​Mauricio Pochettino was in charge of Southampton, Tottenham, and Chelsea as Manchester City rose to the Premier League elite.Photograph: Taylor Banner/USSF/Getty ImagesUS men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino expressed dismay at news of Manchester City being found guilty of widespread financial improprieties on Monday, saying that fans “lived through a period of deception” because of City’s rule breaches.The Guardian and other outlets have reported that Manchester City have been found guilty by the Premier League of violating the vast majority of 115 different charges concerning violations of financial rules between 2009 and 2018.Related: Manchester City verdict: what happens next, will club appeal and could they be relegated?Pochettino was the manager of Tottenham Hotspur for five seasons, from 2014 to 2019, and of Southampton before that from 2013 to 2014. He also took charge of Chelsea for a single season in 2023-24.“Where were the controls?” Pochettino said in Spanish, when asked by the Guardian for his thoughts on the guilty verdicts. “That’s what gets my attention. Where were the controls?“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. I think we were the only team in the history of the Premier League with 18 months without [making a transfer].“If a team like us, Tottenham, was fighting for titles with those above us and every year in the top four, getting to the semi-finals of Champions League without being able to do a transfer for 18 months, all because we needed to get used to the [Premier League financial controls]? 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.”Related: Manchester City timeline: trophies, transfers and more than 100 chargesManchester City’s issues started when a 2018 investigation by German paper Der Spiegel showed potential financial improprieties, citing leaked internal documents, outlining a host of potential violations occurring over a 10-year span between 2008 and 2018.City – who have always denied the allegations – were subsequently charged by the Premier League in 2023 of falsifying details of their finances, with some of those issues centering around payments to players and coaches. They have also been accused of violating Uefa’s financial fair play regulations, and the Premier League’s own profit and sustainability rules (PSRs).Uefa made an attempt at disciplining City in 2020, banning the club from Uefa-sanctioned competition like the Champions League and fining them €30m. That punishment was later overturned by the court for arbitration of sport; some of the violations, they said, occurred too long ago to be punished and others weren’t adequately proven.City are widely expected to appeal against the Premier League’s verdicts in the next two weeks and the e