What are the good faith answers to these questions from Man City fans: 1) If the club has grew legitimately - with no under the table self-sponsorship / off the book payments - to the scale of a Madrid or Man United commercially, why has no other middling club been able to replicate them? Shouldn’t we have saw an Everton became half as big as Barca in that time? Are City’s owners just unique geniuses? 2) What is the beef with FFP if the club has grew legitimately to the scale of Madrid and United? Sounds like a great enabler of a system. 3) Why did the club grow through COVID commercially, when no other club in world football did? 4) What explains the discrepancy between the attendances that we can all visually see and the reported attendances? Why is this unlike any other major club? How can the fanbase be uniquely local and skint, but then pulling on global scale revenue? 5) Why the need for off the books payments like those given to Mancini and Yaya, and Sancho’s agent when he was 14? 6) If the club is owned in a private capacity, why is the Abu Dhabi state applying pressure commercially and politically? Could it be that there is no meaningful distinction between the state, the private and the commercial here?

Jesus fucking Christ what is wrong with these people

City fans need to disillusion themselves of the idea that the club would be fine if the owners needed to divest. Here’s how any prospective sale would go: - Hi Lads, it’s US Sports Ventures / it’s Qatar / whoever, we are looking to buy the club - What is your asking price? Does this asking price include the money that you effectively pay yourselves in commercial revenue and will it factor into the price, and will you keep paying that money in if we buy? - Oh you won’t keep paying the money in? But given we ourselves can’t engage in industrial sham payments, how are we going to cover Haaland’s wages? - We’re going to offer you £2.5bn as opposed to £6bn. - *Buys club* Ok, so half the income has disappeared. We have £200m in wage liabilities that we can’t cover. We’re going to have to sell players and bring in cheaper ones. - *Sells some players* Other elite players, who thought they were going into a club as big as Real Madrid and regard themselves as best in the world - do not want to stay at what they think is a declining club. - Spiral continues - Eventually City right-size to actual revenue scale and player calibre fit. They become an upper-Europa club / fringe elite club.

His immediate reaction is to go full bitter

One of my all time top performances, this, from Bellamy

Trophies need to be voided along with this for it to have a minimum amount of weight

Why the ‘football club owners should be able to invest in themselves, like any other business!’ analogy doesn’t make any sense: Football is not like any other business

Thoughts on the game yesterday - - Wirtz, fine. But I don’t buy that he played some elite chance creation game. Good good ball for Munoz. - Barcola. Not a great, but good assist. I think he’ll get there. - Munoz. Patchy, but scrappy and fantastic goal. - Isak. Overall poor, but you’ll take that performance all day if he bangs in 25-30 a year. Elite finish.

Why?? I would love to sit in on some of these top-level meetings and understand what the fuck they are thinking

Biggest club in the world

Absolute waffle. What is the last part on leadership even in reference to?