Manchester City have been warned that their top stars will already be "talking to their agents about their futures" if the club's appeal fails.

City have been found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League financial regulations between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons by an independent commission.

It was found that the club created "sham contracts" to artificially inflate their revenue, with Premier League CEO Richard Masters stating that the findings showed the club "systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade".

However, City maintain that they are "innocent" and have launched an appeal, insisting they have "irrefutable evidence" that the ruling "contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe".

Former Premier League striker Dion Dublin has now shared his thoughts on the situation, with the possibility of serious sanctions hanging over the club if the appeal is unsuccessful.

Man City stars will be "talking to their agents about their futures"

Speaking exclusively to Sports Mole, Dublin suggested many City players will be considering their futures and exploring potential moves away from the Etihad because of the potential sanctions the club is facing.

"Players will be talking to their agents about their futures, there'll be those conversations, I would imagine," Dublin said. "They'll be chatting to their agents, and agents will be saying, 'Listen, let's see what happens at the end of this.

"They might even be putting things in place right now just in case, and maybe chatting to people. Are they allowed to do it right now? I'm not too sure. Have there been conversations with agents, City, and players at City? Again, you would imagine that'll all happen when this is all resolved. 

"There will be players and agents talking, I would have thought, thinking to themselves, 'Yeah, I can't be doing this now. I've got to get out,' or 'Everything's fine, I'm staying'.

"There's so much quality that most of that City squad, probably 20 out of the 35 strong, could start in most Premier League sides, probably 95% of all Premier League sides.

"It's not going to be hard for them to find a club if they want to leave City, whether that is Manchester United or elsewhere, if it comes to that, because the quality that City have is just outrageous.

"A lot of players have left already, but there's still some real quality there. So yeah, they won't find it hard to find a home if it comes to that."

Dion Dublin claims Man City players must be "disappointed"

Dublin also suggested the City squad will be feeling "an element of disappointment" about the situation as there is now uncertainty over whether the club will be stripped of the trophies they won between 2009 and 2018.

"Even though the players probably wouldn't have consciously known about this while they were training, and they probably don't know all the ins and outs of what goes on upstairs with fees and who pays what, when you have to pay, and all the things City are being questioned about.

"The players probably won't know a lot of it, if any. They would have got their heads down and just cracked on and played the game. So, I mean, there's got to be an element of disappointment now because we don't know, and they don't know, what's going to happen to their medals and stuff.

"It will be on their minds, for sure, because it's on every bulletin and every TV show right now. So they will definitely be thinking about it, but at the time, they probably wouldn't have had much of an idea of what was going on."

Dublin also believes some supporters will have been left with a "bitter taste in their mouth", adding: "I feel quite sad about it. I think everybody feels the same. It's quite a big shock. I've never heard of anything like this in football before, of this scale.

"We obviously have to wait until everything's played out, of course we do. But if you think about it as an outsider, you do think to yourself, the fans have spent a few quid traveling all over the world, all over the country, watching Man City win things. So there's probably a bitter taste in their mouth now.

"They've probably got their fingers crossed thinking, when this is all played out, hopefully it was money well spent for us."

Man City warned punishment must be "quite heavy"

If the appeal is not successful, it remains to be seen what punishment City will receive and Dublin believes it will have to be "quite heavy".

He said: "Relegation? It's really tough because I don't know how you measure it when this has never happened before. How do you measure the consequence or the punishment? Because this punishment has never been there before.

"So you have to think about something new, something that's going to be quite heavy. But again, that's once we have the 100% facts and the 100% answer. There's obviously a lot of speculation, but listen, we really don't know, but it's surprising. It's really surprising."

Dublin also addressed comments from his former teammate Roy Keane, who claimed the City players should throw their "medals in the bin".

"Having played with Roy, I know what he's like," Dublin said. "He's just an out-and-out winner, but he wants to win straight down the line. You sweat, blood, tears, everything, and you do everything right.

"Everything's above board and you earn the right to win those trophies. That's what Roy's saying, earn the right in the right way, play the game in the right way, be professional, and then whatever you achieve is a reward for all that hard work.

"Roy's just saying, and don't forget he did say if, if this is what it is, then he would throw the medals in the bin. It wouldn't surprise me for Roy to do that either. It wouldn't surprise me one iota. He's that kind of captain, and he wants to win things in a truthful way."

City lodged their appeal earlier this month and that process must be completed within 12 weeks, meaning a final decision is expected by January.