Would you really be upset?

I've been thinking a lot recently about football club owners and what fans expect of them. We all have hopes, dreams, aspirations and expectations of what owners can or should do for our club in terms of long term stability and sustained success.  We seem to have this ideal, a view, that a club is run sympathetically to the cares, wants and needs of the fans. That there is an honesty, a transparency, a whiter-than-white way of running a football club. That silverware is attained on a regular basis with a clean conscience still in place at the end of each season. This conscience is owned collectively by the fans. 

We want the approach that Everton's owners used in the Sixties to make us successful.  We want the approach Liverpool's owners used in the Seventies and Eighties to win them trophies. We want the approach that Everton's owners used in the Eighties to bring us glory. We want the approach that Manchester United's owners used in the Ninties and Noughties that made them so dominant. 

Yes, I know they were different times, perhaps simpler. There were none of the issues we now have with money and greed. The footballing world was a lot more straightforward perhaps, simpler in a lot of ways.  But there were never any great scandals. You don't read books now or articles about corruption and misdeeds by owners. 

The owners appeared to love, and genuinely care for the clubs they owned. They pumped their own money into the clubs, engaged with the fans, sat in the main stand watching what we watched. Managers were one of us. They were selected by the owners because, more often than not, they had played for the club. That's how in-tune the owners seemed to be.

Fast forward to now, and the footballing landscape has changed. How football is run, through ownership, financing, and regulation, has changed. Dramatically. Whether we like it or not, we as fans now live in a football world where investment funds, multi-club ownership, profit and loss accounts, multiple revenue streams, T.V. companies and their foreign broadcasting markets, and heavy-handed regulators all dictate how our club is run. There is now more of a disconnect than ever between club,  owner and fan. The conscience owned collectively by the fans appears to be more and more of a hinderance, more and more of an irrelevence as time goes on. 

Yes, you can argue that new owners, with new approaches, and better regulation by independent bodies, including fan safety, have given you a much better match day experience. You no longer have to run the gauntlet of football hooliganism, or floods of urine pooling around your feet when at the ground. And, hey, stadium facilities are better than ever. But, then getting to the ground in the first place is now almost prohibitive price-wise. Bringing your kids to the game, introducing the new generation to the game you love, what was once almost a right of passage, is now the price of a small mortgage. The fans perhaps don't mean as much then. 

Yet, our hopes, dreams and aspirations for the club have remained constant, even as everything around us has changed. And I think to a large extent, this is why we were so excited, and then disappointed by the Friedkins. After decades or poor owners running the club into the ground, we finally appeared to have owners who could perhaps bridge the gap between success and failure. Owners who could bring success, rather than constant disappointment back to the club and it's long suffering fanbase.  Owners who could realise our hopes, dreams and aspirations with a touch of old school class in a modern and often ugly footballing world.

But it wasn't to be. And this brings me to the question in the article's title. Manchester City fans had endured an even more torrid time than Everton fans prior to their current owners taking over. Until the club's misdeeds came to light, they had endured sustained success on a par with United, Liverpool and ourselves. They had even managed to do so with a glimmer of honesty and integrity, relevant to today's footballing climate. Yes, it was in today's grubby modern footballing world, and yes, the accusations of sports washing circulated on a regular basis. But it appeared that outside of the Boardroom, their owners weren't doing anything seriously untowards in terms of running a modern day football club. 

Every City fan's hope, dream and aspiration were met and then exceeded beyond their wildest expectations. They have years of positive memories. moments and and sheer undiluted enjoyment that can never get taken away from them. If you asked City fans, how much would they be upset by the rule breaking, and the consequences thereof,  given what the last fifteen or so years have given them, I think that for many, their answer would be, "I can live with it". 

You know what, success in football is cyclical. Dynasties rise, fall and then rise again. City fans' hopes, dreams and aspirations for their club, won't just disappear. Like most football fans, they will just press the restart button come what may for the start of next season. That new season tingle of excitement will always be there for most of them.

I will now ask the same question, this time of Evertonians: If our new owners deliver us what City fans got, for ten or fifteen years, but with dishonour and rule breaking, rather than through high ideals, would you really be upset? Would the public backlash and outcry get to you? Would you walk away for good? 

Or, like City fans would your attitude be I can live with it? would you take the satisfied hopes, dreams and expectations with you to the club's next chapter? Would you take the moments, memories and enjoyment on with you to the next stage of the journey? Could you shrug your shoulders, press the restart button and shout onwards and upwards? 

For me the answer is a resounding yes. We fans are a fickle bunch. After years of misery, I would take the good times every time.