Part of the enjoyment of football, a big part, is the uncertainty. When you know your club is going to spend hundreds of millions every year and are virtually guaranteed success because you have such an unfair playing field, due to being owned by a despotic state whilst all the other clubs are properly owned and run, it absolutely would be joyless. Unlimited state funds eradicate risk. Yes some fans will love it for a while as they’ve not really had success before, but at what point does this guaranteed success begin to eat away at your enjoyment?
Football needs to be erratic at times, there needs to be an element of risk , in transfers, in the actual game . Without this it becomes dull and joyless. Using Man City as an example, this risk free approach is even evident in their play. It is dull and joyless. When Utd were winning I would always watch their games and obviously root for the opposition but you knew it would likely be a good game. I just can’t sit through a full Man City game, watching them make a hundred passes then cut it back for someone to shoot. It is dull and joyless.
I’m one of the fans on here that call out our owners due to lack of investment but I would still rather have what we do than be guaranteed to spend hundreds of millions every year and buy success. It would bore the fuck out of me.
My wife said this about the Red Mancs. She started going the game in the 80's and said while they were shit on the field, it was a laugh on the terraces, especially the away games. Then they started winning things and it was enjoyable, but eventually got boring as it was just oh here's another league title and she eventually got fed up and stopped going in 2008 when our first son was born.
I know we all took winning things for granted, I think it was 11 titles by the time I was 20, 4 European Cups, UEFA etc etc and I know I got more joy from winning Big Ears than I did from the League as it was something new. Winning the Prem though was for me better than Istanbul and Madrid, as it was so long and meant so much since the last one in 1990.
At least though both teams earned their domination, City just cheated their way to it.