I genuinely don't understand why you'd think Subtle is bitter? If someone has a valuable insight into how these things happen behind the scenes, I'd welcome their knowledge as preparation for what could happen further down the road. That's how I see it. I mean obviously the football fan would support these protests, but at the same time I'd also find it out of place how they backed down so readily and quickly. All he is trying to point out is the fact these sort of people are paid to manipulate us and just be cautious.
There's absolutely no bitterness involved at all-just being cautious
I get it, weirdly. I really do. It absolutely sucks to have to come to terms with things like this. To know that the club you support is run by people without any of the care and emotional investment you have for it. For clubs like United and Liverpool, clubs with defined identities, it must be all the harder. Where you see the Shankly gates and all that they mean, the people with the real power at your club see a logo, a branding tool. You see past glory, they see graphic design options and possible tie ins with future investment. That kind of thing on its own is terrible enough.
To then have to think that maybe you don't have nearly as much power as you'd like? That somewhere along the line, the notion of what the club is and the way it was built into a brand has actually made you somewhat obsolete? Terrifying. After all, you are the club, are you not? If it's not you loyal locals that will fill the ground then who will? Therein lies the curse of the globalisation of your club, it ceases to be your club and becomes the worlds'. Due to how the market works, and how modern football works, this is unavoidable. The club with arguably the biggest cultural identity in the world is still absolutely chock full of tourists. It stills uses the global appeal it has to leverage massive tv and sponsorship deals, to fill tens of thousands of seats every game with selfie stick wielding tourists.
And there's nothing you can do about it. Even if the club cared immensely for you, even if it was fan owned and run with only the purest intentions, you would still need to be cynical enough to leverage that market. It's just the cold, hard, economic truth of the matter. It's such an immense revenue source and it will continue to grow and grow. Those that do use it get the most absurd sponsorship deals and associated fees from it. Look at United and Real to see just how much money there is to be made. You can be right and honourable and refuse to play the game, but no one will care. You are an insignificance to them. Worst still, your club is an insignificance in the grand scheme of things, and that is what people hate. The fact that something they care so deeply about could end up being assessed as an asset and not that whirlwind of hype and passion and dedication it really is.
So I can understand. I feel it too, trust me I do. The moment that will always stick with me is being at the FA cup final a few years back between us and Everton with my old man, somehow getting amazing seats and being surrounded by people on their phones, people with cameras, people in suits. People who were there because afterwards they were going to do a line and work a deal. People that wouldn't sing, people that looked at us like we were mad when we started up with Celery. And I remember the solidarity I felt as the scattered fans there in that section turned to each other and belted it out, the sense of being part of a community greater than myself and the sadness at knowing that something so genuine was being crushed for money.
The thing is, being willfully ignorant changes nothing, it means nothing. It's easier and if you don't play the game, you might feel like you have the moral highground. But if you do it that way, living in fantasy and overestimating your position, one day you'll wake up and discover the power you did have is gone. So realise it, recognise the tools of the enemy and fight back.
