Premier League clubs are understood to be trying to take advantage of the current uncertainty surrounding Manchester City by making a play for some of their talented academy players.
It emerged last week that City had been found guilty of all but one of the 115 charges levied against them by the Premier League, with the damning verdict since being published in full. Heavy sanctions are likely to be imposed upon City if an appeal against the ruling fails, which could range from relegation, a transfer ban and potentially even expulsion from the Premier League itself.
Rivals look to capitalise
While City's right to appeal means an undisputed outcome may still take some time to be reached, the impact of the verdict is already being felt. Speculation over City's players and what the future may hold is already rife given there is a possibility City may not be playing in the top-flight soon - and it now appears they may risk losing some of their top homegrown talent, too.
BBC Sport report that Manchester City's rivals are looking to capitalise on the situation the club find themselves in by trying to entice some of their academy stars away. That could be particularly damaging if City are handed a transfer embargo as part of any potential punishment following an appeal, given the majority of their first-team stars would be expected to stay within the Premier League.
Contract and wage concerns
Despite the investigation into City, it's understood that the majority of their senior stars do not have relegation clauses written into their contracts. And while City could attempt to play hardball over transfers, they could struggle to foot such a mammoth wage-bill without Premier League cash.
While other punishments have been touted, Gary Neville believes forcing the current owners to sell the club would be the right course of action to take. Speaking on the latest instalment of Stick to Football, he said: "Points deductions, fines, transfer bans, removing the titles - not giving them to others, just removing the titles - it's significant punishments. The only punishment that would be fair would be have huge consequences - the biggest consequence - would be removing the owners.
"That is the only consequence if I was Manchester City that I would be worried about."
