The outside world's doubts about Man City's season strategy were not entirely unfounded.
The Premier League could not be abandoned, and the FA Cup was a traditional English competition, so it was understandable to keep fighting for it. But in the eyes of teams from the Big Four Leagues, the Europa League was truly a tasteless morsel.
In an earlier media survey, European football's impression of the Europa League was even worse than that of the Copa Libertadores in South America.
One had to remember that this was Europe's second-most important continental competition after the Champions League. Its participants were also teams ranked in the upper and middle reaches of their respective leagues, along with domestic cup winners. By any measure, it should not have sunk to a level even lower than that of second-rate leagues.
Among this season's Europa League quarterfinalists, every team except Man City and Villarreal came from outside the Big Five Leagues. That was even more astonishing.
Since the competition was restructured in 2000, the UEFA Cup had always been the traditional competition second only to the Champions League. The Big Five Leagues had never been in such a sorry state.
Over the past twelve seasons, there had been nine seasons in which teams from the Big Five Leagues had taken six of the eight quarterfinal spots six times and four spots three times. At the very least, they had occupied half the places.
But this season, there were only two spots, one of them belonging to a newcomer like Man City. That was absolutely unusual.
The media had also analyzed the Europa League's decline, believing that the main reason was that playing in the competition brought in too little money.
Take Atlético Madrid, for example.
Last season, the Mattress Makers had participated in the Champions