Everyone finds their own club in their own way. This isn't a hot take, closer to a statement of fact. My cousin had a friend who went to study abroad in Newcastle, and in a show of solidarity, my cousin decided on that day that Newcastle United was his club.
I was thinking about my cousin a lot on Saturday. Most, if not all, Premier League coverage I've read so far this season has suggested that Newcastle are dangerously close to relegation. Amazingly, this may be a sunnier prognosis than what my cousin has described to me in recent weeks. A notoriously cheap owner. A director of operations who literally does nothing except hide. A manager effectively handcuffed by the owner and director of operations. A team without enough talent. A fanbase at their wit's end. Despite all of this, Newcastle United hung with Manchester United for nearly 60 minutes on Saturday at Old Trafford. A football match is 90 minutes, but still.
It felt inevitable when Cristiano Ronaldo struck first and gave Manchester United the early lead. However, Javier Manquillo's equalizer in the 55th minute was both unexpected and wildly pleasant. It turned the game back into a match. It felt like anything was possible. That being said, this feeling did not last long. Maybe two minutes after Manquillo's score, Ronaldo put one through Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman's legs (literally) and then the rout began. Apparently, after the match, Newcastle manager Steve Bruce used the post-match press conference as an opportunity to take on ownership, operations and the fans. He may or may have taken his shirt off to hammer home his point, but details are murky.
According to my cousin, this is the general Newcastle vibe. To me, the weirdest part is how accepted it all is. If an NBA team were this poorly managed from top to bottom, it would come up on television, on podcasts and behind paywalls all the time. Hell, last year, the Athletic did a whole eight-part podcast on James Dolan's tenure owning the New York Knicks (tl;dr: Dolan is a meddlesome asshat with garbage taste.)
On the pods that I've been spending time with, there's been a lot of talks in recent weeks about everything that's wrong with Arsenal, and on at least one pod, there have been a lot of jokes made about the money Arsenal has spent in the transfer market so far this season. The same pod also likes to shit on Tottenham for kinda the same thing: spending money but not winning. Look, I get it. Only a handful of football clubs can raise a trophy in a given year, and there's always the chance that the same team could take all the trophies. But does that mean all the other teams in the league simply shouldn't try? I've never understood this line of reasoning.
It crept up in the NBA a few years back when the Golden State Warriors were in full-on dynasty mode. When the season began, media outlets started running their annual predictions and every single analyst everywhere gave Golden State the title before a game was even played. Yes, they were overwhelming favorites but you mean to tell me that in the other 28 NBA locker rooms everyone just said "Well, gee, the Warriors are just too good. We may as well pack it in." That obviously did not happen. Teams continued to try. As fans, isn't this what we want? Strong competition throughout the league and then ever tighter races once the postseason begins.
Part of this may stem from the fact that I live in America and the only soccer fans around throw their support behind Manchester United, Manchester City or Liverpool. Honestly, the one pod that I listen to is based where I live and the dudes on there dunk on Arsenal and Tottenham with so much frequency that I have a feeling that one of them will be the club who I throw my support behind. This idea of dumping on teams for trying to be competitive makes little sense to me.
In my time reading about Prem, I've been struck by just how much of an outlier Leicester City was when they won the league. Were they mocked on their way to the top too? Are underdogs ever embraced or is all club soccer just awash in some sobering reality where there are only a handful of contenders?
There were some fun matches on Saturday. Tottenham versus Crystal Palace was fun until it wasn't anymore. Truth be told, all the business with Japhet Tanganga really bummed me out. Granted, I've only been a Tanganga diehard for about a month now but still. As mentioned earlier, Newcastle United versus Manchester United was pretty decent for the first 60 minutes or so before it all unraveled. I ended Saturday with Aston Villa versus Chelsea where highlights included: Aston Villa's kits which never get old, Romelu Lukaku scoring a goal with total ease which also never gets old. My football knowledge only goes as far back as the Euros, but in that short time, I still feel comfortable stating that Lukaku is the best goalscorer that I've seen in that time and that Chelsea are the strongest team I've seen as well. That being said, I am still not a Chelsea fan.
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