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

Maybe San Te should base the decision on which club has the best mascot.

Probably would be between Moonchester, Chang The Elephant or the Frogmore The Frog (RIP) for the most bizarre.

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/moonchester.jpg

Paul Robinson. Fat clown.
Zokora. Diver.
Dawson. Shit.
Gareth Bale. Geek.
Aaron Lennon. Runs like a girl.
Jenas. Shit.
Huddlestone. Fat bastard.
Kevin-Prince Boateng. Comedy tattoos.
Malbranque. Ugly and has silly name.
Defoe. Midget.
Berbatov. Looks like a vampire.

― Tom D., 12 December 2007 14:46 (2 years ago)

real talk

everton no question - steady but spirited, interesting blend of players (some of whom are young and exciting) a good history, and a lack of resources that makes them perennial underdogs. comedy big local rival too. also, for someone just getting into british football, a great and useful contrast to some of the... more involved shall we say... narratives of the other clubs.

but consider west ham if you fancy something a little riskier that could turn out pretty silly; maybe wolves too, a grand old club building sensibly.

villa, as people have said, are as similarly stable as everton but will be dull and suffer under a looming thwarted vibe this season imo. newcastle will be just be grim and not nearly as lol as advertised.

under no circumstances enlist in the yid army (tottenham hotspur and their merry band of ilx plonkers).

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_jay/0209brawl.jpg

glory days.

Voted Liverpool.

Based on the team I think most likely to have the biggest impact w/o being in the top 3, I'm going for City

Also, because he said, "...this year."

shame on you

Lost the ability some time ago.

Since this thread is blowing up today I'll leave this here.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/morrissey/2495474,CST-SPT-morrissey14.article

If soccer ever does take off here, it's going to take off on the strength of the game, not on the fervor of its fan base.

Soccer is a great participatory sport for kids. It's a great way to stay in shape. It's not so great to watch. Unless there's something we've yet to see, that's not going to change for many of us.

Is that OK?

It's going to have to be.

*puke* Just make sure you don't let irrelevant media dinosaurs like this guy influence you, San Te.

Why is affirmation so important to them?

Ha ha. After many years of arguing w/American soccer haters or critics, I've basically taken the converse approach. "You don't like soccer? Awesome, now go talk to someone over there about how and why you don't like it or whatever You're not going to convince either of us to not like it and we actually have some informed discussion going on and aren't interested in your proposed rule changes and gripes et cetera."

You should start watching the SPL, games widely available on justin.tv and iraqgoals every weekend, and the SPL thread could do with some new blood.

The football's mostly pish, right enough.

Who should he support though, Aberdeen?

Yeah, why not. They can't do any worse than last year. We've got Celtic, Rangers, Hamilton and Hibs covered, so take yer pick from Hearts, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, St Johnstone, St Mirren, Kilmarnock (not advised), Inverness Caley Thistle (even less advised) or Motherwell.

(I just like saying "sheep shaggers" in my comedically woeful Scots accent)

I have a friend who's a Hearts fan. He's kind of a gloomy dude, though.

san te, good question. i was in this boat a year or two ago. i decided to let a season play out and see who i fell for. and i fell for...none of them. i stayed neutral.

i've ended up liking the way arsenal play, the way everton are run, specific managers (hodgson, moyes, o'neill, zola) and specific players (arshavin, fellaini, nasri, ireland, dempsey, etc) but nothing's connected at that ~visceral~ level. yet. i still think if i saw a game in england, or had a loved one devoted to a team, that that might change my pov.

but it's been fun, being neutral. i've never done it before. this way i get to laugh at liverpool and half-hate chelsea and roll my eyes at tottenham without any of it mattering too much.

all that said, i voted Everton.

156 otm

That's basically how I've watched it since Leeds were relegated.

@Danny -- don't worry, I completely disagree that soccer "isn't interesting to watch". It just seems to be a cultural gap (albeit a weird one, because this is such a worldwide appreciated sport). Americans tend to like immediacy in their sports -- while hockey is a relative in that it uses goals, Americans love it because the scoring is higher, and because of the violence. Football, basketball, baseball, all have some level of frequency in scoring.

