The Premier League is obsessed with competitive spending, with the idea success can be bought. It just seems increasingly jarring and vulgar these days
It was reported in December, quite casually, that 400 people had queued on Christmas night outside a branch of Next in Nottingham to be first in line for the 6.30am Boxing Day sale.
Nobody objected to this. The people queueing were described as “bargain hunters”. It was as though this is all just fine, normal behaviour. Rather than, say, mass acquisitive hysteria, the shared conviction there is a some kind of happiness to be found in waiting six hours in the festive cold in order to pay marginally less for a cable-knit V-neck jumper that starts to look slightly sad and disappointed the first time you wash it.
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The Premier League is obsessed with the idea success can be whistled up out of a shopping spree. This is its founding principle, Thatcherism in shorts
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