I think your argument is very valid, but I don't really see people changing their mind should Man City get punished. It has been pretty obvious for some time what influence it's having on us as a club that we have to compete with a team that basically has a bottomless pit of money. And still, we've done incredibly well over the past few years, but we're also paying a price for that this season (and we did pay a price for that in the 20-21 season). To compete with Man City we had to be as close to perfect as we could for quite a few years and still we fell short in all seasons except one. Because of what Man City were able to do thanks to their money, we never really could take our foot of the gas like you normally would be able to do, if you were competing on a (more or less) level playing field. And still, you had and have people mostly pointing to what FSG or the club has done wrong for us to end up in the situation we are in.
I'm not saying, we've not made mistakes, but I'm also pretty certain that under different circumstances (i.e. not competing against a club using financial cheats) those mistakes would not have such a big effect or we might have been able to avoid some of the alltogether, because we were under less pressure to outperform them week after week. That's not even taking into account how Man City through their ability to pay whatever they want (whether it's wages or transfer fees) have also had a massive influence on what we can do financially to compete with them or other clubs to sign players or just renew contracts.
That's a great summary, and exactly where I'm at in terms of the ownership. Regardless of our mistakes, or how much we could've/should've spent, or who we could've/should've bought (or got rid of), the unavoidable truth is we were playing against a club with all the cheat codes .
A club that can spend the GDP of a small country on defenders until they get it right. Or £100m on Jack fucking Grealish, and not worry about him having zero impact or sitting on the bench. Or win the league on the final day, and then spend £900k a week to get a goal machine that all the other European clubs were after.
I've been accused many times of being pro-FSG, but have always said I don't care who the owners are - provided they meet a clear set of criteria such as running us properly, modernising the club, making us competitive again on and off the pitch, and not leveraging us with unsustainable debts. I'm 'Pro-fairness' far more than being a huge fan of our owners, and still stand my argument that it's City that skewed so many people's views of FSG and Jurgen's tenure - a lot more than many realise. We won't get those years back, but I do think it's important to have perspective, and to realise that those years weren't 'wasted' or 'neglected'. We were cheated, pure and simple - with every pound spent having to make an impact, every injured player becoming a huge burden, and every point dropped possibly being the difference between champions and second place (as we painfully experienced twice on the final day).
The ideal outcome from here (whether FSG stay or not) is for City to be nailed to the wall and relegated, Guardiola to leave, our players to feel that justice has been done, and that their efforts were not in vain (and were in fact herculean under the circumstances). Jurgen, the players and the fanbase become re-energised, and other clubs like Chelsea and Newcastle become next on the list for some major scrutiny (plus PSG and anyone else cooking the books in Europe...).
Then hopefully the gulf states get spooked and get their grubby hands off our league, retreat to their palaces in the desert, whilst their sportswashing projects are gradually dismantled, and whilst they watch their profits tumble as the world finally addresses climate change and moves away from oil for good.
City's titles are then stripped, and they linger in the Championship having lost all their best players in a desperate fire sale. Jurgen extends his contract again, and without the burden of City/Guardiola and their bottomless money pit - he rebuilds his next great team as he always wanted to - on a level playing field.
Arsenal win the league in May, we resolve our midfield in the summer, and come out fighting in August - all driven on by the desire to have those parades that City and Covid so cruelly deprived us of. We win the 3 extra titles we deserved, and turn the whole city red many times over as we add to our trophy cabinet and the Champions wall. Instead of people remembering 2017-2022 as the years we didn't maximise our position, they'll see that it was amazing we won anything at all - given the odds that were stacked against us. We'll be remembered as the club that took on the oil cheats and slogged it out for 5 seasons - and the only team that got anywhere near them, whilst other clubs weren't even at the races. We'll turn a corner this season eventually, and gradually rediscover all the ingredients that have made the last 6 years such a great ride, and which almost culminated in footballing immortality last summer.
Form (and cheating..) are temporary. Class is permanent. Our perch awaits...
