Am I supposed to be mad that Manchester City just won the league?

Manchester United's biggest rivals just won a historic fourth consecutive league title. That should make me mad shouldn't it?

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It didn’t take long between Manchester City winning a record fourth consecutive Premier League title and the media publishing various articles about how routine this has become. In fact, some of these articles were even written before City defeated West Ham to become the first English team to ever win four league titles in a row.

As a Manchester United fan, City are one of my club’s two biggest rivals. If United only won four games all season, I’d want those four wins to be against Liverpool and Manchester City both home and away.

It was just about 15 years ago that Sir Alex Ferguson described City as “noisy neighbors.” In that time they’ve begun catching up to Manchester United at a frightening pace. When Fergie uttered that line, City had won the league just twice. Now they’ve done it 10 times.

In the midst of that run they’ve taken just about all the other little records United had had. Sure City kept winning but no team had ever won three in a row besides United - who did it twice. That was equalled last year and bettered this year. Well at least no one else has ever won the Treble… that is until City also accomplished that feet last year.

All of this should make me mad but it hasn’t. When the final whistle blew on Sunday the only emotion I had towards City was general apathy. I couldn’t care less about their accomplishments¹.

There are obvious reasons why. The 115 charges will mean this era of dominance will always come with an asterisk². Even without those charges, City having the backing of a petro-state has meant this has never been a level playing field - though as a United fan I’m aware that’s a bit like throwing stones in my glass house.

What struck me most was on Sunday I didn’t even know if I didn’t want City to win?

Ordinarily this should be simple. Anyone but City.

Sure they’ve now also won a treble and three in a row but don’t let them accomplish something that we never did by winning four in a row. In 2020 I didn’t have any hesitations about preferring Liverpool to win the league over City. Certainly I shouldn’t have any doubts when the alternative to City isn’t even one of United’s rivals?

Not only that. There was reason to want Arsenal to win the league. Arsenal are the model that I want United to emulate.

Take the time to rebuild your squad the right way rather than spending big money for short term solutions over and over again. I want Arsenal to prove that you can in fact compete with City if you go about things the right way.

Yet when I was standing in the bar watching all the action unfold on Sunday, I found myself enjoying bantering the Arsenal fans when things didn’t go their way far more than I enjoyed Mohammed Kudus scoring to get West Ham back into the game. Surely it should have been the opposite right?

The thing was, the bar was filled with Arsenal fans. There were no City fans there³. If you were going to banter anyone, it was going to be the Arsenal fans. That’s sort of what this whole thing comes down to.

Sport is ultimately about getting bragging rights over your friends and coworkers. It’s crucial to win on Saturday because if you don’t you’re going to hear about it from that damn coworker who supports a rival when you go into work on Monday. You don’t want to be the joke in the group chat with all your mates.

For those of you that live in Manchester, this rings incredibly true. The people you go to school with are City fans, as are the people you work with. They have been celebrating non-stop for years now, never letting you hear the end of it. It’s gotta be infuriating.

I don’t live in Manchester so my relationship is going to be a bit different than someone who is a season ticket holder at Old Trafford, but there’s a lot of similarities as well. The way I consume the Premier League is still through my friends and co-workers. The difference is my friends and co-workers are supporters of Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton, West Ham. I have a friend who supports Aston Villa and an old co-worker who was a Newcastle fan. None of them support Manchester City. When City win, there’s no one bragging to me about it.

City claim they have millions of fans worldwide. It’s not that I’m calling into question that number, I’m just saying I don’t know any of them. I’ve seen more Nottingham Forest shirts on the streets of New York City than I see City shirts… and I used to live just a few blocks away from the City supporters bar.

The biggest way I consume the Premier League is online. The internet connects people from all over the world and yet I don’t hear anything from City fans there either. Without seeking it out my timeline still gets flooded by content from Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Spurs fans. I know content creators who are Arsenal and Liverpool fans and I’ve been on podcasts for both clubs. I don’t know a single City fan⁴.

It’s not really about the lack of history it’s about the lack of voice. At the turn of the century Chelsea didn’t have that much history, but they had fans. Roman Abromovich’s riches bought them success and even though we may see it as hollow, it gave an already loud fan base a reason to have swagger.

That’s really what it comes down to. Had Arsenal won the title, I’d never hear the end of it. Whether it be from friends, co-workers, or those annoying ass accounts online. They’d be insufferable. When City win, you don’t hear anything.

Did you know that Manchester City won the treble last season? I ask because at many points during this season I genuinely forgot that it happened. You never hear about it. Even the media hardly talks about it.

That would never happen if another club accomplished that. Manchester United have literally made winning the treble their identity. Hell, I’m writing this post while I’m in the middle of watching “99,” Amazon’s new documentary on United’s treble winning campaign. It’s at least the third documentary on the subject that I’ve watched, possibly the fourth.

Think of all the accomplishments City have won in the last seven years. Six Premier League titles, a 100 point season, the treble, a domestic treble, four title in a row. If any other club had done even one of those things we’d be hearing about it for years! Instead it’s just a hollow accomplishment hardly celebrated by anyone.

Dominance should beget hatred. NFL fans aren’t apathetic towards the Dallas Cowboys. You either love them or you hate them. The same with Duke Basketball or the Yankees. There are plenty of members of the media who you can tell had their childhoods ruined by Manchester United. They’re still not over it.

So yea, I should be mad that City keep winning, but it’s hard to be mad when City’s achievements aren’t just hollow but so easily forgettable.

The final whistle blew on Sunday and all I could find myself saying was “if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?” If City rack up 115 financial charges and win four straight league titles does anyone care?

At least the influx of published articles today let me know that I’m not alone in my apathy.

1. A therapist may say it’s a very good thing, certainly for my mental health, that I’m not letting things I have literally no control over impact my general mood

2. I’m not naive enough to believe the Premier League is actually going to levy any sort of real punishment for City though. Money always wins

3. In fairness, they’re not allowed in during matches

4. I know *of* one account, but don’t actually know them