Before anyone starts downvoting, I come in peace.
The entire English football media today is based around extorting United for clicks and attention. In the last decade of United pretty much dwindling with very little trophy success, I’ve heard Gary Neville go on and on about United. So much so that I’ve heard him(and some other English pundits) say that it would be best for English football for United to return back to trophy success - why exactly?
I’m not English so maybe that’s why I don’t understand it but why is it so hard for the English media to accept that United existing without trophy success is not some atomic bomb to English football?
Eras come and go: Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton, Arsenal, Nottingham Forrest. United or any other club should not be exempt from what I perceive to be the natural law of the English game.
United is more of a cultural phenomenon now than a real juggernaut of the game (they could become a juggernaut again but not with these owners). A contributing factor as to why united may not have lost as much popularity though would be that their darby rivals in city are kind of seen as cheaters in a way. That statement is gonna get some hate, but i mean they are legitimately accused of over 100 breaches of financial fair play spanning back many seasons. City is a fantastic team, but its hard to be very romantic about them in the way people are about united.
Really the fans will probably continue to revolve around the traditional big 6 for the foreseeable future as even when they are performing worse like chelsea and man united, they still bring in tons of big name players that get everyone talking. A lot of the big pundits are also former players of those teams which helps as well.