Just had a text from my city mate (he supported city many years before they won the oil lottery). His quote "it was fun while it lasted". He accepts the ban as inevitable and actually accepts that they cheated but his caveat is that it was done to try and catch up with the elite clubs. He was uneasy about their owners from the start.
I wonder how many of their proper fans actually just accept it and were uneasy about their owners in the first place ?
I can actually get on board with this excuse. But it's still an excuse.
Objectively, at the time of the takeover I was genuinely interested to see how much it would cost and how much time it would take for a "regular" club to bridge the gap to the top tier. If they'd hired a Benitez type manager, with decent scouts and modest (although perhaps slightly above board) purchases, then by now they'd probably be a firmly established top four club, with several trophies, maybe even a title. But because the Sheik has no patience and wanted it all NOW, he went for the steamroller option.
It shows just how badly they really
are in need of PR; because the "slow" route of about 15 years, gradually building City up, would have been a far more effective and positive brand of sports washing for Abu Dhabi. But they seemed to have nobody around to counsel them on this strategy and they are far too used to getting their own way.
Instead they chose to create a monster, and in the process they've turned City into a pariah and a laughing stock. And they're not appealing this decision for the sake of the club or its fans - it's because they've been made to look like prize winning chumps because they've finally been held to account.
And what I
won't abide with, is all these "sound" City fans who might suddenly come out and admit they've always felt uncomfortable about this, and admit they knew what was going on. Fuck off with that crap. You cheated, you knew it, and you didn't give a flying fuck. You chose to look the other way and were complicit through your silence.
Show me a City fan who says they stopped going the game because it didn't feel like their club anymore, that it had lost its soul, but that nobody would listen to them, and then perhaps I'll be more sympathetic.