GLASS HOUSES
Arsenal fan Katie Wilson writes in defence of Manchester City...
As Manchester City face the fallout from the independent panel's verdict and the prospect of severe Premier League sanctions, supporters of rival clubs are rubbing their hands with glee.
Ahead of City’s upcoming trip to Anfield, opposition fans up and down the country are sharpening their wits, penning taunting new terrace chants set to familiar tunes to mock the club and its followers. For the foreseeable future, whenever City are in town, they will undoubtedly remain the target of brutal new songs mocking their predicament.
Make no mistake: if rules were broken, the club should be punished—and rightly so. Financial regulations exist to protect the integrity of the sport, and no club, no matter how rich, should be above them.
Yet, before the football world falls into total self-righteousness, those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
The plain truth is that it could have been almost any of our clubs. City fans spent decades in the shadow of their illustrious neighbours, enduring drop-downs through the leagues and real footballing hardship. Yet their loyalty never wavered—even down in the third tier, they were pulling in home crowds of nearly 30,000 at Maine Road. If a billionaire had arrived at our doorstep promising to pave those decades of bleakness with a golden path toward trophies, the vast majority of us would have lapped it up without a second thought.
Hypocrisy runs deep in modern football. Only recently, Arsenal fans like myself felt a surge of excitement over a £75 million move for Bruno Guimarães. But in my more lucid moments, I have to step back and question that figure. That amount of money for a single player is an absurd and obscene sum of money—especially in a world where ordinary people face severe hardship and starvation.
Punish the decision-makers, by all means. But as the hostility intensifies, spare a thought for City’s match-going supporters. They didn't structure the club's finances or draft the contracts; their only "crime" was wanting what the rest of us want for our teams. In condemning the system, we shouldn't forget that given the chance, most of us would have gladly taken the exact same ride.
