Manchester City as a 'world power'

Dante Vanzeir, one of the top performers and talents of our Belgium U17 which finished third at the World Cup last week, has come out and said it's his dream to play in England one day. He literally said that the team which appeals to him most is Manchester City, the team of other Belgium players like Kompany and De Bruyne. I'm really surprised by this to be honest. He's born in 1998 and only a year younger than other top prospects like Tielemans and co. I guess this means that the historical achievements of the traditional big clubs like Arsenal, United and Liverpool don't really mean a lot or anything at all anymore to the youngest generation of footballers. Of course there will be exceptions to the rule but I'm afraid this will set a precedent to a trend that we might see develop over the next few years, with very young and good players choosing for the sugardaddy clubs. Will the significance of history and past achievements disappear as the youngest players to appear at professional football level are nearing towards being born in the '00s?

I can't imagine for the life of me someone saying something like Vanzier did five years ago. It seems to me that money and current success are the only things young players are considering, and most of them probably couldn't give a damn about the history of clubs.
 
It's all about who the best teams are when you're developping your love of the sport (unless you 'inherit' fandom from parents). There'd be virtually no American Chelsea fans if they'd not been the best Prem team when it first started getting shown over there. There'd be fewer South-East-Asian United fans if not for our awesomeness in the late 90's/00's when it blew up there.

Can't blame the kid at all. Manchester City are a footballing powerhouse today. They've spent more money than any other club in world football in the last 10 years. Of COURSE that puts them into the equation.
 
Dante Vanzeir, one of the top performers and talents of our Belgium U17 which finished third at the World Cup last week, has come out and said it's his dream to play in England one day. He literally said that the team which appeals to him most is Manchester City, the team of other Belgium players like Kompany and De Bruyne. I'm really surprised by this to be honest. He's born in 1998 and only a year younger than other top prospects like Tielemans and co. I guess this means that the historical achievements of the traditional big clubs like Arsenal, United and Liverpool don't really mean a lot or anything at all anymore to the youngest generation of footballers. Of course there will be exceptions to the rule but I'm afraid this will set a precedent to a trend that we might see develop over the next few years, with very young and good players choosing for the sugardaddy clubs. Will the significance of history and past achievements disappear as the youngest players to appear at professional football level are nearing towards being born in the '00s?

I can't imagine for the life of me someone saying something like Vanzier did five years ago. It seems to me that money and current success are the only things young players are considering, and most of them probably couldn't give a damn about the history of clubs.

It isn't too weird. Before the sugar daddy era(mind there has been plenty before) the history of a club was a lot more consistent with the clubs financial status and success in the world as well. I don't think a lot of young people ever chose their club with history in mind, it just happened to be that teams like Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, United etc had a strong history and also great players and teams for the moment.

Even if individual clubs has had ups and downs the best teams about was almost always ones with a great history as well, so even if the people growing up in the 70's and 80's became Liverpool supporters and not United supporters they would still be likely to become fans of a "great club".

Also a single era of success has a major impact on how they will be seen in history, City now has one less league trophy than Chelsea and even a team like Arsenal has primarily had two eras of great success where they won 8 of their 13 titles. A team like United/Liverpool also rely on two decades of complete domination rather than having their success spread out over the entire history of the league.

City are already the 8th most successful team in terms of winning the league in England and if they continue winning the league they'll climb further. If they win it three more times they are suddenly the 5th with Villa.

They've also won the FA cup the 9th most times and been in the final the 8th most times and the league cup the 7th most times.
 
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I think that's a unique situation given the nationality of the players mentioned. Man City is behind us (assuming we got back to winning leagues which is going to happen in the near future), Real Madrid, Barca and Bayern ito appeal and that won't change.
 
Dante Vanzeir, one of the top performers and talents of our Belgium U17 which finished third at the World Cup last week, has come out and said it's his dream to play in England one day. He literally said that the team which appeals to him most is Manchester City, the team of other Belgium players like Kompany and De Bruyne. I'm really surprised by this to be honest. He's born in 1998 and only a year younger than other top prospects like Tielemans and co. I guess this means that the historical achievements of the traditional big clubs like Arsenal, United and Liverpool don't really mean a lot or anything at all anymore to the youngest generation of footballers. Of course there will be exceptions to the rule but I'm afraid this will set a precedent to a trend that we might see develop over the next few years, with very young and good players choosing for the sugardaddy clubs. Will the significance of history and past achievements disappear as the youngest players to appear at professional football level are nearing towards being born in the '00s?

I can't imagine for the life of me someone saying something like Vanzier did five years ago. It seems to me that money and current success are the only things young players are considering, and most of them probably couldn't give a damn about the history of clubs.
Are you surprised?
 
I´ve never seen a city top in Sweden. LFC, United and Arsenal dominating. Only know of one City-fan and he started supporting them in the late 80s. The reason I see many LFC shirts and no City ones might be down to the fact that I hate LFC and dont care about City though but I seriousley can´t remember seeing a city-shirt worn by anyone here in Sweden
 
In fairness City were in the lower divisions most of the time so its tough to build up a fanbase when most people already had a football team by 2008 when they were "established", give it 5-10 years it may be different.
 
In SA, apart from their own league - which is pretty shite but well supported and televised, they all love United, Barcelona with Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea to a smaller degree, often find calendars and that kind of memorabilia for them but for shirts you'll always find the United and Barca tops in sport shops.

City....not yet seen anyone selling their shit or know anyone that supports them although a few mates love Chelsea!

