Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has made clear he would accept a winners' medal if Manchester City are retrospectively stripped of major honours, directly contradicting the view of his former teammate Wayne Rooney.
City were found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League earlier this week and have confirmed they will appeal the verdict. In their statement, the club maintained their innocence and denied any wrongdoing. The appeal process is now set to begin, with potential punishments already being debated across football.
Scholes' X-rated Instagram response
One rumoured punishment is stripping City of past major honours and retrospectively awarding them to the clubs that missed out. United finished second to City in the Premier League three times, including the 2011/12 season when Scholes and Rooney were part of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad.
Writing on his Instagram story on Saturday, Scholes said: "Keep hearing ex-teammates saying they want trophies taking off them [City] but don't want their medals. F*** that, I'm a greedy b****** I want my medal."
Rooney's opposing view
Scholes' stance differs from Rooney, who explained why he would not want a retrospective winners' medal. Speaking on the Stick To United podcast, Rooney said: "I have heard Rio [Ferdinand] has come out saying about getting another Premier League medal... I wouldn't really feel comfortable accepting another Premier League medal, if I'm being honest."
Rooney added: "I don't think we deserve it, we didn't do enough that season to win the league. I think we were six or seven points clear with four or five games to go and we threw it away."
Rooney's empathy for City players
Rooney also expressed sympathy for City players, saying: "I've seen everything that has come out over the past few days and listening to people and I was putting myself in a Man City player's shoes... they're players, they're doing everything they can to try and win the Premier League title and in their mind they have done it, if those players have no understanding of what is going on above them, if that happened to me... I would be absolutely devastated."
He concluded: "It might happen, they might take them [medals] away, but I wouldn't want it [a medal] because I don't think as a team we deserved it that year because obviously we didn't finish first. So when I see team-mates saying, 'I want a medal', I'm happy with the five I've won. I wouldn't want this one. Should they get it stripped for what the owners have done? Yeah maybe, but I wouldn't feel comfortable accepting it."
