best laugh I`ve had for while, I love rawk…
It's a really strange argument in my opinion and it really annoys me when they talk about the "already established big clubs" as if there's nothing anyone else can do about them. They speak as if we were established and then straight away started winning trophies, when that couldn't be further from the truth.
Before Shankly, we were a division 2 team who were struggling to gain promotion and he transformed the club in to the club they are today. The reason we were so successful in the 70s and 80s was because of what he did to grow the club from a mediocre lower league club in to a European powerhouse. We weren't established as a massive club who won title after title- we earnt our success through the genius and hard work of Shankly when he first came to the club. The same goes for United under Busby as well. Neither club would have won what they won if it weren't for the commitment of two of the greatest managers in the game and their players. The same can be said about clubs like Arsenal etc.
As has been mentioned, there have been teams such as Nottingham forest who've achieved success and upset the bigger clubs and they did that properly without throwing tonnes of cash in to the team. No one was complaining then because they played by the rules and they were applauded from working their way up from obscurity. However, it's easy to forget that the likes of Liverpool and united also came from obscurity and that's why the men who made those clubs what they've become have been rightly applauded.
All of this is in stark contrast to how man city have gotten their success. Rather than build a great team fairly due to good management, they were bought out by billionaires from a country with a questionable human rights record and corruption. If there's one thing I've always looked for in all things in life, its authenticity and there's nothing authentic about that club. Basically, I could never stand feeling like my club's entire success was due to financial doping and cheating of FFP because it wouldn't really feel like so supporting a football club as I'd know that the club with many traditions and history (and yes they do have some) has become some faceless advert for Abu Dhabi. Everything about their club has been bought and it's really sad that that can bring success in football.
It makes me so happy that we achieved our recent success in the right way because if we were bought out like them, all the trophies in the world would mean nothing as I wouldn't be supporting Liverpool- I'd be supporting a repulsive and faceless brand. I genuinely don't think I'd be able to support Liverpool if they became that plastic as I'd feel like I'd lost my team. Our club at the moment have managed to achieve success while maintaining the core elements that make our club so special and that's really important to me. I'd rather see us win nothing than become like them but I'm so glad that doing things the right way has brought us a great team as well.
Some may say that times have changed since the days of Shankly and that clubs rising their way up and become great teams is a thing of the past so the only way for smaller clubs to compete with the big teams is to spend loads of money. While I agree that it has become harder in the premier league era now that the gap is rising between the elite clubs and the rest, I still believe it can be done. Tottenham are a good example of this (I know they've not won anything but they have a strong squad and have become competitive at the top of the table). They've spent very little money but have promoted youth like Harry Kane and bought hidden gems such as Dele Alli on the cheap. Their squad was built on a relatively low budget compared to the rest of the top 6 but they built a really good team.
Overall, when man city fans talk about how difficult it would be to compete with the top teams without spending loads of money, they don't realise that it's supposed to be hard. It wasn't easy for Shankly in his early days at Liverpool, nor for Busby at united. Becoming a big club should take a lot of effort, and that's why there aren't many of them. They've bought their success but they've payed the price for it as every trophy they win is now meaningless and plastic. They could win the quadruple this season and it wouldn't even mean anything. That's what happens when you cheat your way to the top and nothing this team achieves should be applauded as it was won by financial doping. I'm glad we've kept our club.
