All of my life I have followed English football.
Having a father born in Manchester and a mother from Liverpool, I had three great teams to follow (sorry, Everton).
As my father was a devoted Man City supporter, I naturally chose to follow Man U. They had the most charismatic player, Bobby Charlton, and a much loved manager, Matt Busby, who gave youth a chance and built up a formidable club.
As Busby’s team was about to reach greatness, an airplane crash in 1958 removed eight of its best players.
I remember listening to the radio as the news flashed around the world that this almost-great team had been decimated.
Decades later, Man U ended up with another giant of a manager, Alex Ferguson, and another series of superstars. David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Eric Cantona were three of the very best.
They stayed at the top until Ferguson finally gave it away and fell from one of the greatest clubs to only one of the top six in the Premier League.
Sir Alex Ferguson is a giant of the British game. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
A series of underwhelming mangers followed: the overwhelmed David Moyes, the robotic Louis van Gaal and the nutty, brooding Jose Mourinho.
At that time England was in the top 15 football nations but could never win a top tournament. The spirit of 1966 lingered and lingered but the team never came close.
Similarly – except for some occasional flashes of brilliance – European club success was out of reach for English clubs.
Then money changed it all.
Billionaires and millionaires started to take over the clubs, providing funds to purchase the best players in the world.
Not only that, but huge television deals filled the coffers of all the Premier League teams.
Suddenly, everybody in the world seemed to have an English team. Overseas tours to Australia and elsewhere reaped huge crowds and vast rewards for Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and others.
Not only did the teams buy the best and richest players in the world, they bought the best managers from clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and a number of Italian and German superclubs.
Then what happened?
England started to win some under-age World Cups and the top English clubs started to gain footholds in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the European club competitions.
In 2019, English sides have reached the finals of the top two European tournaments in two impossible games that defied all the odds.
The sad thing: no Manchester teams.
The good thing: my mother would be ecstatic.
The empire had struck back.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
I watched Man Utd get relegated in 1974 and down in the old second division, towns didn’t know what hit them as thousands upon thousands of fans followed them around the country to support teir effort for a speedy return. They went back up the next season. I’m ptetty sure they have been there ever since. Not always successful, often a good cup tem until S.A.F. Came along and began to re-shape the place.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
It's great to see someone who has seen Man It's go through the cycles of football contribute. I remember the days of Phil Bailey, Frank Stapleton, Arnold Muhren and Jimmy Nichol. Then you might remember that Utd went down. It was then that the class of 92 started to emerge. The current generation are at panic stations. Everything goes in circles, the wind, water, the seasons and so too does football.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
I grew up learning about the Busby Babes and watched MU become first English team to lift the European Cup. Saw that side disintegrate in the 70’s, George Best and all - Dennis Law to City etc. Liverpool became the dominant side by early 80’s. We watched the 78 World Cup followed by the injection of first wave of foreign players into the game and then three events that began a major change to the game at many levels. Heysel wall collapse and death of Juventus fans and Bradford fire in 1985 and then Hillsborough. What evolved was the premier league, new owners, new stadiums, new money, enormous television deals and the game at that level became an entertainment package, very plastic, lots of overpaid minor celebrities, little club loyalty, stage managed squabbles between managers and a whole host of undesirable behaviors from players and agents as well as ticket prices well beyond the means of the typical man in the street. It is just a machine these days that bears no resemblance to the lower divisions but has global marketing and a worldwide presence. The counter product is “real football for real people” but EPL is a mixture of the pied piper and the Christmas toy and lolly shop. People get sucked into it and the eyes light up when they see what is on display and what they can buy. I know quite a few people in the UK that don’t bother with it at all these days. Non league, lower divisions and even grassroots is seen as preferable but there are plenty of tourists, visitors and addicts that support it - it can be very addictive even at 12000 miles!
Fadida
Roar Rookie
And so it should, given the 6th place finished can have a bench player on $500k. A week. Only Real, Barcs and PSG have anything like the spending power of the top 6 8 or even 10 clubs