Indeed onlooker
I can remember the itv days of the late 80s early 90s
One live game a week
sunday afternoon
liverpool, arsenal, villa in a title race
But everybl00dy week we would have elton welsby from old trafford covering fergus and man utd latest relegation clash

Clubs having a global fanbase is to be expected, the spread of information and the easing of access to content the key.  Football supporting has always been driven by social interactions of fans, once upon a time you could only really access football on a local level with hardly any tv coverage so naturally football to you was a way of seeing your friends and catching up with people, people barely had phones nevermind facebook. 

Once you start to plaster a side all over the national printed media or on TV, people local to you now have another side they can talk about, the social side of the game can move away from the terrace and into the pub. 

Whenever football media coverage goes through a boom period, whoever the top sides of the day are pick up support wherever the content is being consumed.  In the 60's and 70's that was East Anglia or Cornwall for the first time in peoples homes and in the 90's it was the whole world.

Now with the internet its a free for all, if I wanted to call myself an AC Milan fan I could sit and watch every game of theirs live, join online supporters groups and otherwise interact with my fellow fans and rivals as much as I want.  I'd never need to leave the couch and be satisfied as a football fan.

Liverpool in the 80s and then United in the 90s were two sides that were on top during a boom period, it only makes sense that people will be drawn to clubs their friends are talking about in school, so they gained a huge number of new fans.

Its the way it goes with all media, you wouldnt expect somebody to only support their local bands if theyre all sh1t or go see local plays when theres a hollywood superhero film online they can download.  Not only is the content your getting of a higher quality but its way easier to talk to people on a youtube comment thread or football forum than it is to seek out people in the real world to share your thoughts.

If anything its up to other clubs to step up and work harder, just because Sky TV is pushing the narrative that the PL is the only game in town and nothing else it matters it doesnt mean they dont have access to their own online resources.  Where is there a football club streaming all of their reserve matches for free on youtube for example?  I know all the clubs have their own online media but its all behind a paywall to fleece supporters, its up to the smaller clubs to find a way to compete instead of demanding locals show up en masse to keep them afloat.

Thats fair enough
What we can do without is all this rubbish about the theatre of dreams and the United Way
as if there was some mythic purity of their football
They pay the highest wages, they buy the best players
Said it before and i will say it again
THere was no difference between the standard of football played by Man U under Fergus and chelsea with Jose
An opinion backed up by the appointment of Jose for the coming season
If you want beautiful football in england then the only place to go in the epl is the Emirates..

If you look at Arsenals midfield,
Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere, Ozil...
These are all technical footballers of the highest quality
You may scoff but Ramsey was the best player on the park in Lens the other day
I say this because he demanded the ball and kept it playing against a superior team in England who surrounded him at every turn.
Most other teams in the EPL are lucky to have one player like them
Arsenal 4
Spurs have only Eriksson, how we could have done with some of Arsenal's midfield control at the tail end of last season
Over the past decade Man U have had one
Carrick
Fergus success was predicated on the best forwards money could buy
Rooney, CR7, Berbatov, RvP
The EPL money now means every team has an international class forward line
so that method will not work unless Man U raid the upper echelons of La Liga
I hope they do
There is a reason why arsenal have been in the ucl for a gazillion years
Wengers faith in good possession football

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/manu.htm

As you can see the average in the 80s was in the 40ks..
Some of the lower years in the 90s were due to new stands being constructed and conversion to all seater

Arsenal best team was power , pace and skill to win in England that is what you need , look at city even kcompany , yaya , aguero , silva .

"Can any one please explain why they support this team"
None so blind as those that cannot see ...

But don't us true English always support the underdogs.
Seems that fine principle no longer applies in this day and age,sadly.

MUFC FOREVER

Excellent haul of seething fish.

I go watching united because its addictive, been going since the late 80s id find it easier to quit smoking tbh, its not easy, success on the pitch is pretty much irrelevant to me, i dont get the same high doing anything else