The whole of your post is absolutely true, regrettably, and the bolded point gets to the heart of it. People have made up their minds that City cheated so now they have no interest in the details of the case. Forget that we were punished for past breaches and entered into a settlement/reporting regime that should have put them to bed. Forget that we had to endure a process featuring apparently spurious allegations deriving from the period covered by the settlement and reporting regime. No, they know we're guilty, even if they can't quite put their finger on how or why, so we have to be punished. The facts are irrelevant for these people.
On my Twitter timeline this morning, I've witnessed a conversation between two law professors (FFS!) talking about how this case shows that governing bodies need to be careful in their drafting of limitation provisions to ensure that they can go after past breaches. Now, they could be right, but they may very well not be. My strong suspicion is that the time-barred allegations will be practically identical to those with respect to which CAS found for City on the merits and we therefore didn't simply escape punishment on a timing technicality. As I say, I may be wrong on that but the point here is that you have two people who should fucking well know a lot better leaping, spurred on by their own bias, to a conclusion based on a short press statement rather than waiting for the full judgment.
It's been a contention of many City fans for ages that we're up against an onslaught led by rivals determined to do anything to stop us in our tracks, supported by a supine media deploying a welter of what these days seems to be called 'fake news' (I prefer the old-school term 'lies') to dupe the masses. Some, including me for a while, were sceptical about this or at least about the extent of it. No more, because since Monday's verdict we've seen the full measure of what we're up against in all its grotesque ugliness.
Let them bring it on, I say. In 45 years of following City, I've always felt that our fans are at their best when up against it, especially when we have a manager to rally behind who 'gets' that underdog mentality. For all the wonderful things Guardiola has brought us, we perhaps haven't had that since Mancini, but I've been delighted with Pep's reaction this week. So let's all of us now band together (club, fans, management and players) and create a siege mentality. Every win sticks it to these c*nts who are desperate to do us down, so let's all focus on that and glory in every achievement that we know will only hurt them.
