None of this is new, their struggles and internal problems have been with them since way before that disgusting despot turned up.
They have always been an average mid-table side, nothing to write home about. But the Premier league and money from Sky gave them an advantage no other club -before or since- has enjoyed.
On top of this, and I genuinely believe this to be true, something went on between the club and the powers that be that pretty much put the referees in David Gill and the Pisscan's pockets. There simply is no other rational explanation for the decisions that went in their favour when the drunken despot was in charge.
The blatant one-sidedness they received from the officials only masked over the fact that they were not that good a team.
It would be churlish of me to say they were bad, they weren't. But they were no great shakes either: by and large they failed in Europe despite the absolutely obscene amounts of money they spent, and it was only a change in the rules that allowed them to get into the C.L. - thus giving them even more money with which to bully other clubs into selling their assets. And the other change from which they benefitted was the 'one foreigner' rule that was in place at that time. They had so many non-English players that the rules hampered them so (naturally) yet another change in the rules helped them out.
So as I say, a set of fortuitous circumstances elevated them above their normal status of mediocrity, but now we have a more level playing field so they have once again become the mid-table fodder they have always been.
Well, that's my story, your Honour, and I'm sticking to it!
