What club should I adopt as my favorite in the Premier League this year?

Word of advice:

Don't go with the final tally. It will be a joke vote to trick you. Read the discussion and go where that leads you. ILX football posters are a nasty bunch.

Spend a season just watching soccer and see whose style of play or stadium or fans or whatever appeal to you most.

Picking a favorite sports franchise out of a hat without any real connection is pretty much a guaranteed failure.

If you're in the Midwest already, why not go for the Columbus Crew? Then you could package together West Ham (I think that's their friendly/sister club).

Bonus to West Ham: you get that movie with the hobbit.

heh i haven't quite got around to the MLS angle yet, figured i'd take one step at a time. thanks for the idea though, very intriguing.

Spend a season just watching soccer and see whose style of play or stadium or fans or whatever appeal to you most.

Loading all the bases towards spurs here btw

Wigan are a bit of an anomaly; rugby region football club where most if not many of the local prolly support Man U.

... or Liverpool

Thinking out loud, a couple of things:
-- might consider team's frequency of Special Matches, ie classic derbies, historical grudge matchups etc;
-- team based in major city may be useful if you ever travel to the UK and feel like trying to get to see your team;
-- am curious about Ismael's Newcastle point; was going to mention them since they are in the interesting just-returned-after-one-season-down position.

I'll just out my prejudices here and say that amongst many of my football following friends, much of this stems not just from the team but the team's supporter culture. Here in SF, I generally loathe the Chelsea supporters, generally tolerate the Man U supporters (esp the long-term ones) and the Gunners (Arsenal) fans. Most of the other supporters have very specific reasons for supporting whomever they do; family or connections or whatever. Newcastle fans are somewhat like England fans imo, they have a far higher opinion of their club than it deserves and a far higher expectation of them. I have a few Magpies fans who are salt of the Earth, but too often I can feel my eyes rolling back in my head when Newcastle fans prattle on...

Also, listen to Darraghmacand vote based on watching games and reading the thread. Have you got FSC or access to it?

Arsenal
If you want to be spectacularly irritating and admire pretty football that never ever wins anything.

Aston Villa
If you want a young, exciting team of mostly English players with a very good and likeable manager and a chance of the big time. Also some moral high-ground for being sensibly run.

Birmingham
If you are the most boring man in the world.

Blackburn Rovers
If you don't really want to see or say anything of interest for a season.

Blackpool
If you're all about plucky underdogs and the most quotable manager in the country.

Bolton Wanderers
I can't actually think of any reason why you'd choose Bolton.

Everton
See Aston Villa above, with the added bonus of Mikel Arteta who is one of the best players in the league. Also someone needs to share Steady Mike's pain.

Fulham
More plucky underdogs, although I think you may have missed the boat on this one.

Liverpool
Officially now also plucky underdogs. This season can't be much worse than the last one.

Manchester City
If you want batshit thrills and and absolute boatload of money and the genuine possibility of potentially becoming one of the biggest clubs in the world at some point.

Newcastle United
If you like chaos, comedy, disappointment and standing in the rain bellowing with your gut hanging out.

Stoke City
If you want that periodic giantkilling feeling and don't mind not having things like attractive football or 11 players on the pitch.

Sunderland
There is no reason to bother with Sunderland.

Tottenham Hotspur
What Darragh said, they're on the up and will be exciting this season.

West Bromwich Albion
If you want to play attractive attacking football all season, get smashed and then go down.

West Ham United
Do you like chirpy cockneys, bubbles, racism and porn star barons? If so West Ham are your team.

Wigan Athletic
They might unearth one kid who'll go onto signing for Man United.

Wolverhampton Wanderers
Noodle Vague will like you.

yep I do have FSC

Matt DC OTM, apart from Spurs

Columbus Crew? Bullshit, I say. FIRE.

(xps to San Te/milo z)

Come to a Fire match and I will buy you a beer.

Bolton Wanderers
I can't actually think of any reason why you'd choose Bolton.

The fact they've been cheerfully punching above their supposed weight for many seasons now, are playing better football than ever, and have an array of likeable players who occasionally get it together against the big sides?

If you like your football brave and simple and unadorned by excess wealth, you'll love the Evertons and Villas and Fulhams.

If you want flash, you'll like whoever has at present, likely Chelsea or Man U (though either can be efficient but dull at times). Man City have a lot of new signings this year and you'll get in good with a certain kind of Mancunian for not being a United fan.

Fwiw, the only time I root against West Ham is if they're playing my team. I have no idea why this is.

