It's difficult to define a 'big club' these days. Traditionally you'd gauge it by attendances and the size of the fan-base and in the days before the Premier League and massive TV money, bigger attendances meant you were richer and therefore likely to afford the players that would keep the club in the top division. Today that model has gone. Are Bournemouth a big club ? Their attendances only average around 10,000 but the Premier League means their financial clout is in a different league to many old traditional big clubs such as Leeds, Forest or Sheffield Wednesday. As for City, I still tend to think that we are essentially a second tier club but with the potential to become bigger.
Incidentally our average attendance this season of 31,413 is the seventh highest in our history and our best since 1953-54. Five of our best six averages came in the decade after the second world war when attendances were very high everywhere. During the 1920's when we were perceived as a 'big club' only once in 1921-22 was our attendance higher than this season. In fact, in 1926-27 the year we won the Cup our average attendance was just 13,951.