Neil Humphreys: Big boys' dominance bad for football
Man City can buy a treble, but can't buy love
Pep Guardiola was angry. One irate Manchester City supporter was practically foaming at the mouth. Even the club's owners must be taken aback by the perplexing reaction to their historic treble.
Where's the love?
Where's the eternal gratitude for providing the greatest show on Planet Football? Were we not entertained?
Actually, the lazy Gladiator quote is an apt one here, because Manchester City's domination of Watford in the FA Cup final was just as one-sided as Lions against Roman slaves and the underlying circumstances were the same.
City just couldn't lose to the Hornets.
The first treble in English history wasn't the coronation that City hoped for, but a depressing confirmation of monopolistic control.
For the first time, Europe's top-five leagues saw their titles retained. Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and City unwittingly came together to highlight the rich-poor divide like never before, because this has never happened before.
Even though City became the first English club to win back-to-back titles since 2009, Guardiola's treble winners find themselves as poster boys for all that is unpalatable about the concentration of wealth among the greediest few.
Of course, the City faithful must claim otherwise. Guardiola has spoken of a media bias towards Manchester United and Liverpool. After the FA Cup final, a City fan broke into the press box and screamed expletives at the journalists, accusing them of favouring Mohamed Salah.
It's not a stretch to imagine oligarchs in Abu Dhabi echoing similar sentiments.
Wealthy trophy hoarders have always dealt with the green-eyed monsters that envy their inbuilt privileges and bloated trophy cabinets. But this is different.
The FA Cup farce hinted at the endgame for a club entirely owned by a foreign royal family, wearing jerseys that promoted one of the royal family's companies before lifting a trophy sponsored by another Abu Dhabi company.
The scale of City's essentially limitless resources is unprecedented, ensuring that the overriding response from rival clubs and supporters isn't jealousy, but fear.
Since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008, City have spent more than £1.2 billion (S$2.1b) across 11 seasons. No other club, not even the Qatar-funded PSG, got anywhere close.
And those eager to compare City's astute purchases to Man United's expensive duds argue that the divide was all about Guardiola's genius and Jose Mourinho's madness are only half-right.
Or half a billion pounds wrong.
DEMENTED
United spent half a billion pounds less than City over the same period. Even in the current, demented climate, half a billion still buys at least two-thirds of an elite side.
City also weighed out more money than Real Madrid and Barcelona combined.
The club have no financial restraints, beyond those imposed upon them by authorities (with questionable success). According to reports, Uefa investigators are proposing a Champions League suspension over allegations of City lying about violations of Financial Fair Play regulations.
Guardiola might have baulked at being asked questions about City's payment practices, but his bosses seem less perturbed. In October, leaked e-mails suggested that chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak "would rather spend 30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years".
He has the resources to take on Uefa and anyone else who challenges the sportswashing exercise.
City have already taken on English football and won. Their autocrats have bent the domestic game to their will.
Guardiola's men scored 169 goals in 61 games in all competitions, which was a first. On 11 occasions, they scored five or more in a game, another first.
Across two seasons, they collected 198 points, won 64 of their 76 league games and collected five of the six domestic trophies on offer, all firsts.
But has such dominance made for a more enthralling spectacle? Even City supporters looked mildly embarrassed at Wembley. Clubs dream of trophies and trebles, but the journey matters, too.
The Citizens are establishing a dynasty and yet a sense of frustration remains. No wonder Guardiola looked the least satisfied treble winner in history.
His wonderful squad won the football battle, but City may never spend enough to win their PR war.
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