaining - the Reds ultimately finishing two points behind City on 84 points.
At the time, Gerrard - and Liverpool fans more broadly - were ridiculed for being perceived as too desperate to end the title drought, and lacking the mentality to get it over the line.
Knowing as we do now that City were four years into a nine-year project of deceiving the league, that pressure takes on a different meaning. The Citizens spent £90m on new signings in the summer of 2013, including the influential Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho - who would be a keystone of City's winning teams for the remainder of the period for which they have been found guilty of distorting their accounts.
Though Liverpool memorably won the reverse fixture at Anfield 3-2, it is impossible to ignore the 2-1 defeat at the Etihad in which Sterling incorrectly saw a goal ruled out for offside and Liverpool were denied a late penalty shout for a foul on Suarez.
Such are the fine margins that titles are decided upon - but that we have no way of knowing if the sheer ecstasy of that season would have had the pay-off it deserved without City only makes the memories more heartbreaking.
If Liverpool had won the league that season, perhaps Sterling wouldn't have pushed for a move to City a year later. Perhaps it would have even had an influence on Suarez's decision to leave.
In an alternate timeline, would Brendan Rodgers have kept his job beyond the autumn of 2015? In that world, we may never have had Klopp at Liverpool - every cloud, as they say.
2018/19
Fine margins decided the 2018/19 Premier League title - but City had the advantage of nine years of financial rule-breaking over Klopp's 97-point Liverpool
Fine margins decided the 2018/19 Premier League title - but City had the advantage of nine years of financial rule-breaking over Klopp's 97-point Liverpool(Image: Getty Images)
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Though this occurred the season after the final financial breach that City have been found guilty of breaching, this is the one that felt the most unfair at the time.
In the 2018/19 Premier League season, Liverpool got 97 points. 97. That tally has been beaten just three times in the entire history of the Premier League - by City the season prior, who famously reached 100 points, Liverpool the following season with 99, and City again in the same 2018/19 season, who reached 98.
This was probably Klopp's greatest Liverpool team, with virtually every player at the very peak of their powers and boasting a front three of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah that was the envy of the world.
That a side could reach such an astonishing tally as 97 points and not win the league would have been unbelievable but for the quality of Pep Guardiola's City, who that same season were under investigation from UEFA on the back of findings by German newspaper Der Spiegel that pre-empted the Premier League's investigation.
Though City were initially banned from European competitions for two years in February 2020 after UEFA found the club guilty of breaching FFP rules, the result was thrown out by the Court of Arbitration for Sport due to a statute of limitations that prevented retrospective punishment.
That recourse will not be available to City this time around, but it is no consolation to Liverpool - who are unlikely to be awarded any titles retrospectively from the 2018/19 season onwards due to the period covered by the investigation ending in 2018.
Needless to say, this was a season of impossibly fine margins. During the 2-1 defeat at the Etihad, Liverpool's only league loss of the season, a goal-line clearance prevented a goal by just 1.12cm. That clearance was made by John Stones, a player bought by City in a summer when their net spend reached £143m.
In the same game, Vincent Kompany got away with only a yellow card after a two-footed lunge on Salah with his studs showing. Again, refereeing decisions going against your team are part and parcel of football, but they sting harder knowing the extent of City's advantage before a ball was even kicked that season.
Liverpool went on to win the Premier League the following season, and thankfully the heartbreak of missing out on the title in 2019 was quickly soothed by a glorious sixth Champions League win in Madrid.
Ironically, if Klopp's Liverpool are awarded any retrospective trophy from City, it is more likely to be the 2016 League Cup, which City won in their seventh year of rule-breaking at the expense of Liverpool.
But for many, it will be this season that sticks in the craw the longest.
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2021/22
A sense of inevitability hung over the season as the 2021/22 season reached the final day with the title in the balance - but Liverpool fans never gave up on their team
A sense of inevitability hung over the season as the 2021/22 season reached the final day with the title in the balance - but Liverpool fans never gave up on their team(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
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A harder season to truly quantify the impact of City's cheating - partly because it ended four years after the period covered by the investigation, and partly because of the events off the pitch that marred the 2022 Champions League final - but it is hard not to wonder whether, if Liverpool had wrapped up a domestic treble with the Premier League title, they would not have gone on and won an unprecedented quadruple by beating Real Madrid in Paris.
Momentum and 'vibes' are the intangibles that can never be recreated if stripping a team of titles retrospectively, and as such it would be inappropriate to say that City denied the Reds their greatest-ever season.
All the same, Liverpool have never won a domestic treble, and were only denied this on the final day by a City comeback against Aston Villa. Gerrard and Coutinho came oh-so-close to redeeming the shortfall in the 2013/14 season, with Coutinho putting Villa 2-0 up in the 69th minute as the legendary midfielder watched on from the dugout.
A stirring City comeback that took all of five minutes put that to bed, though, and handed City their eighth league title. But Liverpool ran them close again as both sides produced another 90+ point season.
The Reds finished on 92 points, while City squeezed home on 93, both meetings between the two sides finishing in 2-2 draws. The margins were incredibly fine yet again, with no other side coming close to the dominant top two.
Ultimately, this season meant Klopp's era ended with a sense of 'what if'. Not only did a potential quadruple turn into a domestic cup double, but the great manager never got to lift a league title in front of fans.
That is a wound that will never be healed, even if City never kick a ball in the Premier League again after this season.
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