Seeing as this thread has degenerated into autistic tedium I might as well join in.
It was logically implied by you saying that "City's ability to sign players that we cannot ... does not excuse our inability to challenge for the league or the CL on a reasonably consistent basis."
To consistently challenge for the league we should be at least very close to the best teams most years, and that means Man City who are, as I said a club who have unlimited power to recruit better players than us in every position.
Again, in your mind the only difference between the two clubs is that they have a great manager and we have a bad one.
If you'd just said that Veng should have done a bit better in the league at some point or two in recent years then probabl
y no-one would disagree with you.