And so, on May 14, 2024, modern Premier League football reached its logical next step: Tottenham Hotspur fans rooting against their team when facing Manchester City because they’d rather lose than have rivals Arsenal win the title.

First of all, this is in no way a criticism of the fans who chose to do that. Doing so is entirely their choice and to anyone suggesting what they did was irrational: well, have you met a football fan? There’s also an extent to which this would have happened in any era given how intrinsic schadenfreude has always been to the football fan experience.

But while much of the chatter on this topic before the game centred on the rights and wrongs of wanting your team to lose, maybe that was slightly missing the point.

Rather than telling fans how to feel, perhaps we should think about how it is that we’ve ended up with a situation where celebrating rivals’ misfortune is pretty much the maximum most teams’ fans can aspire to each season. Yes, laughing at your rivals has always been a big part of being a football supporter, but it becomes a problem when that’s pretty much the only part of being a football supporter.

City, cheered on by their own fans and plenty of Spurs ones, beat Tottenham 2-0 in Tuesday’s game. They will likely win their fourth Premier League title in a row on Sunday. No team in English football history has won four consecutive titles.

This is an unprecedented period of dominance and, in that context, it’s unsurprising that supporters of other clubs have to find their enjoyment in whatever way they can.

And it’s not just the Premier League — City tend to hoover up the domestic cups as well. In the past decade, only seven English clubs have won a major trophy (the Premier League, domestic cups or one of the three European cups). In the previous decade (2005 to 2014), that number was 10. It was 10 from 1995-2004, too, and 13 from 1985-1994.

Essentially, it’s getting harder and harder for non-elite clubs to win anything, let alone the Premier League. Though an honourable mention for Watford, who nearly added to that tally of seven when they reached the FA Cup final in 2019… a final they lost 6-0 to Manchester City.

Manchester City’s Ruben Dias celebrates with team-mate Stefan Ortega at the end of Tuesday’s game (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Spurs, a much bigger club than Watford and a member of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’, have not won a trophy for 16 years. City can’t be blamed for that — they didn’t emerge as a major force until a few years after — but that was the context for the weird situation that developed in the lead-up to Tuesday’s game and then festered during it.

The Spurs head coach, Ange Postecoglou, was irritated by the discourse before the game, saying he’d never understand not wanting your team to win, and he was raging about it after.

“Of course it does,” Postecoglou said when asked if the strange, subdued atmosphere affected the players against City. “It is what it is. I can’t dictate what people do. They’re allowed to express themselves in any way they want. But yeah, when we’ve got late winners in games, it’s because the crowd’s helped us.”

The Spurs fans weren’t hostile towards their own team and many cheered as normal, but it was a very different atmosphere from a standard big game and the City goals were followed by chants about Arsenal.

A small number of supporters did City’s “Poznan” celebration after they had taken the lead and a few wore Tottenham’s old light-blue away kit to show where their loyalties lay. Video footage emerged of Postecoglou arguing with a supporter on Tuesday night, who it’s been said was celebrating one of the City goals. On Saturday, on the way back from the 2-1 win over Burnley, some Spurs fans were singing the City anthem, “Blue Moon”.

The weirder thing in all of this is not how much Spurs fans wanted to revel in Arsenal’s misfortune — that’s totally to be expected — but how little feeling City engender in rival fans. As the dominant team in English football, one would expect them to evoke a mixture of hatred and begrudging admiration. As Manchester United and Liverpool once did. Instead, there’s generally a numbness towards City or, often, actually an appreciation for the useful role they perform in denying teams that fans of rival clubs actually care about.

When you take a step back, the situation is strange. A league that prides itself on competitiveness will almost certainly, by Sunday, have been won by the same team for the last four years and six of the last seven. Oh, and that same team is facing 115 charges for alleged breaches of Premier League rules (which they deny).

But is that team hated, or even disliked? Nah, not really. No one really has the energy or can conceive of an alternative. City winning the league is just what happens. To be bothered by it would be like getting annoyed by the colour of the sky, or complaining that there are only seven days in the week.

Tottenham’s players show their frustration during their 2-0 loss to City (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

It’s such a weird situation that, inevitably, there will be collateral damage from time to time for people who are new to it. Like Postecoglou on Tuesday, who was furious at what he perceives to be a parochial, small-time mentality of those inside and outside the club who favoured self-sabotage over progress against City.

“I think the last 48 hours has revealed to me that the foundations are fairly fragile, mate,” he said, before adding pointedly: “What other people, how they want to feel, and what their priorities are, are of zero interest to me.”

Postecoglou is desperate to compete with City, but with Pep Guardiola in charge and the current ownership in place, how realistic is that? As Arsenal and Liverpool have found out, you can do all the right things and you’ll still almost always fall short. So the general feeling is by all means go for it but, in the meantime, fans of most clubs take their kicks when they can get them.

It was almost forgotten in the local rivalry psychodrama that Spurs would have had a decent chance of qualifying for the Champions League if they’d beaten City on Tuesday night. But even that prospect has left a lot of fans cold over the last few months, with many feeling that there’s little point qualifying for a competition you have no real chance of winning.

And so to the final day of the Premier League season, which will naturally be hyped up, even though everyone knows the chances of much drama are minimal.

There were genuine laughs in the press room on Tuesday night when Sky Sports tried to big up the last round of games and the potential for a thrilling finish. City last lost in the league in December and aside from games against their title rivals Arsenal and Liverpool, have dropped two Premier League points in 2024.

