I'll preface this rant with some history of my relationship with football. I started supporting United in roughly 1985 as a 9 year old kid. Through the dark days of the late 80s I loved every kick of the ball that I watched. Even when you'd go into watching a game knowing you were going to lose, it was all good - the excitement and the fact that the teams you were watching represented a lifetime of heritage. The other teams around you, and even in the lower leagues were all part of the whole - football teams, playing against each other in a meritocratic league structure. English football on the whole wasn't in the best shape. But even so I would be able to soak up the authenticity of it all and enjoy the rollercoaster for what it was. I remember watching Liverpool with Barnes, Beardsley et al absolutely demolish us one day and, although pissed off that we'd lost so badly, admired the impressive display of football I'd witnessed. Because deep down I realised that that was a team which had been cultivated over a long period of time. They were at the top and they had worked hard to get there.
The rise of Sky, TV football and money in the Premier League through the nineties is well documented. Football began to become big business. Of course as a United fan we were spoiled in terms of success, but to be fair because of the the way things had built up in terms of squad recruitment and the unprecedented excellence of SAFs managerial abilities, it was always on the cards. But to see a football team rise from mid-table to title challengers, to at long last become title winners, then to multiple title winners and finally to European Champions was a special thing, and I'm privaleged to have lived through it.
But from around about the turn of this century onwards, English football began to become less about the football itself and more about the business aspect. Transfers and murky deals became part of the soap opera. Agents, third party ownerships, oligarchs, oil money and plasticity. Two clubs in particular have massively contributed to the cheapening of the core element - the game itself. Although both Chelsea and City had reasonable history before their takeovers, they have within the space of a few years taken the basic ethos of succeeding in the game and ripped it up completely, laying down new parameters based on their own greed to achieve success quickly. A few years ago we were rivalled by Arsenal, Liverpool and Leeds United. Although each of those teams provoke thoughts of hatred and their own part in our history, at least they were proper football clubs, and I have genuine feelings of competivity when I think of their tussles with us over the year. But seeing City on top of the league this weekend, and having them and Chelsea as our only rival for the title this time around....I can't even feel up for it to be honest. I should be looking at Nasri, Silva, Aguerro et al smashing teams and feeling pissed off and awed in equal measures. Yet all I can think of is how fucked up the English game is now, that it all comes down to the richest owners. And that quite soon, City might win the League, just as Chelsea did, and it will be all because they bought it.
In 1988 Liverpool obliterated all comers to win the league comfortably and I was extremely jealous, but realised at the time that they were by far the top team and deserved it. The fact Wimbledon beat them in the Cup Final and spoiled their double is also significant - I doubt such an occasion will happen again in the near future. If City win the league this year it will be a case of...'well they were bound to at some point spending all that money'. The question is - is football at the top level irreparably changed?
