I suspect we're gonna have to put up with this (snide remarks a la Silvestre) on an annual basis for the next decade or so. It was Beckham last year and, if you dug hard enough, you'd probably find it was Yorke, Macari, Robson or Whiteside the year before.
They're hurting, you see. And when people are hurting, they say stupid things. It's called rationalisation and it goes like this... They've spent 20 or 30 years working hard to portray this whole "biggest club in the world" schtick.
And they woulda got away with it too, if it wasn't for those pesky Arabs! (Abu Dhabi dooo! - sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, I digress).
Thing is, you can't claim to be the biggest in the world when you're clearly second best in your own city (you know what I mean, fingers away from the keyboard!). So you rationalise. They bought it. They've no history. It's tantamount to cheating. We have pedigree but they don't. We're about more than mere silverware. We're peddling I mean offering a part of something intangible -and quasi religious, to boot. Oh! Have you heard about our plane crash? They're not good for football. They're not good for Team England. They've not got pixie dust in their boots. Our players have pixie dust, though. It grows organically before we even hatch them. Will somebody please think of the children!? Blah, blah, blah...
Long may it continue. Long may it hurt the fuckers.