Their record-breaking fourth title will be met largely with indifference by the rest of the country. Aside from the relief that Spurs fans feel that Arsenal haven’t won the title; just how Everton and other supporters felt two years ago when it was Liverpool denied by City on the final day.

Those emotions are about as good as it gets for most supporters in 2024 and while, to some extent, it’s ever been thus, it’s never quite been like this.

(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Caitlin Clark recorded history in her WNBA debut on Tuesday night, although it wasn’t a stat the Indiana Fever were hoping to accomplish. 

Clark’s reputation as a prolific shooter didn’t translate well in her first regular season game, as the Connecticut Sun were able to limit her early on in their 92-71 victory at home. The former Iowa Hawkeyes’ star led the team with 20 points but was 5 of 15 from the field, including 4 of 11 from deep. 

Most notable was the Fever’s high turnover rate. Clark herself turned over the ball 10 times, marking the most of any player making their career debut in the WNBA. That record was previously set by Cynthia Cooper-Dyke when she had eight.

“We don’t have a lot of practice time for our next one,” Fever coach Christie Sides said of Indiana’s quick turnaround to host the New York Liberty on Thursday night. 

“We’ll be in the gym tomorrow watching a lot of video, trying to figure out how not to turn the ball over 25 times for 29 points.” 

But Sides did not place the blame entirely on Clark. 

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever looks on from the bench during the Sun game at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 14, 2024, in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Elsa/Getty Images)

CONNECTICUT SUN ROUT INDIANA FEVER TO SPOIL CAITLIN CLARK’S WNBA DEBUT

“We’ve got to help her out. We’ve got to do a better job of coming back to the ball. We worked on that several times this week, just knowing that that was probably going to be what they were going to do,” she continued. 

“But we just have to do a better job of getting somebody back to the ball.”

For her role, Clark said after the game she won’t harp on the negative. 

“I’m disappointed, and nobody likes to lose, but I don’t think you can beat yourself up too much about one game,” Clark said. “I don’t think that’s going to help this team.” 

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever reacts during the second quarter against the Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 14, 2024, in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Elsa/Getty Images)

The Fever will have to adjust without any time on the court, Sides lamented on Tuesday night. 

“There’s just so much that we need to work on, and this league – it’s not very kind to us right now with our schedule and what we have coming up next. To have to watch video and not be able to go out and work on something, it’s two different things.”

“It’s us trying to figure out how we can change and fix what we need to in 24 hours without a practice.”  

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The man whose firing led to the Sean McVay era with the Rams has been tabbed to breathe life into the wobbly Arena Football League.

Jeff Fisher, a longtime NFL coach and executive with deep Southern California ties, said Tuesday that he replaced AFL commissioner Lee Hutton III and became interim commissioner. Fisher is president of football operations for the Nashville Kats, one of 10 teams still operating in the league that began play April 27.

The AFL relaunched this spring with 16 teams five years after it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2019. But it soon became clear that several franchises weren’t going to last. The Minnesota Myth, Philadelphia Soul, Iowa Rampage and Georgia Force folded in the last few weeks.

“This league is good,” Fisher said. “We’re looking forward to continuing and finishing the season.”

Fisher, 66, grew up in the San Fernando Valley, playing youth football for the Reseda Rams before starring at Taft High in Woodland Hills. He played on the 1978 USC national championship team in 1978 and played four years in the NFL after the Chicago Bears drafted him in 1981.

Coaching was his true calling, and by 1991 he was back in L.A. as defensive coordinator of the Rams under John Robinson, who had been his coach at USC.

Fisher became head coach of the Houston Oilers at age 36 in 1994, and led the team to the Super Bowl after the 1999 season in their third year after they relocated to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans.

Following a 17-year stint with that franchise, Fisher was hired by the St. Louis Rams in 2012, saying, “I’m really excited that the Rams are the best fit for me. I hope I’m the best fit for the Rams.”

He wasn’t, slogging through four losing seasons before the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 2016. While it marked a homecoming for Fisher, the losing continued. The Rams were 4-9 when he was fired with three games to play.

Enter McVay, who immediately turned the team around, going 11-5 in 2017, 13-3 with a Super Bowl berth in 2018 and a Super Bowl victory after the 2021 season.

Meanwhile, Fisher has bounced around the minor leagues. He was an executive with the short-lived Alliance of American Football in 2019 and jumped back into coaching in 2022 with the Michigan Panthers of the United States Football League, which lasted all of two seasons before merging with the XFL.

Now he’s beginning the daunting task of keeping the AFL operating despite the apparent financial problems of several franchises. The most recent team to fold was the Minnesota Myth, and in an email sent Monday to players, owner Diana Hutton accused the league of attempting to sabotage the team in order to force Lee Hutton III — her husband — to resign as commissioner.

Hutton III refused to do so, but league owners ousted him Tuesday, replacing him with Fisher, whose first call might be to the NFL Network, which apparently has backed out of a deal to televise AFL games.

The NFL in March announced more than 30 AFL games would be broadcast on NFL Network, yet none have been televised and others have disappeared from the NFLN listings.

The AFL news release announcing Fisher’s hiring identified the 10 teams still operating: Albany Firebirds, Billings Outlaws, Nashville Kats, Orlando Predators, Rapid City Marshals, Salina Liberty, SW Kansas Storm, Washington Wolfpack, West Texas Desert Hawks and Wichita Regulators.

Fisher apparently expects the deck to continue to shuffle. The release goes on to say that the league “also will be speaking with other teams not mentioned, to discuss and perhaps, include them in current games/seasons.”