That’s your opinion but clearly it’s not one that lots of people agree with. I think it’s rather rude to come on here and tell Mancunians that their city is a “shithole”
Having grown up in Manchester, having all my family live in and around Manchester, visiting there on a regular basis, while traveling the world for a living, I’d politely suggest I have much greater context for my views and opinions than many.
I like Chicago as a City to visit but, wouldn’t live there whereas I’d live in city centre Manchester any day but that’s my opinion I also wouldn’t go on a Chicago Bears forum and tell them that their city is a shithole
No-one would give a damn because areas of the city are definitely a shithole and I wouldn’t go there myself!
Funnily enough, the Chicago Bears are leaving the city of Chicago and coming out to the leafy green town in which I live…about 30 miles outside the city!
We have also had lots of world class players, who could chose to play anywhere, spent a good proportion of their career, by choice, living in Manchester and that’s before Pep came along even the rags have had a few
Indeed. Evidence of evidence isn’t evidence of an absence of other evidence!
Just because some have, doesn’t mean most would.
I’ll posit a crazy notion…until money arrived at City the thought of City attracting a world class player was virtually impossible. In fact, even in the early years, City had to pay over the odds for a player to come to the club. This is not in doubt.
Accordingly, in an increasingly money-driven sport/world, it was ££££ that brought players who were being courted elsewhere, but it was success that kept them here.
I would also venture that for every single one of them, Manchester, as a city and location, was a perceived negative that was overcome by sporting ambition and money, as opposed to a positive selling point.
In short, the negative that is Manchester to many players has to be overcome by sporting ambition, aided by remuneration that is some of the best in England and the world.
Today, the infrastructure, the continued success, and the coach are a sporting and financial package that overwhelms and supersedes any perceived negative that Manchester might conjure. It has not always been thus and a few skyscrapers hasn’t changed that.
The city, the weather, the general economic malaise are all things that have to be overcome here. That is not the case with London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, and probably also Milan, Rome, and Munich. That is often overcome by buying a mansion in Alderley Edge or similar green belt locale and frequent trips to both London and the Continent.
And, fwiw, I love aspects of Manchester, because I grew up there, but now that I’ve seen the world, I see it through a slightly different lens.
