[Football] Jonathan Wilson's article on Man City cup final.

Machiavelli said:

Nuno kept a tight group of starters this season, I suspect they had the lowest number of them in the PL. That's sustainable over c40-45 games in a season (factoring in a cup run), but not if they go deep into the Europa League. Nuno's got a big decision to make on that front.

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ATFC Seagull said:

I see your point but I disagree for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, these "fans" are not for life, and almost certainly won't pass their love of their English club down through generations. They can and will get bored and move on over time, and even if they don't, other young fans will not be attracted to the Premier League in the way they were.

Secondly, I would imagine the TV revenues require a lot more than just the plastic supporters of each club to watch each game. A Liverpool fan in China might tune in to watch Brighton v Liverpool, but a Man City fan probably won't bother. I used to be somewhat of an armchair Barcelona fan as a teenager and would watch every game of theirs I could, but you wouldn't catch me watching Real Madrid v some unfashionable cannon fodder, to use your term.

The only thing I think the PL has got going over other European leagues is that there are 6 top clubs, who can attract a good neutral audience for each match they play against each other (I make that 15 games over a season, is my maths accurate?) whereas it's not really more than 3 anywhere else.

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bhafc99 said:

There's a follow-up piece today, which looks at a study proving today's (TV) audience now prefers to watch 'stars' entertain them, rather than actual competition:

“The classic notion of a pure sporting contest in which the outcome is unpredictable has been replaced with one in which the preference is for sporting entertainment delivered by superstars,” they wrote. “The unpredictability of the outcome no longer matters for television.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/20/football-tv-manchester-city-watford-fa-cup-final

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