Kyle Walker responds to Manchester City's financial charges: "those nights can't be taken away from us"

Some questions a player would rather not answer live on the radio, and this was one of them. But Kyle Walker didn't duck it when the subject of the earthquake that shook Manchester City last week came up.

Now a right back at Burnley, Walker wore the sky blue shirt for eight seasons (2017 to 2025), picking up the Champions League along with 12 other major domestic honors. He stepped up to defend something very specific: what was won on the field can't be erased by a ruling handed down in an office.

The backdrop is a tough one for the club. An independent commission found that City breached Premier League financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, and the club has already appealed the decision. According to the investigators' findings, more than 830 million pounds (roughly $1.08 billion) in owner funding was used to inflate revenue through a series of arrangements described as "fictitious" over a nine-year period.

Walker, speaking to talkSPORT, was careful on the legal side but direct about the personal side:

Obviously it doesn't look good. I know it's in the appeal stage, so for me to start commenting on the legal action and all that probably wouldn't do justice to myself or anyone involved. But on a personal level, I can say that the lads had many, many great years celebrating trophies and all that, and that's something that, whatever happens, can't be taken away from us because we lived those nights. So whatever it is, it's down to the appeal now and whatever comes of it.Kyle Walker

A defense that extends to the fans too

City, for its part, didn't stay quiet either. In a statement released last Friday, the club said the ruling "contains clear material errors of law, of principle and of fact, and is unsafe," adding that it is "innocent of the charges brought by the Premier League," pointing to what it calls "a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence" backing its position.

Walker admitted this isn't a comfortable subject for the players who lived through that golden era. "It's something we probably don't want to talk about because we want to be seen as winners of those trophies, winning them the right way," he explained. He went further, turning the focus to the fans who filled the stands all those years: "It's really hard because we worked so hard for them, and not just us, I think about the fans too. I think about the ones who traveled all over the country, who traveled to Istanbul when we won the treble and all that, and they deserve that night as well."

While the appeal process runs its course, the former right back and captain's stance draws a clear line that many of his former teammates probably share: the administrative matter will be settled in the courts, but the title nights, Walker says, have already been lived.