Basically, City are morally superior, right?

As I've illustrated in previous posts, City were, along with the rest of the league, victims of a G14 stitch-up.  Heroically, they refused to lie down and fought their way to freedom thanks to an altruistic owner who bestowed kindness upon them.

Without a thought for himself, Sheik Mansour brought world class players to the game's most loyal, long-suffering fans.  He began re-generating acres of impoverished East Manchester and even found time to build rooftop pitches for deprived children in Spanish Harlem.  This he did in City's name.  Not content with that, he set about building a new future for the beleaguered national team through a state-of-the art youth development facility on a scale and quality never before seen on these shores.  And he's going to populate it predominantly with good honest local lads from hard-working families*.

To give so much, despite the evil machinations of the self-serving G14 and the weak and malleable officials of UEFA, City's owner should be awarded a Nobel prize.  Instead he is berated by an ignorant and one-dimensional press pack and whispered about in the dark corridors of many a European football institution.

Now ok, even I'm not quite one-eyed enough to claim this degree of moral superiority**.  I am genuinely blown away by the way our new owners are shaping the club's future.  But I am realistic, even a touch cynical.  If City had somehow found itself nicely settled in the top four and a mid-table club had hit the jackpot and crashed the party, we'd be co-signing those cringeworthy letters*** to the Premier League demanding protection right about now.

Because the point of this (worryingly long) post is one simple stark reality - ALL CLUBS ARE IN IT FOR THEMSELVES.  If you ever doubt this at any point in the future, do smack yourself about the face repeatedly until the notion fades.

There is no moral high ground here.  One of the most offensive things in modern football, even more than Michael Owen's commentary, is the suggestion from the usual suspects (yes, you Arsene) that when they bleat about non-enforcement of FFP they are somehow concerned for "the good of the game".  Don't ever let these people tell you they care about the game.  Everything they have lobbied for over the last twenty-odd years was about building an advantage, growing their balance sheets and lining their pockets.  If the terms were right, they would leave the Premier League in an instant to join a Euro/Global/Inter-Galactic Super Competition.  City included.



*       Acknowledgment - D. Cameron
**     I probably am
***   Letters like these - as featured in Martin Samuel article