wub1234
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- Apr 7, 2018
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- Don't support a team
In addition, while Manchester United fans can still appreciate this issue to a great extent, in a sense a Manchester United forum is not really the ideal place to discuss this. As United are part of the elite, and will now always be so. The impact of "rich clubs...whose status at the top of the game is so systemically secure" is that there are dozens of clubs whose future is equally secure; ie. they don't have a future.
Most clubs now exist simply to provide some form of opposition for the elite (although most of the time, as the article points out, they provide very little opposition). This is one of the reasons that on my profile it states that I don't support a team, because there is no point in supporting the team that I grew up watching. Grimsby Town can never achieve anything. I think I would have drifted away anyway, but the existence of the club that I grew up supporting is just completely and utterly pointless.
But this now also applies to clubs that were big at one time. When I was growing up, Everton won the league regularly. Now they're an also-ran. Leeds were arguably the team of the 70s, and will now never get back to even being a factor at the top end of the game. West Ham averaged 58,000 this year, but will they win anything in the next 40 years? Because they haven't won anything in the last 40 years.
There are others as well, Newcastle average over 50,000, and have no chance of ever doing anything. Two of the top three clubs in the Championship in terms of attendance, Villa and Forest, have won the European Cup, yet now have no chance of playing in it ever again. You could go on and on, but all of these clubs can, at best, hope to establish themselves as a mid-table PL side, as Everton have, more likely yo-yo between the PL and the Championship, as most big clubs outside the top six do, or possibly encounter major financial difficulties, like Portsmouth (FA Cup winners), although they are climbing back to take their pointless place in the Championship once more.
At the moment, somehow attendances are holding up. Frankly, I don't know how. But, over time, are people going to continue to turn up to watch clubs that can never achieve anything? And it is still going to mean something for fans of Bayern and PSG when they're winning their 19th titles in 20 seasons?
Most clubs now exist simply to provide some form of opposition for the elite (although most of the time, as the article points out, they provide very little opposition). This is one of the reasons that on my profile it states that I don't support a team, because there is no point in supporting the team that I grew up watching. Grimsby Town can never achieve anything. I think I would have drifted away anyway, but the existence of the club that I grew up supporting is just completely and utterly pointless.
But this now also applies to clubs that were big at one time. When I was growing up, Everton won the league regularly. Now they're an also-ran. Leeds were arguably the team of the 70s, and will now never get back to even being a factor at the top end of the game. West Ham averaged 58,000 this year, but will they win anything in the next 40 years? Because they haven't won anything in the last 40 years.
There are others as well, Newcastle average over 50,000, and have no chance of ever doing anything. Two of the top three clubs in the Championship in terms of attendance, Villa and Forest, have won the European Cup, yet now have no chance of playing in it ever again. You could go on and on, but all of these clubs can, at best, hope to establish themselves as a mid-table PL side, as Everton have, more likely yo-yo between the PL and the Championship, as most big clubs outside the top six do, or possibly encounter major financial difficulties, like Portsmouth (FA Cup winners), although they are climbing back to take their pointless place in the Championship once more.
At the moment, somehow attendances are holding up. Frankly, I don't know how. But, over time, are people going to continue to turn up to watch clubs that can never achieve anything? And it is still going to mean something for fans of Bayern and PSG when they're winning their 19th titles in 20 seasons?