Exactly. City are repeatedly used as the media punchbag for greed, over-spending and excess in football that is never used against any other club. Even Sean Dyche's recent quote about our alleged bid for Kane (a bid which has no foundation to anyone in the public domain) attracted a typically jaundiced response.
Other clubs can spend, spend, spend and it very rarely attracts any negative response.
If, and it's a big 'if', Grealish does sign then I await the avalanche of hostility both to the player and City as a club. Every stick available will be used to beat the club.