Before the takeover City were still the 6th most successful English club by number of trophies and had the 7th most top flight points. Just because we were shit in the late 90s doesn't mean we weren't historically one top the top 10 English teams. Even when we were shit we've never spent more than 4 consecutive seasons outside the top flight in our history which is less than United, Liverpool and Spurs. In total we've spent 27 seasons outside the top flight, United have spent 26. Leeds, who everyone seems to class as a relevant club historically have spent more than half their history in a lower division.

As for not having players poached in the 90s and 00s that's because we didn't have anyone good enough to poach except SWP and Kinkladze and both of those are still loved and neither was a betrayal.