The Premier League’s ruling against Manchester City this week - that the club had been found guilty of serious breaches of the competition’s financial rules across a total of nine seasons - has drawn reactions from every corner of the game.

And among the most cutting responses has come from a figure who spent much of that same era in Premier League dugouts.

Mauricio Pochettino managed two top-flight sides during the period covered by Manchester City’s charges, and he has now delivered a withering verdict on what the case says about the competition he worked in for the best part of a decade.

Those were the years in which Manchester City rose to dominate English football, hoovering up a haul of major honours, while Pochettino’s own teams pushed hard at the top without ever landing the biggest prizes.

Speaking after the ruling, the United States Men's National Team head coach, Mauricio Pochettino pulled no punches, framing the saga as a stain on the era rather than something that should simply be punished and forgotten.

“Whatever punishment [they choose], it’s impossible to turn back time,” Pochettino said. “It’s done a lot of damage. Many clubs followed the rules and some didn’t.”

For the Argentine, no sanction can undo what he sees as a fundamental distortion of the competition. “It is a huge sadness,” he continued. “We get into a situation where what got celebrated wasn’t that real, what seemed good maybe wasn’t so good.”

“We went through something where sporting fairness didn’t exist,” Pochettino said. “How do you repair everything that was damaged because of that? If it’s true all of the 114 rules that were broken, we’ve lived through a period of deception.”

Mauricio Pochettino’s frustration, of course, was rooted in his personal experience having taken charge of Southampton and then Tottenham Hotspur during the years in question, and he pointed to the tight financial constraints his own sides operated under.

“Where were the controls? That’s what gets my attention,” he said. “If I remember being at Southampton, then Tottenham - I remember building [the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium] and not having the economic possibility of a transfer for 18 months.

“Tottenham was fighting for titles with those above us and every year in the top four, getting to the semi-finals of the Champions League without being able to do a transfer for 18 months."

The Spurs side of Mauricio Pochettino's best years was a far cry from the state the club is in now, and battled with Leicester City and Chelsea for league titles in consecutive seasons with star players like Harry Kane and Dele Alli. 

It is not the first time this year Mauricio Pochettino has spoken out about his views on financial regulations.

Earlier this month, he argued that Chelsea ought to lose the 2016/17 title they won following their own historical breaches - with the trophy, in his view, belonging to the Spurs team he led to a runners-up finish.

BBC Sport has separately reported that rival top-flight sides are now believed to be taking legal advice about potential compensation claims against Manchester City in the wake of the ruling.

Manchester City, of course, reject the premise entirely and the club continue to protest their innocence, have labelled the commission’s opinion “unsafe” and are pressing ahead with an appeal against the findings.

That process could yet reshape how this saga is ultimately judged, though it would take a huge overturning to change the club's standing.

None of this softens the anger of those who, like Pochettino, believe the damage is already done. 

“They were so strict with us but also so lenient with others. Because of that, that’s why I say: it’s all very strange," he closed.