Have wondered about this. Here’s my theory: I think it’s sort of the opposite. But it is born, at least in part, in the place you’re talking about. I don’t think it’s love; I think it’s a kind of indifference. By which I mean, it’s like City don’t count and people — who see them (whether rightly or wrongly) as operating on a different plane and with different rules etc — are kind of resigned to them and have reached an acceptance. So, for fans of teams like, say, Liverpool or (even) United (despite being rivals in Manchester), if City win the league: shrug, yeah, whatever, what you gonna do? If this year Arsenal or in previous years Liverpool win the league — who you are competing with on the same level, who are your peers/challengers, for want of a better word, whose title win would be as good as yours would have been — it actually does hurt and it does mean something. It’s a “real” title win…and thus, by extension, a real title loss for your team. And I suspect that goes beyond just fans of those teams too to become more generalized. I know, I know, plenty of people will really dislike this, from both sides of the argument, and I might have to hide from the @s now as they all shout at me, but it’s about people’s perceptions and I reckon there’s something in that. Anyway, sorry: a long tweet. Just a theory.