Also 95% of Premier league games are live here so each team gets its fair share of exposure.
 
He literally said that the team which appeals to him most is Manchester City, the team of other Belgium players like Kompany and De Bruyne.
There you go. Add to that they also had Boyata play for them with Denayer still in their books, and suddenly, it isn't too surprising.

For young Belgians today, Man. City, Spurs, and Chelsea will be attractive prospects because of the success of Belgians in those teams. Have we had successful (in terms of first-team opportunities) Belgians in our team? None as of yet.

If Januzaj becomes successful here and becomes a league winner with us, we may see more young Belgians want to play for us. The same goes for other nationalities as well.
 
In Germany, they are still Seen as the root of all evil.

Just to keep you updated.

Literally the most hated Club of them all.
You might be beaten in some stadiums if you come out as a City fan and don't have a very good explaination for that.
 
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In Germany, they are still Seen as the root of all evil.

Just to keep you updated.

Literally the most hated Club of them all.
You might be beaten in some stadiums of you come out as a City fan and don't have a very good explanation for that.

This 'Germany' you speak of sounds like a fantastic place.
 
In Germany, they are still Seen as the root of all evil.

Just to keep you updated.

Literally the most hated Club of them all.
You might be beaten in some stadiums of you come out as a City fan and don't have a very good explanation for that.
:lol:
 
In SA, apart from their own league - which is pretty shite but well supported and televised, they all love United, Barcelona with Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea to a smaller degree, often find calendars and that kind of memorabilia for them but for shirts you'll always find the United and Barca tops in sport shops.

City....not yet seen anyone selling their shit or know anyone that supports them although a few mates love Chelsea!

Also 95% of Premier league games are live here so each team gets its fair share of exposure.
City's success is to new for it to have a great fanbase plus the lack of success in the CL is costing them a fair bit. When the Chelsea phenomena happened, not only did they have loads of African players, they were also a factor in the big CL matches. While the prem gets loads of support, the CL is and will always be the cream of crop in terms of club football.
 
I´ve never seen a city top in Sweden. LFC, United and Arsenal dominating. Only know of one City-fan and he started supporting them in the late 80s. The reason I see many LFC shirts and no City ones might be down to the fact that I hate LFC and dont care about City though but I seriousley can´t remember seeing a city-shirt worn by anyone here in Sweden

There is a strong correlation between Real Madrid fans and City fans, there is a certain name for such people but I will refrain from using it on this forum.

Anyway, I actually know a true City fan who supported them back when they were in the Championship, but it's incredibly uncommon.
 
A thread perhaps targeted towards foreign fans, or well traveled fans.

I'm just wondering how large is their status now? When I think of huge clubs I think United, Milan, Juventus, Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona, Liverpool even.

I feel now, after 12 years of Roman's money Chelsea is named with the elite. What about City? Yes their squad at the moment is up there with the best, no doubt about it. But are they considered an elite, prestigious club? Or are they thought of how I think of PSG, which is a new money club with no history.

I think the comparison with PSV quite appropriate at the moment - albeit that Man City are achieving a measure of success in a much stronger domestic league. What both of those clubs need, to be thought of as elite clubs, is sustained success in European competition.

It's a shame, but City's owners give every impression of being in it for the long haul - throwing money at the first team yes, but laying the infrastructure for a sustained spell at the top table also - their academy facilities for instance are the envy of many clubs with a much higher profile.

So.. an elite world club? No, not at the moment, but give them 5 or 10 years and I'd not be surprised at all if they were right up there.
 
They'll never be in our class as a club, a good proportion of their fans will always be jealous and have absolutely no class, any new fans will probably be flakey glory hunters.

They'll always be a Belgian, Argentinian, or some other bunch of all overseas players, like a foreign football club dropped into the wastelands of North Manchester.


The much heralded academy of rotated bench sitters, will never be fruitful to the first team. Their presence is like a synthetic ulcer causing rash, and in a lot of cases unnecessary, overseas procurements by every other club, which for sure, is hindering the natural development and progression of our national game.

They're a whim of a playboy, from an ever increasingly volatile part of the world and will continue, until his next whim...maybe.
 
Even when they win stuff it feels like playing Football Manager on cheat mode.
 
It's true that when it comes to global following and appeal at the moment, City isn't worth the dirt we tread on, but I wonder if it was the case with us and Pool back in the 90s.

It's imperative we start imposing ourselves as we should, given the available resources. Can't let the current barren run extend or the malaise will set in and in 20 years RedCafe will be the new RAWK
 
You could have easily said that circa 2003 or 2004. Things can change quickly in football.

No you couldn't. Liverpool were one of the top 3 or 4 teams in England back then and were in the CL fairly regularly. Now they're not even the 5th best team and haven't been in the CL regularly for years.
 
Even when they win stuff it feels like playing Football Manager on cheat mode.

Yeah, 'cause god forbid that we should ever start throwing money around during the transfer window. So long as the playgrounds of Longsight keep producing the Martial's and Di Maria's of this world then we'll be able to maintain our moral superiority over the noisy neighbours. I still remember when the De Gea's moved to our street in Lower Kersal with little Dave, always out in the street he was, kicking a ball around with his little pal Ander. So nice to see local boys made good!
 
I was in Wal-Mart in Miami last weekend and saw a guy wearing a City shirt. City were actually playing at that moment. I went up to him and asked him if he knew the score in the match and he said "what match?"