Bolton also have Owen Coyle

On balance I think you should go for Spurs, Villa, Everton or Liverpool.

Man City have a lot of new signings this year and you'll get in good with a certain kind of Mancunian for not being a United fan.

I don't think so, not joining up after they became the richest team on earth. Best to avoid City imo.

Actually, Matt DC pretty much spot on up there.

English clubs with American first-team players fwiw:

Everton
Villa
Fulham
Bolton
West Ham

In all serious, San Te, PLEASE ignore the results of this poll; ILX has a LOT of Spurs fans and they're inevitably going to distort the poll. I say this as someone whose Premiership team is Spurs. If you are to choose, do it as Milo says, based on observation.

The downside to supporting West Ham is that I will start liking you less :D

Somebody up thread mentioned history and derbies (local rivalries) and Matt's 4 are pretty good there:

Spurs and Arsenal famously hate each other (their grounds are very close to one another) and these games can be very entertaining.

Villa vs Birmingham can be fairly entertaining.

Everton vs Liverpool is often very hard fought.

Sunderland were a big go-to club when they were taken over by new management a few years back, but Matt's right about them having fizzled away to nothing tbh.

Still not the worst idea, but alongside birmingham, wigan, blackburn in the 'kinda boring' category. NB I actually like these clubs except for blackburn.

ILX has a LOT of Spurs fans and they're inevitably going to distort the poll. I say this as someone whose Premiership team is Spurs. If you are to choose, do it as Milo says, based on observation.

oy knobhead it was a spurs fan that SAID this originally

ps SPURS RULE

follow lyon in ligue 1 instead then you get to buy this
http://i27.tinypic.com/wrkxna.jpg

Sunderland were a big go-to club when they were taken over by new management a few years back, but Matt's right about them having fizzled away to nothing tbh.

LOL English manager

d-mac, you like Brum City? we will have words

Nobody likes them, even their own fans

i think they had an admirable season last year, and tho 'like' is a stretch of my feelings towards big eck, he does his job like he knows his job.

Yeah, but the Baggies are kind of unhatable aren't they? It's like kicking a blind beggar.

Oh, Beemeenhum. I don't like them for some reason. I respect them, though. Solid football side.

The Baggies are *actually* my Premiership side, alongside Spurs, now they're up, come to think of it. My dad used to watch them and I've always liked their football and their attitude.

Also, San Te, alas but the higher ranked and more popular (better supported) side you pick, the greater your chances of seeing them play on TV and meeting fellow supporters

(San Te, The Baggies are West Bromwich Albion, who deserve to win on name alone tbh, but who sadly might well get relegated - oh me of little faith)

The Premiership is still kind of shit this year isn't it? I mean, at least Newcastle are back to give us some much-missed comedy but the fixture lists are still going to look pretty frumpy on some Saturdays.

Such is English football, Matt. One reason to watch it is it's fast-paced, athletic, rugged style and there's plenty of that here.

I have a bad feeling about Newcastle, I fear some sensible purchases followed by a stable mid-table finish.

Blackpool just don't feel like a Premier League team at all, far less than any other recently promoted team has, even the ones who were disasters. I'm thinking either entirely uneventful or spectacularly explosive.

I'm really curious as to what San Te will think, after a watching a season of soccer, about relegation (promotion). It's certainly colored my thoughts about certain teams. Remember Wigan's 1st season up or Reading's?

I'd pick a club who outperformed their expectations last season and could be expected to do so again this year. That'd probably leave you with a choice of Stoke City, Spurs or Chelsea, though.

Would be interested to see the results of a poll where nobody could vote for their own club.

Faced this problem myself after Euros 2004. Picked Bolton. I can't say it's easy, but you love the club you love.

challops: Support an MLS club that you actually have the opportunity to see in person. Save the Prem fandom for watching the big matches, but don't get invested in any particular club.

I probably wouldn't be able to see many in person matches in the MLS, unfortunately, due to my frequent commutes, but I'm looking into doing it at least once.

I was 100% serious about Newcastle, by the way. They are a soap opera of a club and have been ever since I became aware of them.

They're the only club in their city and accordingly feel like the biggest thing in the world to their devotees - which makes their lack of success both hilarious and also kind of poignant. They attract huge crowds and have lots of cash, but isolation and being badly-run means they usually can't attract the best players and overpay hilariously. At least they used to - they seemed much more sober last year, but they have a comical owner and surely must overreach again now they're back in the big time.

