Theyve got their loyal fans who turn up, but I don’t know any one growing up wanting to be a city fan.
Buying trophies as they’ve done eliminates the romanticism of the game. As I said here last week, football without the romantics is just 22 blokes running around a field.
When you spend 200m on fullbacks within 5 years. 300 million on centre backs in the same time period. And refuse to play and develop any of your younger guys, how are your fans meant to grow an attachment to the players.
Foden is a world class talent who is 22 and still struggling to play. They have a young class striker, Liam Delap, and they refuse to play him even though they don’t have another striker other than Gabriel Jesus at the club.
Being a United fan, seeing players like Rashford and McTominay score in the derby and celebrate with the fans, or seeing Ronaldo come here at 17 and win the Ballon D’or, these are the moments that we watch for.
Watching the likes of Greenwood coming through the ranks and then smashing it at the senior level makes me proud to support the club. You don’t get that at city.
They play nice football, but watching a team that spent 1 billion in a decade smashing a team like Norwich isn’t all that entertaining.
They need to behave like a football club, promote players, develop players, identify with a mentality and style. That’s what’ll bring in fans.
there is a grey area when it comes to money in football because, at a basic level, it has been in football for decades... for example, great South American footballers were brought across to European clubs and due to some money or incentives and due to their ancestry, they were given citizenship and would run out for their new countries
and in truth, it doesn't even have to be money... for example, politics has played a big role in football --> Franco and Real Madrid, the communist bloc countries not allowing players to transfer etc.
I guess my point is that there has always been a level artificiality in football and football results
another example... I believe AC Milan is the second greatest European football club ever behind only Real Madrid... but they were in serious decline in the early 1980's, were relegated, were on the cusp of bankruptcy etc... and then in walks Silvio Berlusconi and buys and bankrolls the club, brings in Arigo Sacchi, goes on a signing spree and the club becomes the best club in the world, wins 5 European Champions Leagues plus a host of other trophies... just an example of a Galacticos approach not involving Real Madrid --> in the early 1990's, AC Milan fielded the majority of Italy's defence (Baresi, Maldini and Costacurta), other Italy internationals (Ancelotti, Albertini, Donadoni, Massaro etc.), had signed the 3 Dutchmen (Van Basten, Gullit, Rijkaard), signed European Footballer of the Year Jean Pierre Papin, Zvonimir Boban who was one of the stars from the ex-Yugoslavia under 20 World Cup win, Dejan Savićević who was the star of the Red Star team that were European and Intercontinental champions in 1991 etc... it got to the point when Milan signed Lentini for a near world record in 1992 that the transfer was condemned by the Vatican
however, for all of the benefits of the Berlusconi era, AC Milan was already a great club having won 10 Serie A titles and two European Cups before him
I guess when it comes to Manchester City, the jury is still out as to whether there is any romance with the Sheikh Mansour takeover