In all fairness they have been second banana to Barca throughout that time in their own country. They've won 4 La Liga titles in the time since the Sheikh bought City. In that time we've won 6 (possibly 7) Prem titles. We never slag off the league, they do so regularly. While reaching the CL semifinals they currently sit 3rd in La Liga, 14 points behind a Barca team that couldn't get out of group play in the CL and got bumped from the Europa League by a Man U squad who themselves got bumped in the next round. Take a closer look at their 14 CL titles. They've been league champions 4 times during those 14 seasons. 5 were won in the first 5 years when there were maybe only 2 or 3 other teams who could legitimately compete. By the way, they have never won the true treble, ever. There's no denying they've been massively successful in the CL over the past decade, but there's also no denying they don't go all in on everything else. Prioritizing a cup event at the expense of a league title doesn't necessarily garner any great level of admiration from me. If City played the way Real has played on a fairly regular basis over the past 3 or 4 years people on here would be losing their minds.
So here we are, one team who's gone 20 games unbeaten while relentlessly chasing down the front runners coming from 8 points down to 4 ahead while still getting to the CL semi and the FA Cup final and another who threw in the towel in their league in pursuit of more cup glory.
I'll say this in all seriousness, in a normal prem year where Liverpool and Chelsea are there and with Arsenal and Newcastle in the ascent this Real team would struggle to make top 4.
So Jude can choose between a team that has managed to dominate the best league in the world for the past 6 years while continuing to pursue the CL or a team that spits the bit at the first sign of distress in a less competitive league falling back on a 13 game cup competition to mask over the fact that on the whole they are not remotely close to being the best team in Europe.
JMHO