Man City have an obvious solution to move on from Liverpool FC mess

Manchester City are right to stand up for themselves when they feel they have been slighted.

For too long while they were rising to the top of English football they allowed unsubstantiated smears to be peddled as facts, with traditional elites such as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Liverpool painting them as a club where players just went for the money. City are an easy bogeyman for the problems of other teams and, as has been explained, Jurgen Klopp was incorrect to state that his team cannot compete with the Blues in the transfer market - as he seemed to admit in his press conference on Tuesday.

However, standing up when you are right is diluted if you don't also stand up when you are wrong. Whatever else has gone on over the past few days in the sorry mess that has unfolded between City and Liverpool, a public apology reiterating that the chants are unacceptable would cost City very little and go a long way to easing tensions.

Also read: Man City fury over Jurgen Klopp jibes turns Liverpool FC rivalry even uglier

Nobody is in disagreement that what was sung is indefensible. It would be indefensible if those who chanted it or anyone at the club had been provoked by the worst thing imaginable, and it is definitely indefensible in the circumstances in which it took place.

City know this of course, and have privately condemned the chants. They also released a public statement in April apologising to Liverpool when their fans interrupted a minute's silence to remember the Hillsborough tragedy, and it is only eight years since Blues at Anfield held aloft a banner that read 'YNWA 96' on the same day that the club took out an advert in the home programme offering their support.

The debate over Klopp's comments will rumble