Are You Still Man Enough?

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Given Tevezcherano has gotten everyone up in arms again about the pros and cons of being Abramovich’d, we thought it prudent to take a look back at a little debate we had on this site about a month or so ago.

In July, Are You Man Enough? asked readers if they would be able to put their season ticket where their mouth was in the event that their club went the way of Chelsea or, soon, West Ham and cease to support their supposedly soulless club even as the cash was spent and trophies rolled in.

The responses were predictably passionate and surprisingly varied, with many readers claiming they would never accept it, some saying they would love it, and others going on about Bill Gates for some reason. Below is a sample of the comments, or click here to see the full discussion.

But as Portsmouth sit second in the table, Aston Villa third and West Ham enjoy their new stars and rumors of a 100M transfer budget – we do wonder if anyone’s stance has changed. The increasing arrival of bored billionaires in the Premiership means that a wealthy owner could soon be seen as a legitimate, and perhaps the only, way to counter unbalanced sponsorship and TV revenue enough to consistently challenge the big boys.

Sample comments from “Are You Man Enough?” (26/7/06) below:

So all this Chelsea = bad and everybody else = good is as simplistic as a pantomime. So easy to see why LFC fans have become obsessed about Chelsea.

I can tell you that despite what many would have you believe the vast majority of Chelsea fans have just accepted the change as out of their control and have gone with it and still love their club and are really enjoying the success and to be honest even enjoy the hatred. Especially from the complete morons of LFC. We love their hate we can’t get enough of it. They’re so easy to wind up and so boring. We’re all looking forward to dropping in again this season at Anfield for another 1-4 b***h slap. SOO much fun!

Comment by ponderous


I would like to say that if somenoe with big money came in to my club and ‘pulled a Chelsea’ I would start hating my club and find another, but the fact of the matter is I doubt I will ever have another club….I think I would be a much quieter supporter.. all things considered. Now if we were to get a stinking rich owner (money known to have been legally earned) and said owner were to use their money to build a better stadium, improve the training grounds and spend money on the things around the club/players that would not be so bad.

Comment by Slider


I have to be honest and say I probably wouldn’t be really vocal about it should it happen at Arsenal. But deep down I’d know that it was somehow tainted and not earned. A lot of Chelski fans I know are starting to say they loved it at first, but now their success appears synthetic.

Comment by Little Dutch