I asked for help, a couple of months back, in deciding which English Premier League team to root for … and readers had some strong opinions and made some good cases.
So, here I am, and the race is heading for the wire, and where have I chosen to place my devotion?
As the headline above would suggest …
Nowhere.
I kept poking around the competent crust of the EPL standings, looking for someone, anyone, and I kept finding a sort of non-starter problem with all of them.
As most everyone agreed, the powerhouse teams are out. You can’t pick up baseball and decide to be a Yankees fan. And that is exactly what supporting Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool would be like.
I actually wanted to like Arsenal, and their manager, Arsene Wenger and the style of play they have … but I don’t like that Arsenal has so little English presence on the club. I don’t expect 11 Brits out there, but two would be nice. Three or four or five, even. Arsenal doesn’t have that. This is the club that went, like, two years without starting a single Englishman. So Arsenal is out.
There were those who suggested Aston Villa. But Villa has the lamest color scheme I’ve ever seen in a major sports franchise — purple and baby blue (thought the club has some hoity-toity preference for the scheme; I just looked it up and it’s “claret and sky blue.” Well, harrumph. And it’s still hideous.). Plus, they’ve got Brad Friedel, an American, in goal, and instead of a selling point that is a minus, because I dealt face-to-face with nearly all the American soccer stars from 1990 to about 2006, and Friedel was rather difficult and joyless. I’m not rooting for his team.
Now we’re into the middle of the table, and I just can’t get a grip on the likes of Everton, and after that it appears to be one big lump of mediocrity. Only 10 points separate seventh place from 19th place. About all we know for sure is that West Bromwich Albion is safely 20th and headed for relegation.
West Ham has some history, and my previous post inspired some love from Tottenham Hotspur fans, but that was just as Tottenham was settling below even West Brom, for a few days, Plus, their coach, Harry Redknapp, looks as if his face melted. I know that’s petty and person, but I don’t want my coach to look like he stood too close to a blast furnace.
If I had begun this process 2-3 years ago I might plump for Fulham, because Fulham employed several Americans — but now it’s down to Clint Dempsey, who seems to have learned only how to flop, while in England.
Most of the rest of these teams are stunningly anonymous, from Wigan to Middlesbrough to Hill City, Sunderland, Portsmouth … I mean, I can’t tell you two facts about any of those teams, not even after getting a steady diet of EPL on cable in Hong Kong. So I’m not going there.
Actually, it reminds me of Alexi Lalas’ contention, back when he was running the Galaxy and the English were going nuts that David Beckham was going to Los Angeles, that once you get past the upper crust of the EPL, it is possible to conceive of Major League Soccer teams being competitive with the bottom two-thirds of the EPL — and at a fraction of the cost.
So, after thinking this over … I have no EPL team. Perhaps at some time in the future I will settle on one.
I’m going to keep my eye on (well, I’ll check in from time to time) on the second division, in England, grandiloquently (and incorrectly) known as the Championship division. I find myself liking the concept of Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace and Sheffield Wednesday. Unfortunately, none of those three seem likely to get promoted this year, so will stay under the radar. They, too, have some history, but not lately, so they’re safe on the “front-runner” front. I also like the idea of Nottingham Forest, but Forest seems much more likely to get relegated than promoted to the EPL, any time soon.
So, for the moment, I remain generically interested in the EPL but specifically disinterested. Of all the “big” European clubs I’ve seen this year, I may like AS Roma as much as any of them, and they’re a sort of a plucky not-quite-elite Italian side — not in the EPL, of course.
I will hold in abeyance any devotion to an EPL team. Maybe if QPR and its bright young forward Dexter Blackstock can break through …
8 responses so far ↓
1 Doug // Mar 2, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Perhaps Friedel has become less of a pill? This Times columnist seems to think he is OK:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/paul_kimmage/article5822363.ece
2 Jacob Pomrenke // Mar 2, 2009 at 10:36 PM
I have a soft spot in my heart for West Bromwich, because the competition director of the top youth soccer club in my hometown was from there. He was a dual citizen, and played on the U.S. national futsal team (five-a-side indoor soccer) in the early 1990s. Great guy. Taught me a lot about the game when I covered his organization.
When Albion was promoted to the Premiership for the first time in more than two decades, I was in his office watching the game with him when they won. Tears were streaming down his face at full time; he was so overjoyed. He was on cloud nine for a month. Such a wonderful experience for me, to watch someone have so much pride in their club. That was a lot of fun.
3 David Lassen // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:42 PM
That “Claret” in the Aston Villa colors is actually a maroon (think wine-red) not a purple. I know it’s still an odd combination, but there are at least three other teams in England with the same scheme, including West Ham. (and if someone can explain that, I’d like to hear it).
4 Ian // Mar 3, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Villa had the colors first: The most-told story is that two of the founders of the club were fans of Hearts and Rangers in Scotland. Then, years later, the story goes, players from West Ham beat players from Villa in a race and won a set of claret and blue shirts that they wore in honor of the victory and the colors stuck.
Granted, this is what the Interwebs and my old soccer coach tell me, so who knows.
5 Ryan // Mar 3, 2009 at 5:22 PM
I’m a little disappointed that we couldn’t get another one onto the Spurs bandwagon, but you didn’t become an Arsenal fan so all in all, not too bad.