That said, they do get reasonable success from time to time - most notably when they blew up spectacularly on the verge of winning the league in 1996, but they've also had a couple of cup finals and played in the champions league since then. Their era of big success was the 1920s and they've won almost nothing since - if they ever do, the celebrations will be incredible! They were relegated two years ago and have just been promoted back to the EPL, but that's unlikely to happen again.

I absolutely hate them, but then I despise the small-time big man thing and that's how they come across to me - but you probably won't get that if you follow them at a distance.

Even so, they do have one of my favourite players in Alan Smith and have usually had a few spectacular and exciting players on their roster ever since Chris Waddle and Gazza played for them in the late 80s, so the football is usually at least entertaining. They'll probably sign one or two more before the season starts, they usually have to to please their fans and make up for the lack of success. They had some epic series of matches against Liverpool and Man United a decade or so ago, though their big local rivalry is with Sunderland. And their uniform is classic black-and-white stripes, which is a good look.

They also provoke affection in most neutrals, probably partly due to the entertainment and partly because of the pathos. Put it all together, and you get a club who attract far more coverage than their success really deserves. You'll see them on TV a lot because their games are considered to be big ones, even though objectively they aren't really.

I think they'd be fun to follow, and commend them to you.

Man, I've tried to be a fan of the Earthquakes but it's not to be, dan m, and I can't really get into MLS that much tbh, (it doesn't help that the quality all seems to be in Midewest or East) whereas my English club loyalties cannot be shreggued off no matter how hard I try (and how much they disappoint).

Btw, Spurs fans, I'm going to see them on Saturday.

Didn't know Smith was with Newcastle.

Newcastle are a joke club right now, and maybe therefore it seems like they've always been, but really they're just at one stage of a cycle that it seems Man City, Spurs, Everton and others (tho the three named are prob most notable?) have always been prone to in my 20 odd years of caring about football in England

They also provoke affection in most neutrals, probably partly due to the entertainment and partly because of the pathos. Put it all together, and you get a club who attract far more coverage than their success really deserves.

I mean, in other years not too far gone, this could quite easily be about Spurs, Man City

but id submit a decent range in that, otherwise id acknowledge the point

Lol at that Norwich own goal

Ok so darragh voted for both Arsenal and Crystal Palace for me, Tom for the Spurs, imago implicitly for something other than Crystal Palace just for diversity. I’m leaning toward Arsenal I suppose unless someone has another idea. Do I have to read that Nick Hornby book?

i didnt vote for arsenal

Oh sorry for being misrepresenting your stance, you’re right of course you just answered my question.

Anyway I’m going to try out this bit for at least one weekend

And I didn't vote for Spurs.

Silby, Crystal Palace are nicknamed the Glaziers which is pretty badass and their stadium is super cool, if they ever clear the hump and move into a corporate monster stadium you can proudly date your fandom to humbler times.

It must be ten years ago now but I remember reading a BIll Simmons article about picking a team to follow. I wanted to follow a London team and was drawn twd Spurs but resisted for a long time because I really don't like that guy and didn't want to join all his dumb readers.

But ultimately they won out by process of elimination, mainlly because I liked those white kits and for deeply rooted baseball reasons can't support a team that wears red.

Support Brighton

Sorry can’t abide a seagull

American Arsenal fans are the absolute worst.

Uh oh! Sorry specific user such as imago I’m gonna have to join the Crystal Palace section

the actual reason i was against it is that i support one of their rivals. we are now foes haha

Also u will likely have to pick a new favourite premier league team next year silby. But welcome aboard. Imago's puce faced rage when we fluke a win makes it all worthwhile

So far I have seen all of the Premier matches, 1.5 of the Europa matches. They're sticking better than Everton did when I tried to root for them. I like their style of play and logo

I have a Wolves jersey en route via DHL.

Also I lied when I was San Te I had never been to Indiana prior to this year

We're still a bit up and down and this season is gonna be a big test but when we're playing well we're lovely to watch. And Nuno has a brilliant attitude which shows thru the team imo

9-10 years in the making, it finally happened, the adoption has stuck! with today's finale against Chelsea, i'll have seen 35 of the 38 league matches this year, and probably half of the Euro Cup ones.

like I said upthread, Everton and I didn't click when I tried them out a few years ago, but Wolves and I connected pretty quickly as I enjoy their style of touch-pass play and their scrappy attitudes. they've quickly earned a place in my heart next to my hometown boys. now just gotta keep the fire going for next year!...or I guess this year, in 1.5 months? oof!

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/d1/d165129c077b7333cc03b5ecfffda74f1a5607232f9ab6652348d76111f55a9f.jpg

lol!