Fellow Yanks: How did you pick your favorite British football team?

So, I have several friends who follow football religiously and they all have their favorite teams (2 Spurs, 1 Arsenal, and 1 Chelsea). I go watch games with them a lot, and shit gets rowdy fast. I mean they get really freaking attached to these teams. But my question for them is always: "How in the world does an American pick a British team to follow?" Since most of my brit/french/spainiard friends follow the teams from where they grew up (or has players from where they grew up), I can never understand how a foriegner can get so attached to a local team. I dig the sport but it seems like the only way to do it is to have a team you follow, otherwise its just one huge random-number generator to me. So: any advice on where to begin looking for a team to love? Who are the underdogs? Who are the champs? Who are the Silly Nannies? And you other 'Mericans who love Euroball, how did you find your team? (Doesnt need to be british teams, tho i am inclined towards them for some reason. )

Was going to say that people usually pick the most successful teams... then I saw Spurs in there

... and Arsenal

I like Man United, which, I know, is terrible. But I think as I mentioned in another thread, it was due to having a roommate one year in college who grew up near Manchester and was a huge United supporter. This was back in 1994-5 and his girlfriend (who was in school in Philly) would send him tapes of the matches that she would record off a satellite connection she had access to. So I would watch the matches with him and I learned pretty much everything I knew about the Premier League through him. His excitement was infectious, so I became a United supporter too.

Gillingham had these bizarre, wonderful FA Cup runs a couple of years ago and I was all "Never heard of 'em, my kind of random team."

Aston Villa.

They share an owner (Randy Lerner) with my favorite American football team, perennial powerhouse Cleveland Browns.

*muffled snort*

dsvoris, i strongly recommend you start supporting southampton, who are widely recognised as the next big thing in english football

Leeds

Good run in the late 90's and early 00's when I started watching the EPL; my family name's originally from Yorkshire; they weren't Man U

ok, so im sensing that its all about drawing some kind of personal connection to the team (duh). hmmm, well I stayed in Dalston right off of Kingsland Road for 2 weeks

I just like the name Manchester United. For awhile, my fantasy norteamericano football team was Mantlepiece United.

I also root for whatever team it is that Pelé plays on.

the team with the cute boys, oh wait most of them

Pet peeve:

American teams that use 'United' or 'Real' or anything misappropriated from foreign teams w/o context

idgi

oh wait nm

Real Chicago United F.C.

Real Housewives of Orange FC

American teams that use 'United' or 'Real' or anything misappropriated from foreign teams w/o context

― Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Thursday, May 31, 2012 12:23 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

manchester united doesn't have any context either. it wasn't a combination of mulitple teams, just a name they picked.
plus the context of american teams using real or dynamo or whatever is naming themselves after succesful teams, which has a long history in world football.

dont see using united as annoying but using real is ridic

I did a year in London during college, and my best friend over there was a big Spurs fan, so... FUCK ARSENAL! ;)

that's the spirit

I don't really hate Spurs or Arsenal but I do love to see the fans wind each other up.

my American uncle introduced me to the sport, and his club was Man Utd - no idea where he got them from. I wanted to do my own thing, and the first time I saw Thierry Henry play for Arsenal settled it.

schwantz otm

this whole thing is bizarre

are the UK spurs as boring to watch as the NBA spurs?

some spurious reasoning going on here

u_u

are the UK spurs as boring to watch as the NBA spurs?

― pplains, Thursday, May 31, 2012 1:12 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

emphatically not. it ties me up inside loving one spurs team so much while hating the other.

we are all united in our need to elucidate

would hate to leed you astray

don't worry, i have a whole aresenal of these

are the UK spurs as boring to watch as the NBA spurs?

They were for the second half of the season but not the first

unfortunately english spurs not nearly as succussful as their texas namesakes recently

as she'll see (chelsea is another premier league football team)

What three teams in England have a swear word in their name?

ARSEnal

sCUNThorpe

i'll stop, whenEVER TONs of you object

Manchester Fucking United

i might go full ham though

i'll just keep stoke-ing the fires

i have an as(s)-ton of these, mind

i see you pressed on

Oh, jon, it's like coals to Newcastle

Though it is kind of Wigan me out

emphatically not. it ties me up inside loving one spurs team so much while hating the other.

― mizzell,

ya but which

ah'll be on your side, Michael White

i'm not sure which are funny nor which are just terrible

Still fulhaminating

guys i dont se Leeds or Southampton on the the Premire League website, they have another name or are they a dif league?

southampton have just been promoted to premier lge. Leeds.....haven't.

Reading was promoted as well and they were once know as the BISCUITMEN

Reading are nicknamed The Royals, due to Reading's location in the Royal County of Berkshire, though they were previously known as The Biscuitmen

wow just read a brief history of Reading, talk about Bad New Bears. I think im leaning towards Southampton! Fresh start and all. Though i gotta say their website freaking sucks ass.

theirs (and reading's) is the generic one that almost all football league teams seem to have. maybe they'll update for the prem.

dsvoris, look up Le Tissier on youtube

guess not, didn't realize how premier league teams have the same one.
xp

Fresh start + two weeks in Dalston = West Ham United, I'm afraid

(you would've been closer to Arsenal, but where's the fun in that?)

