Bigger and better?

Picking out something that Nicky Weaver stated yesterday when talking of his desire to remain the club:

"City is a great club to be at for a player. The ones
that leave here and go to a bigger and better club are few and far
between.Normally when they leave they go downhill."

It's a fair point from Weaver as looking over the past decade which City players have gone on to 'bigger and better' things?

Off the top of my head, the players I can think of are Gio Kinkladze, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Nicolas Anelka. I was tempted to include Robbie Fowler but a short-term lesser role at Liverpool doesn't really count.

Anyway, looking at Kinkladze, Wright-Phillips and Anelka, whilst they have arguably moved onto 'bigger' things (including club size, wages, league success and European football) in no way could the move be classed as 'better' - unless by better you include such things as obscurity, the bench, being played out of position and stalling a promising career, before ending up at such places as Derby and Bolton.

So, maybe Weaver does have a point in that it isn't entirely a bed of roses once you leave City - and possibly something for the likes of Distin, Sturridge and Richards to bear in mind.

Although, in saying that is generally downhill once you leave City - isn't there an argument for saying that is true because most of the players we have had in recent times are not simply not good enough to have been courted by the 'bigger and better' sides?