On the field, Manchester United have struggled this season, with only two wins so far in all competitions and sitting 12th in the Premier League. The Red Devils are also currently on a run of three games without a win. 

It is not just the fact that the club has not been winning, but also the manner of the performances, with the club being second best against their opposition in almost all of the games so far.

While the pressure is certainly on Michael Carrick, the scrutiny this international break has been less than anticipated, given the news David Ornstein reported about Man City being found guilty on virtually all of the 115 charges put against them.

A range of different punishments has been suggested, with some being historic in terms of changing past results, and some have been linked with the future in terms of point deductions, fines, and transfer bans.

Wayne Rooney is one of the many players who have been directly impacted in the era of 2009- 2018 where the alleged breaches occurred. The well-known defeat on the final day of the season in 2012, in the "Aguero" moment, stands out to many as an injustice. 

This is due to allegedly almost all of the big stars who were signed, like Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Edin Dzeko, and Samir Nasri, to name a few, being signed during that period. Not to mention the alleged double contract that was handed to Roberto Mancini to manage the club. 

However, it was not just this moment when Rooney could feel aggrieved. In 2011, Manch lost 1-0 in an FA Cup semi-final to City, which Manchester United could argue could be the club being prevented from being able to get to a cup final. 

While Rooney agrees on the severity of the breaches, he is not comfortable receiving retrospective medals. This comes not long after his former teammate, Rio Ferdinand, stated he would want his medals.

He said on the Stick to United podcast: "I wouldn't really feel comfortable accepting another Premier League medal, if I'm being honest. I don't think we deserve it; we didn't do enough that season to win the league. I think we were six or seven points clear with four or five games to go, and we threw it away.

"I’ve seen everything that's come out over the past few days, listening to people, and I was putting myself in a Man City player’s shoes.

"They’re players, doing everything they can to try to win the Premier League title, and in their mind they've done it. If those players have no understanding of what's going on above, if that happened to me... I'd be absolutely devastated.

"It might happen, they might take them [medals] away, but I wouldn’t want it [a medal] because I don’t think as a team we deserved it that year because we didn’t finish first.

"So when I see team-mates saying, 'I want a medal’, I’m happy with the five I’ve won. I wouldn’t want this.

"Should they get it stripped for what the owners have done? Yeah, maybe, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable accepting it."

While the guilty verdict is there for all to see, Manchester City has reportedly appealed the verdict with the hope of trying to overturn some of the 114 charges that Man City lost the case for. 

As a result, the debate about any punishment will continue to go on as the Premier League looks to try and overcome the most controversial moment in football since the Calciopoli scandal, where Juventus and other Serie A teams were found guilty of match-fixing. Subsequently, Juventus were hit the hardest as they had their titles stripped and were relegated. 

It remains to be seen as to whether the punishment will be retrospective or for the future, or a blend of the two. 

However, this does not change Manchester United's current situation in the Premier League, and the club needs to use this international break, where the headlines are not about United's poor form, to work hard and fix the glaring issues in recent times.