Johnny Phillips: Manchester City remain the big blue elephant in the PSR room

The East Midlands club overspent by £34.5million over a three-year period, and would have incurred a penalty of six points had they not co-operated fully with the investigation into their financial circumstances.

Forest signed more than 40 players after winning promotion during the 2021/22 season. Over £250million has been spent in total, with a mixed set of results to show for it.

Forest are convinced their numbers fall within the allowable losses due to the sale of Brennan Johnson to Tottenham Hotspur, even though that occurred outside the accounting period.

Forest believe that they would have been within the Premier League’s sustainability rules had they sold Johnson in June last year when they received an initial offer for him, but selling the Welsh forward in September was still in the spirit of those sustainability rules because deferring his sale ultimately generated more money.

Brentford offered £35m for Johnson in June whereas Tottenham eventually paid a club-record £47.5m on deadline day. Forest’s argument is that by holding out for their asking price they were respecting the spirit of the league’s substantially rules, and clearly their lawyers believe there is a strong case.

The four-point sanction has left the City Ground club in real trouble, as they have now slipped into the relegation places below Luton Town.

Meanwhile, Everton are waiting on a second PSR charge this season.

The Merseysiders have already been docked six points, after their initial appeal against a 10-point sanction was partially upheld.

Sean Dyche’s side are 15th in the table but would also be plunged deep into trouble if they were given a further points deduction.

Some of Everton’s dispute concerns how much of the money spent was used for the new stadium project, which would be an allowable expense.

That is juts one of several mitigating factors being argued by their lawyers.

But the elephant in the room is the case of Manchester City.

Why has nothing been done so far?

The City Football Group has 115 charges outstanding, going back over nine years but so far no action has been taken against the club.

Unlike the Premier League, Uefa have already handed a punishment to City with a 30m euros fine in 2020 and a two-year ban from the Champions League, which was overturned by the European Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The Premier League claims that City did not provide accurate financial information over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018. In addition to this they face accusations of failing to fully disclose financial remunerations made to one of their managers over a four-year period.

The implication here is that this manager was being paid more than officially stated via an undisclosed secondary contract.

This and other charges are due to go to court later this year. So while Forest and Everton have endured points deductions, are City carrying on regardless?

In short, no. City and the CFG have not yet been found guilty of anything in Premier League terms.

Whatever punishment they may or may not receive remains up in the air, as the investigation into that extensive list of charges is still ongoing and will likely take some time to reach its conclusion.

There is so much work that needs to be done to charge City, so there is no immediate end in sight.

This is a cause of huge frustration to other clubs who are being penalised.

And for supporters, viewing the case from distance, it seems unfair that the most successful club of the last few seasons is apparently operating free from punishment while others suffer.

Given the precedent set by the Premier League, with two rounds of points deductions already, it has merely added fuel to speculation about what punishment City could face if they are found guilty of any financial breaches.

This is unhelpful, of course, as the matter needs to take its legal course without undue pressure building up elsewhere, but it is entirely inevitable that questions are now being asked of a process that has lasted so long already.