Thanks, Colin. I felt that he was looking down his nose at City fans a couple of times in the past, but what really finished me with him once and for all was his attitude on the Why Always Us? podcast in the summer. The Athletic hired a general football writer last May whose name I forget, but his first piece was a laughable alternative account of what could have happened the CL final in which, instead of Real winning 1-0, Liverpool romped to a 5-1 win. I'd never read anything as ridiculous in my life, let alone in a supposed quality publication.
The same guy produced a piece in July, after we signed Erling Haaland, claiming that Haaland was just as likely to fail as to succeed, and then setting out why in a lengthy article. Obviously, City fans thought it ridiculous, but it was the "just as likely to fail or succeed" line that was really to blame. If he'd said that no transfer is absolutely guaranteed to succeed, outlined how it could pay off but then explored reasons why it possibly might not, no one could have complained. People were riled the statement that implied there was a significant chance of Haaland being a flop before giddily trying to argue that he would.
This was symptomatic of The Athletic seeking clicks from other teams' fans when writing about City. But on the podcast, Sam sneered at us for objecting to the piece, claiming we couldn't take criticism of the club. Pure gaslighting. Well, Mr Lee, when you have a moment for reflection, you might care to wonder how you had a fantastic opportunity to write about the country's most successful club for a supposedly ground-breaking new quality publication, but have managed to royally fuck it up and make large numbers of their fans totally hostile to you.
