Baxquux
Full Member
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2022
- Messages
- 1,279
They've got 120 or so charges hanging over them and have difficulty attracting all but the most casual fans worldwide -maybe it's harder in general , and particularly today, for 'new' (footballing) elites' to gain support in the same way United, or Madrid, even Liverpool to a great extent, developed globally through history and 'mythos' attached to it - but even so, City just don't have that aura. You go there for pragmatic reasons - good coaching, a calculation around trophies, but they don't have that allure : players just screen out how hollow, cheat-code and frictionless in many ways it is, compared to a proper prestige club, even if a team like Madrid have always had certain unfair advantages in their own way (the 'kings team'/the 'generals team', bailed out of their debts etc).City most definitely is. They are and are going to be for as long as Pep is there basically the favourites every year.
Once Pep leaves for a national job or to earn disgusting money, even beyond his official and unofficial City pay, in Saudi or wherever, and they have to deal with an equally wealthy Newcastle, hopefully a fully resurgent United, possibly Boehly's Chelsea gamble on buying up promising talent in bulk paying off, and at least one of Arsenal and Liverpool improving another few %, they're not going to be as hegemonic. Doubly so if some of the charges actually stick...