There is, but in most cases a good portion of it is a bunch of overrated shite in my opinion. Some of these clubs have been there for 150 odd years, there isn’t one way in which they had all their successful periods.
Some things in football change, some remain the same, some just turn in cycles.
You even hear it at places like Tottenham and West Ham. What, because their fanbases like seeing good football, because they remember an era from way back? No shit, who doesn’t? And good football is pretty general and somewhat subjective in the first place. They couldn’t agree between themselves anyway.
At United, I’ve heard a few times that it’s 4-4-2, wingers out wide, fast, powerful and winning football.
I would never want my club to fall into those traps of history, especially being slaves of a bloody football formation.
I want us to be protagonists and win. Whether in different eras it’s in different formations, sometimes more controlled football, sometimes with more intensity, a bit more on the idealist side or pragmatic one… I don’t care. Success in any of those ways is good for me.
I think Barca in last decades are that one special place where it mattered more than anywhere else. Where that identity was indeed something, from the kids to the first team. Manifested in them having a team that were all part of their academy. I don’t know if we’ll ever see that again, at that high level, in our lifetime.
And of course that a place like West Ham today cannot implement it like clubs that need to build a style of play that needs to dominate every season like Bayern, Celtic, etc.
Clubs trying to implement some general principles of playing and behaviour is something else, of course you try to do that and it raises the chances for your first team to be successful.
