Right now, make no mistake. Many still see it as what Qatar, the UAE and Russia have been at different times over the past 20 years: a giant cash machine for clubs with excess inventory and the right connections. Sure, we all read the earnest feature stories about the game's boom in China, about President Xi Jinping wanting to turn the country in a superpower and about the out-of-whack prices shelled out for (mostly) South American players based in Europe.
But truth be told, there was reason to be skeptical. China competing with Europe was global warming: a threat, sure, but one that felt a long, long way off.