You was busy pulling your nose at up anything that wasn't CL or Top 4. We were all here mate, we all saw it on a seasonal basis You must be a new United fan
Damn right i cant...im busy rolling a Spliff. However..its all here on the pages. I dont need to find any proof. i know what ive seen
As supporters we will remember this season, we have been superb and to be honest I couldn't give a **** if supporters of other teams remember it or not. It would have been better if we had won something but we remain the club with 6th largest turnover and budget, punching hugely above our weight in league terms - the best team in the league over the past 2 years. Alan Shearer never won a trophy at Newcastle is he any less revered because of that - No they love him and Keegan and Albert and all those players who pushed United for a couple of seasons and why not, we will remember this squad in the same way. And who knows in the next few years we have even better things to remember them for.
I disagree. TV rights deals get bigger with every cycle for good reason. Official PL figures estimate that the global market audience for PL games for the 2015/16 season was just over 900 million people, up from 730 million in 2014/15, which in turn was up from 645 million in 2013/14. By all accounts, Leicester's fairytale that season and the arrival on our shores of 2 of the biggest managers in the game in Pep and Conte (Klopp doesn't count) points to the reality that when the number-crunchers and analysts have done their thing on this season's figures, the market will have comfortably crossed the 1 billion mark. Let that number sink in. That is how many people the PL believes are already, or at least are on the brink of, watching PL football on a semi-regular to regular basis. This season saw the most-watched match in PL history when Pep and Jose faced off early in the season. It was the first time that numbers from a PL game looked capable of rubbing shoulders with the numbers El Clasico is able to boast of. We're talking upwards of 30 million TV sets broadcasting the match from New Zealand to Alaska (the data does not and cannot take into account how many people are crammed into the pub/bar/living room so in reality 60-70 million is a far more realistic total). When you delve into these figures a bit more, it is absolutely no surprise that we are made to suffer the strangest of kick-off times to indulge some faceless mass of fans on the other side of the globe. And this data's trajectory is only going in one direction. Sure, the FA cup final is still one of the most watched games in all of world football, but the difference in today's money-driven era is that more and more people are "clued up" and "tuned in" to the wider PL picture. They simply aren't going to take Arsenal's victory at 'face value' and decide 'now that's a successful club'. On the contrary, most of them will be as knowledgeable of the Wenger soap opera as we Brits are and will be well aware that the club finished 5th, has no CL football and hasn't challenged for a title in a decade. Cini has missed my point entirely. Success nowadays isn't exclusively defined by trophies. Exciting, entertaining football fueled by young poster boys and mature mega-stars is the way forward. Gareth Bale's sheer existence was our foot into the American market. Son and Kane appear to be the feet to barge open the door to the Far East. Dele Alli is worshipped by a young and impressionable global audience. Sure, Arsenal have a major trophy - and well done to them. But in what way was their season memorable? In what sense were any of their players 'memorable'?
Yes I am, I have only been a plastic for 55 years so am quite new at it. Show me where I have "pulled my nose up" at anything other than CL or top 4? I have always been elated with anything we have won (top 4 isn't winning anything by the way) and have always congratulated any other team that has won a trophy. If/when you win something I will congratulate you also but until then I will reserve judgement on how good your team is/can be.
How can you state that when Leicester won the league last season (punching above their weight) and Chelsea won it this season?
I understand what you are getting at (we had Park remember), but the fact is that when none committed future "fans" outside of these shores are looking for a team to follow the majority will go for a "successful " team, this being defined by "won something" at that point in time.
Oh but there's more... on Friday the ubertwat Durham on TalkShite was going on about Arsenal getting "humiliated" - his actual word. Regardless of what result you wanted, surely it's no bad thing when the pundits get it so wrong (again) - because just about every one of them said Chelski would win.
I get where you're coming from but it's a bit presumptive to call this a 'fact', no? Our recent friendly in Hong Kong attracted around 30,000 locals. The cheers for Son were entirely expected. What was not expected was the reception Kane got when he came on. The guy has won nothing in his career, so by your logic what makes so many 'non-committed' fans gravitate towards him and Spurs? I had a similar debate with fellow Spurs fans recently (you'll find it on our match thread for the HK game). My argument was that we approach these questions with a typically Western outlook, assuming that new fans 'support' teams based on their accomplishments. I suggested that - especially in the East - their approach to sport is much more a 'cult of personality', where they gravitate towards players who have 'celebrity status' and support that player's team vicariously and indirectly. For all we know, Kane winning the golden boot may have accumulated more new fans than the entire Arsenal team winning a major trophy.
