Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
I am talking about the media. It was an utter disgrace the way Louise Taylor in the Guardian, of all newspapers, almost cheerled for the Saudi despots to take over Newcastle. And now we have Ronay and Liew lamenting how poor Arsenal have been done out of it. Well, that's what happens when there is little in the way of scrutiny for despotic nation states taking over football clubs. The Guardian practically campaigned to get rid of Gillette and Hicks at Liverpool. I remember their legal reporter practically on the steps of the court house with the Liverpool fan representatives. But with City? Not too much noise. Ditto Chelsea. It was as if none of those developments were true threats to Liverpool, United, or Arsenal - until they were. And the media loved the idea of "competition" - especially if another London club could offer it. Pretty mich everyone was "on brand".You've thrown a blanket over anyone lamenting city and other clubs turning their league into a monopoly, plenty of fans were against city or chelseas ownership model, some didn't realise until later and a multitude of other timelines of events and motives. To call everyone who disagrees with cheering on city a hypocrite or rs media is a bit silly or perhaps you are talking predominantly about the media?
Definately problems in the media, a lot of which comes from the over saturation of football media which inevitably leads to lots of uninformed opinions being given a voice.
Competitiveness in an industry as large as football is predominantly about wealth, and if its to be prevented from being about anything other than wealth then it has to be by regulation. I don't disagree with the framing of how this has been reported by and large, there some decent voices and even some studies on the deterioration of competitiveness in football but they are usually drowned out by the simon jordans of the world.
One thing I can't bring myself to dull is cheer on a dull city side with disturbing ownership, an irritating manager and sycophantic fanbase with includes of noel gallagher as its cheerleader, I'm guessing people do this out of fatalism or some 'enemy of my enemy' vibe but I find it all a bit grim.
They dined out on "Roman" for years. They're being devoured now.