When I approached the game from that angle, I hated it. It'll sound kind of stupid, but my appreciation for martial arts and kung fu cinema, which began after World Cup 2002, but before 2006 really changed the way I viewed it. Quite a few of Bruce Lee's movies frustrated me as a kid because the fights were choreographed very one-sided, but I always loved the choreography in Gordon Liu movies (hence my nick), due to the even-matched fights, and the back and forth nature, where it took a while for either person to land a punch or a kick, and even longer for one to prevail.

Same with soccer. When I approached it that way, as two opposing forces battling, each giving a little in a battle of wills, it became much more enjoyable. Plus IT'S A RUNNING CLOCK. I can't state the awesomeness of that enough.

(I am aware that goal scoring is more frequent in league games than World Cups -- but I think I'd hate soccer if it was always 5-4. 1-0 matches can be a blast.)

my appreciation for martial arts and kung fu cinema

you may want to follow nigel de jong and manchester city?

Who should he support though, Aberdeen?

― Grand amiral de la marine des licornes (Michael White), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 19:14 (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

middlesbrough.

:-)

haha actually would it be too confusing if we called the championship/etc thread "boro won't win the spl" this year

Great description, San Te. I've taken to watching occasionally from one step even further removed, as two grid formations lined up and probing at each other. This came about through watching low-quality streaming, actually, where you sometimes can't see any other detail.

Anyway, it's amazing how clearly you can see the game sometimes this way. Usually there's an equilibrium between the two forces, but sometimes it becomes unbalanced and somehow you can spot that immediately just from the pattern. When you get a clinical side like Germany you can see when they're going to score as soon as they get the ball - their third goal against England was obvious before the ball had even left their penalty area. I was thinking that judo must look a lot like that.

It's quite heartening how well-regarded my Everton are thesedays; back in the early days of ILX, they were regarding as entirely washed-up and too tedious to even draw the LOLs of a Newcastle. I'd be honoured if you'd relieve me of my solo Toffee status, if only for a few months. (Note: we almost always start badly; we lost only two of our last 24 games last season, but that was still only good enough for 8th, such was the shambles in the autumn).

Moyes still not the most charismatic fellow, but I'm warming to him

Again, as a Yank, loved Donovan's spell there this year and mad respect for Moyes also, Howard.

so, general question: how much of british club loyalty is geographic?

A nice chap I gather - a distant relative was at school with him, called Everton when he was in Liverpool for a day on business, and Moyes had him and his boy up to the training ground and entertained for the afternoon despite not having seen him in thirty-odd years.

so, general question: how much of british club loyalty is geographic?

Support Your Local Team (or don't, whatever)

Ahh, remember when Liverpool had glory hunter fans?

arent like sixteen of these clubs in london anyway

There are only five London-based Prem clubs at the moment.

but 8 northwest teams, true land of football

"only" five! new york only has two baseball teams

there will always be something a bit arbitrary & weak about whatever team you choose, unless you pick Fulham which is an entirely natural team for an American to support imo. otherwise embrace this fate & try and discern footballing virtue from staring into the faces of the managers.

Support a club that nobody in America can pronounce right, like Leicester City or Middlesborough

suggested shortlist:

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00294/owen-coyle_294322s.jpg
http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2008/12/martin-oneill-415x275.jpg
http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Wolverhampton+Wanderers+v+Hull+City+Premier+4xrThc143bNm.jpg

Or spell. It's Middlesbrough.

xpost

No bad blood for Coyle after his mid-season switch?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/images/2004/12/09/cherries_archive_harry_470_470x352.jpg

Or spell. It's Middlesbrough.

whatev!

:-)

http://d2eosjbgw49cu5.cloudfront.net/soccer-weblog.com/imgname--why_bbc_need_to_apologise_to_big_sam---50226711--images--sam-allardyce.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2008/09/26/460MoyesMatthewLewisGetty.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/images/2008/03/12/tony_pulis_470x315.jpg

That's a great picture of Mick McCarthy.

he just looks blazed. has to be him or sam

never under any circumstances:

http://chelsea.theoffside.com/files/2009/11/Spurs_Favorite_Chef.jpg

If it's just about managers, Ian Holloway ftw:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/05/21/article-1185509-066EB2540000044D-128_468x312.jpg