The argument that only Utd, Arse and Pool are affected by City and Chelsea jumping the queue kinda falls flat on its face when you take into consideration the fact that Liverpool finished 7th or 8th quite often in those late Benitez, Woy, Queen Kenny and Brentan years, and us finishing 2nd twice in the last decade while missing out on CL half the time. Clubs like Everton or Villa flirted with relegation or got outright relegated precisely because in the years when they were good and could’ve kicked on with consistent European football, they got cockblocked by clubs who won the lottery, prudent financial management and careful squad building means diddly squat when it’s just a pissing contest between oligarchs and nation states at the top. If anything, the resentment against Fergie’s Utd and his superhuman feats post 04 have masked a lot of the deleterious effects of these teams, people would go ‘how bad can it be when Utd are still winning?’ and conveniently ignore everything else.