Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler gives his view on the Premier League's main talking point
Manchester City continue to be the talk of the football world as the Premier League prepares to return for the first time since the club were found guilty of breaching financial rules.
City have submitted an appeal against the independent commission’s verdict, which was announced during the extended three-week international break.
Ahead of the first Premier League action since the news broke, managers up and down the country were asked for their views on City.
Here's what Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler had to say...
A distraction for Hurzeler
The German, speaking ahead of Brighton’s trip to Sunderland, said: “That [Manchester City] I can't control anything from that!
“The only thing I can really focus on is our preparation, how we are doing, and therefore that's just distraction.
“A distraction, what is not in our hands, where hopefully it will be dealt with, but again, not my topic and I have enough topics to manage here.
Hurzeler was then asked, what impact could waiting for the outcome of the appeal or any sanctions have on the remainder of the season?
“Yeah, let's see how it's going. What I heard is that there are still some ongoing processes and therefore I think it's really, really difficult to say anything about that now.
“If there's nothing clear yet, we should really focus on ourselves and if there are results, we can speak again.”
Bournemouth boss Marco Rose:
“I’m not this kind of guy who blames someone with not enough information. Of course, I hear everything, I read everything, but I do not have all the information.
“I trust in the guys who are involved in these kinds of things and situations, and then we will see what happens. I’m a football coach, not a politician, and I love to be a football coach, and it should stay like this.”
Leeds boss Daniel Farke:
“It’s not my topic, my topic is football and there are more qualified people to speak about this, so it is not my topic. It is not up to me and I was not involved in the title race in these years.
“I had different topics to deal with during this time when Manchester City won many titles. I think I just had one home game with them with Norwich, we won by the way, so I can’t complain too much.
“It also makes no sense if right now everyone in the world wants to have opinions about this topic, there are more qualified people to talk about it. My topic is Leeds United.”
Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle:
“I think as a manager of another club I am not able to judge. It’s not my job in my job description to judge on that. There are authorities taking care of it.
”I think there is a clear process now, which we have followed and, for us, I am speaking on behalf of the whole club, it’s the right approach to focus on what we can influence.”
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris:
“There are still ongoing legal proceedings so it’s not for me to comment on that. My position is simple: football has rules, on and off the pitch. You have to respect those rules, when they are broken they should have consequences otherwise it’s not fair.
“We want fair competition, we want fair game, fair play, so the relevant authorities have to be relentless otherwise you lose the value of the competition. So we’ll see.
“It happened 10 years ago, more or less. We were not here in Sunderland, for example. But it’s about respecting rules so it’s key because if you don’t have fair competition it’s a bit weird, so it’s more or less the feeling we have in the building.”