6 George Alfano // Mar 5, 2009 at 10:19 AM
What about Celtic in the Scottish Premier League?
7 Damian // Mar 9, 2009 at 4:58 PM
OK, I know I could get some stick for this post, but here goes…
If you want to find a Premier League team to root for based on the possibility of your team having trophy-winning success, combined with the fact that you have no personal/family history to any geographic region in England, you’ll have to be a fan of 1 of the big 4 — Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal. Yes, Aston Villa is having a splendid season, but this is their best season in decades and the club just doesn’t have the resources to be a consistent, Top-4 Premiership club year after year. Unfortunately, the way it works in England is that the Big 4 have all the funds and resources and it has always been a top-heavy league, with Chelsea just joining this discussion after Roman bought the club a handful of years ago.
And if you want to be a fan of a team, it should stand that you’ll need to pick a team that you can actively follow on a consistent basis by watching them. And, sad as it is, most Fox Soccer Channel/ESPN matches involving Premier League teams focus around the Big 4.
(An aside … By the way, I found Brad Friedel to be very pleasant and cordial after attending Villa-West Brom (a Midlands derby!) on Jan. 10 at Villa Park during another England holiday. Of course, it helps that Brad knows I do some work for his academy in Ohio, and so he left me tickets and we met up in the Villa players lounge after the match. But when he was chatting with others in the lounge and had his wife and toddler to entertain in there, he went out of his way to acknowledge me, introduce me to his family, tell me to sit tight, and then made his way over to sit down for 15 mins or so and chat while keeping the wife and kid waiting as most players had come and gone.)
So, if you are trying to decide amongst the big 4, you can rule out Chelsea because they don’t carry themselves like a true English club. Sure, they start A. Cole, Terry and Lampard, but there isn’t an overwhelming feeling that those guys are the true leaders, heart and soul of the club.
Arsenal plays a beautiful, contemporary style of football and should always be in contention in Europe with their style of play under Wenger, but it’s not the style conducive to Premier League success. Besides, as you point out, there’s almost no English influence on what is a traditional English power.
That leaves you Liverpool and Man United. Man United is seen as the team with the bandwagon fans, but it is Liverpool that has a fuller trophy cabinet in its history, especially with respect to winning European Cups. However, Liverpool these days is being overrun with Spanish influence in the coaching ranks and at key positions on the pitch, save Gerrard in midfield and Carragher in defense. Besides, Liverpool and Chelsea are the most egregious, irresponsible spenders on the world player market without showing any consistency in developing their own players.
That’s why you join the Man United fan club. Man United plays the most attractive football in the Premiership, along with Arsenal, is still run as a British institution. Sir Alex, though he’s a Scot, has been the manager for the last 25 years.
They’ve developed their own players well for years — Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville brothers, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, John O’Shea, Jonny Evans, Ben Foster — which has been the core to their team for almost as long as the Premier League has been around and United doesn’t rely on the transfer market nearly as much as the other Euro superpowers. They always make a point to keep their heart and soul of a British nature. Look at their team now — Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Rooney, Gary Neville, O’Shea, Evans all play roles on the pitch and in the leadership dept. with the team.
When United does spend, it should be noted that they find many of their star players at an early age before they become globally-known commodities, buy them relatively cheap as compared to what these players are worth on the open market now. And as compared to what other superclubs do, which is wait for players to hit their prime and shell out millions. They develop their talent to the point of reaching stardom.
They bought Ronaldo when he was 17 and no one had ever heard of him. They bought Rio Ferdinand when he was young, but have kept him all these years and made him better all the while and raised his value. No one had heard of Nemanja Vidic when they bought him from Spartak Moscow for a mere 7 mil, but now he is considered a world-class defender 3 years later. They bought Rooney and Nani in their teen years and have developed them. Rafael is their 18-year-old right back who they plucked out of the youth ranks in Brazil and he’s going to be super. This speaks to their superior organizational and scouting networks, which is certainly worth commending.
Man United has the best organization in world soccer, from the scouts to the coaches to the players, and is worth respecting. They do it right, and not just outrageously spend all the time. Sure, they have signed some busts, but everyone does, and everyone does it much more frequently than United.
There’s no shame in supporting a winner when the club operates the right way and plays football that is fun to watch. Their leadership is consistent, they don’t look to fire their manager or sell players at the first or second hint of adversity.
And these are all reasons why United are still alive to have the best season in the history of club football. They are the reigning Premier League, World Club and European Cup champions, just won the Carling Cup a couple weeks ago, are leading the Premier League again comfortably, are in the semis of the FA Cup and still alive in the last 16 of the current Champions League season. I don’t think anyone has held 5 such titles at once. We’ll see how it turns out in the coming months.
Of course everyone will accuse you of being a glory chaser and frontrunner, but it beats being miserable/lovable loser year after year and knowing that your English club never stands a chance at winning anything significant if you’re not Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal.
Besides, if you have a problem rooting for the rich, QPR is owned by rich Arab tycoons and has the funds to buy whatever they want at that level. In essence, they are the Chelski of the lower divisions, so you can’t root for them.
8 George Alfano // Mar 10, 2009 at 11:48 AM
How about Manchester City? It would be like rooting against the front-runner and for an underdog type team.
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