Maybe this is an America thing, but I think something that should be pointed out is Newcastle was trying to win then. That is the thing. Even for teams that never win anything, trying feels good. 4-3 sounds nice, but if you play that same football and it ends up 7-3, does that feel the same? Like look at Leicester City. Do we think we can compare just playing good football, to win they won the title? When ever Roma broke through, or Atletico, what mattered was they did it. Atletico plays "bad" football. Do you think their fans rather play good football, instead of contending?
There is a lovable loser quality to the vast majority of football clubs. But there is also a reason the biggest clubs across Europe are the biggest clubs across Europe. Why City and Chelsea suddenly have a lot more fans then they use to. Why PSG will end up a globe powerhouse.
I thought I did point exactly that out.
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Every team has something to aim for by fighting in every individual game. But their overall aim isn't necessarily about winning titles. Clubs like Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, Derby, Aston villa and Leeds are huge clubs but winning titles isn't on their horizon for now. There is plenty of pleasure to be had on the way to getting there, and even if they don't get there. Getting promoted to the PL, even by the playoff method can create great memories. And then staying in the PL or getting to top 10 or top 7 or 8 can still be a big deal to those clubs.
And of course smaller clubs would be satisfied by much smaller things. A regional club would have memories for life just by drawing a PL team in the FA Cup draw for eg.
You've mentioned before about the difference in how Americans view their sports and I think you're on to something there. Those sports, like football, have built up a huge following and importance through prior entertainment, that now just winning itself is enough and maybe the norm for the American fan (I wouldn't know).
As for the 4-3 / 7-3 issue. If my team was losing 4-3 I could cope with losing 7-3 if it was because they were throwing everything at the other team in an effort to win. In certain situations this would be too dumb, like in a 2 legged European tie where goal difference is crucial. In the league near the end of the season it might also not be the best plan. But if you do that all season and salvage only 1 point from 20 efforts, that is worth more than any amount of goal difference in the league table.
Also how much has Utd's support dropped off due to not winning titles recently? Same for Liverpool. They both created hordes of lifelong fans during the entertaining years.
City is playing amazing football so we can't conclude their growth is just down to titles. Even Mourinho's first season in particular had quite a lot of 4-0s with guys like Robben wrecking shop. I think the only time most people don't mind playing **** football is when you're playing someone much better than you.
Utd are one of the few clubs where not winning a title is disaster and can reasonably be expected, although the competition is much tougher now and if all the clubs in the top 6 want PL titles, the maths doesn't quite add up.
Anyway overall I don't think I disagree with you that much on this. It just seems more American fans align with your 'results-only and above all' preference (which I can understand), and I was just trying to show how there are many fans of smaller clubs out there (in the UK at least) who can gain plenty of happiness following their club without ever thinking of titles. I would absolutely love to nail down 7th place in the PL every season and be in the Europa League every year with 2 good domestic Cup runs (at least quarters, preferably semis) every year. That combined with the style and never-say-die continuous attack and energy of the past would be more than enough for me to go crazy every time we play.
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