Five Man City Champions League final starters signed during breach period

Five members of Manchester City's starting XI in their historic 2023 Champions League final victory over Inter Milan were signed during the nine-season period covered by the club's serious financial breaches, illustrating how recruitment from that era continued to shape Pep Guardiola's side years later.

Manchester City's 1-0 victory over Inter in Istanbul completed the first Champions League triumph in the club's history and secured a Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup treble.

Yet almost half of the team Guardiola selected for the final had arrived before the end of the 2017-18 season.

Ederson, John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne all started against Inter after joining City between 2015 and 2017.

Kyle Walker, who came off the bench in Istanbul, and Aymeric Laporte were also part of the Treble-winning squad after being recruited during the same period.

That timeframe has acquired new significance following the independent commission's ruling over City's financial conduct between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

Five Istanbul starters arrived before 2018 cut-off

De Bruyne was the earliest of the five Champions League final starters to arrive, joining from Wolfsburg for around £54.3m in 2015.

A year later, Guardiola's first summer in Manchester brought Stones from Everton for approximately £46.1m and Gundogan from Borussia Dortmund for £22.4m.

City then spent heavily again ahead of the 2017-18 campaign.

Bernardo arrived from Monaco for around £44.6m, while Ederson cost approximately £35.7m from Benfica.

Walker joined from Tottenham Hotspur for around £47m during the same summer, before Laporte arrived from Athletic Bilbao for £57.4m in January 2018.

Five years later, Ederson, Stones, Bernardo, De Bruyne and Gundogan were all selected from the start as City beat Inter through Rodri's second-half goal.

Walker replaced Stones late in the game, meaning six players signed during the 2009-18 window featured on the night City finally became European champions.

The presence of those players does not mean that any individual transfer has been established as the direct product of a financial breach.

The commission's findings concern how City reported revenues, sponsorship arrangements and costs during the period rather than assigning particular signings to specific irregular transactions.

City have also appealed against the ruling.

Nevertheless, the make-up of the 2023 side demonstrates why the sporting influence of recruitment during that period did not simply disappear once the 2017-18 season ended.

Man City's £1.2bn recruitment reshaped club for years

City spent more than £1.2bn on players between 2009 and 2018 as the club evolved from an ambitious new project into one of England's dominant forces.

The first phase included Carlos Tevez, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero, players who helped deliver City's first Premier League titles of the Abu Dhabi era.

Later recruitment created the foundations inherited and then reshaped by Guardiola.

De Bruyne became City's creative reference point, while Stones developed from a traditional centre-back into a hybrid defender-midfielder under the Catalan.

Gundogan became a captain and decisive goalscorer, while Bernardo, Ederson and Walker remained central to City's most successful period.

The timing is particularly relevant when considering Guardiola's trophy record.

Only his first Premier League title, the 100-point campaign of 2017-18, falls directly inside the period covered by the commission's main financial findings.

His later league titles and the 2023 Champions League came after that window.

However, several of the players responsible for those later achievements had already been recruited before the cut-off.

That is why 2018 represents a clearer accounting boundary than a sporting one.

Contracts continued, players remained and the squad assembled during those years formed part of the platform from which City later won four consecutive Premier League titles and finally conquered Europe.

The commission has not concluded that City's 2023 Treble was itself achieved through financial breaches, nor that the seven players concerned should individually be viewed through that lens.

What the timeline does show is how long elite recruitment can continue to influence results.

By the time City lifted the Champions League trophy in Istanbul, five years had passed since the end of the period examined by the commission - but five of Guardiola's 11 starters had already been brought to Manchester before that period closed.