Agbonlahor: clubs should sue Man City if charges proven

• Gabby Agbonlahor tells talkSPORT that rival clubs should ready legal claims against Manchester City if the club’s Premier League financial charges are proven.
• He points to three Villa exits to the Etihad: Gareth Barry in 2009, James Milner in 2010 and Fabian Delph, though he wrongly dated Delph’s move to 2014 on air.
• Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says the Premier League process still has “a long way to run” and the club remains confident of proving its innocence.
  

Gabby Agbonlahor wants Premier League rivals lining up lawyers before any verdict lands.

The Agbonlahor Man City row centres on three Aston Villa players lost to the Etihad. He believes rival clubs could be owed money if the current financial charges are proven.

Agbonlahor: clubs should sue Man City if charges proven

Speaking on talkSPORT, Agbonlahor argued that City’s spending has cost Villa and several other clubs a fortune over the years.

He wants rival clubs asking hard questions about where the money for those signings came from. He told them bluntly to “get your lawyers ready” once any case against City is settled.

He made clear the frustration is personal as well as financial. “I played in that era, 2009-2018, we got relegated in 2015, six seasons, I played in it,” he said, having watched City’s rise from the losing side for years.

Villa departures: how the transfers unfolded

Agbonlahor’s case rests on three sales in particular. Gareth Barry left Villa for City in 2009 and James Milner followed twelve months later, with Agbonlahor naming both as the club’s best player at the time they moved on.

He then turned to Fabian Delph, though he gave the wrong year on air. “You know what they’ve done in 2014? Took our best player Fabian Delph,” Agbonlahor said.

Delph’s move actually went through in July 2015, more than a year after the date he gave.

Agbonlahor also remembers the scorelines that followed those departures. He recalls heavy defeats at the Etihad inflicted by Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero and David Silva during City’s rise, according to the Birmingham Mail report.

The legal angle: Agbonlahor calls for club compensation

Agbonlahor’s argument goes beyond those three names.

He believes lost prize money and missed titles have cost clubs like Villa extra millions over the years.

Asked to put figures on it, he said, in a tangle of words that still made his point: “What if have you missed out on Champions League qualification? What if you missed out on relegation, what if have you missed out on winning league titles, every league position you miss out on is a few million pounds isn’t it?”

He also floated a scale for the potential bill. Telling talkSPORT any final figure would be “off the scale,” he pointed to the trophies and league places he believes those sales cost Villa and other clubs over the years.

No club has filed a claim, and any case would depend entirely on how the Premier League’s investigation ends.

What happens next

Manchester City deny any wrongdoing and the Premier League case remains open.

Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak insists the process still has “a long way to run” and says the club’s confidence in proving its innocence has not wavered since the case began.

No date has been set for a verdict, and nothing here should be read as a finding against City.

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