by Sutekh »
02 Jun 2022 08:12
From Despair To Where? Stranded Lower West
Of the past 20 some 14 have been funded with oil money though and of course a move to a ready made stadium in 2003. Easier to remain at the top when your shirt sponsor alone pays some £67 million a year as well.
Well yes - which makes the comparison to Forest, today, completely and utterly pointless.
If Forest stay up and get taken over by gazillionaires then the comparison becomes valid. But as said though, City have barely been out of the top flight in the last 60 years - 9 years in total including one 5 year spell where they dropped to League 1 and came back again.
The other thing to consider as well is that City have always been a relatively big club, Maine Road used to hold 85,000 people. No disrespect to Forest but, until Clough turned up they were a perennial 2nd division provincial side. I think Leeds with Revie, are the only other club who's fortunes are quite so intrinsicly linked to the efforts of 1 man. Forest's big club pretentions really are down to a 10 year period period between 1977 and 1987.
Less than that even. Forest were immense around 77-81 but outside of that have just 2 FA Cups and spent a good deal of time circulating around divisions 2 and 3 as anything else. Same sort of thing with Leeds really, take the latter half of Revie out of the equation and they amount to 1 title win. Of course if Reading even had a quarter of what one of those clubs had managed it’d be something to be proud of.
However both those clubs do have a large fan base something which Reading will never build without years in the top flight and a few trophies.
But I hope these “smaller” clubs can build a challenge the 6/7 perennial clubs with money as top flight league football in most countries these days is utterly boring with the same old clubs dominating all thanks to £££££ going to the top clubs and everyone seemingly doing all they can to maintain that status quo.