I blame Bosman. Its now impossible to trade your way to the top.
If you want to blame anything blame TV.
The only way you could see your team in the 50s was to go to the game.
My dad used to tell a story about when he was in the army, and Aldershot were playing Notts County. Him and his mate went along just to get a football fix and decided to support Notts County because Tommy Lawton was playing up front having moved from Everton.
People supported their local team through thick and thin because that was all they knew, but when TV came along you could see top sides playing a totally different game to your own team, and people wanted that brand of football. The global popularity of Shanks’ and Busby’s teams was down to the fact that people could see exactly how good they were and how shit their own sides were in comparison.
How many stories have you heard about people who knew very little about football, who saw us on the box and were smitten with the fan culture, and as others have said, the roller coaster of emotional highs and lows, and became reds fans.
How many kids watched us in Istanbul and said “that’s the team for me” and they live on the other side of the globe.
My dad supported us through the dark days of the 50s, but he would go to Goodison just to see top sides. He always recalled seeing Duncan Edwards and thinking he would be the greatest ever. He raved about Finney, and Lofthouse, but was scathing about Billy Wright at Wolves, and thought Matthews believed his own publicity. He had only seen them play a couple of times, but that was more than most. I always remember him being so saddened with the way Pele was booted out of the 66 World Cup, because he had been looking forward to see this legend play in the flesh rather than on a news reel clip.
Today we see games from around the world where the best in the world show their skills. This is the norm for today’s fans. Whereas it used to be your local team it is now your global team. We are the lucky ones. We have the best of it. 60 years of successes, and our failures are what most teams would call success.
Imagine watching reds fans experiencing the likes of Rome, Wembley, Paris, Istanbul and Madrid, or watching us destroy Barca, but sitting there hoping that one day Burnley might win a couple of games in the Europa league