West Ham have just been promoted. You'll get a much better sense of a real football fan's ups and downs that way. See if you can go watch them play Millwall on one of those soccer package tours.

The 'Green St' package iirc

dear Americans, Green Street is about as closely related to reality as those fucking hobbit movies

in fact on reflection the hobbits probably edge it

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01469/west-ham460_1469250c.jpg

they're lovely lads really

Hobbits def more badass

Never seen any ultras able to destroy the one Ring

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTz2djhl_XEptpPf-4sbzwtktGm_EZdvF3sgJI1bV1BFcfv47V3DA

i don't care about this thread but "fellow yanks" makes me lol

this man has made some insightful documentaries on football fandom that anyone wishing to learn more should check out
http://images.newstatesman.com/articles/2010//20100510_78301582_w.jpg

that's a little naughty number none. your bang out of order.

1. clint dempsey
2. clint dempsey
3. clint dempsey

If you wanted to be patriotic and support Fulham, you would have been backing them when they had McBride.

notes i took from a similar thread two years ago:

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 (Baggies)
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.

Newcastle most improved

michael i didn't live here then!

i mean when they had mcbride.

Tracer, you call that an excuse?

gosh! such a terribly difficult decision. I of course want Noodle to like me but i also relish batshit thrills. but then, seasons are long and ill need someone to root for in next years finals. And who doesn't like racism and porno? This is much harder than i thought it would be....I have more questions now than when i started!

oh and seriously, Southampton requiring that you PAY to look at the site is just fucking cunty

After WC 2006 it seemed like a lot more games were being shown in the 2006-2007 season, but mostly ones involving manu, chelsea, liverpool and arsenal. I watched 3-4 games a week that season and out of ALL the teams I saw, I just liked Liverpool that year a little more than the others.
I've asked pub regulars how they picked their team and it generally seems to be that they have a friend or relative who got them involved and they're following that person's team. One difference I've noticed between the USers and Brits at ye olde Seattle soccer pub is that the tradional dislike for rival teams doesn't seem to have as much weight with the US fans (sometimes to the consternation of their fellow supporters).

i am against arsenal for reasons mentioned elsewhere, but other than that i just don't see enough to really get a good sense.

(i thought the guy writing 'the reducer' column for espn/grantland was very good as a general weekly recap.)

i tend to end up rooting for the underdog in any particular game i suppose -- except i was totally for city in the finale just to screw man u, and how beautiful was that. i'm sure i'll be against them next year.

i'm sure i've mentioned this before, but like 15 years ago my cable package offered a free weekend of fox sports world and it featured a celtic-rangers game that was maybe the most fucking intense sporting event i've ever seen. pitch was for shit, fans were right on top of the sidelines and it was end-to-end insane. i'd like to see that again.

Millwall, Millwall, you're all really dreadful, and your girlfriends are unfulfilled and alienated...

2006-2007 season, but mostly ones involving manu, chelsea, liverpool and arsenal. I watched 3-4 games a week that season and out of ALL the teams I saw, I just liked Liverpool that year a little more than the others.

least likeable team of maybe all time imo

n/a otm

XP yep fair enough - I might be a bad person who's a poor judge of character

man that Villa entry from two years back is almost heartbreaking

Hold on, are those from the summer before Hodgson at Liverpool?!

(xps 'least likeable team of maybe all time' is an opinion possibly held by only one individual, and maybe Gary Neville)

voris you needn't worry about me liking you, Wolves won't be available on overseas tv for at least the next season *cough*

eh it's not only yours truly finally lost patience with rafa, lfc, RAWK et al that last year or so tbf

it's usually whoever has the best looking jerseys at the moment iirc.

Wolves won't be available on overseas tv for at least the next season

My local Irish sports pub has gol TV and they show at least one Championship game per weekend.

I was watching the World Cup 2006 and started hankering after a player named Steven Gerrard who played for Liverpool. I researched Liverpool and everything I read about them seemed to be a good fit for me (Catholic, Northern, players who grew up in Liverpool). It ultimately took more dedication than I could spare for me to follow the team with anything but a passing fancy.

players who grew up in Liverpool supporting Everton

Not that it really matters (unlike in Glasgow), but I think Everton were seen as the catholic team, not Liverpool.

If you Google "everton catholic" you'll get a long explanations which basically amounts to "everton and liverpool are neither protestant or catholic".

Allegiances famously cut across most families aiui - shoehorning the clubs into religious boxes looks like an attempt to impose a Glasgow-type narrative where it isn't warranted. Anyway, I've as often heard it said that it's the other way round.

yeah my ex is Everton and her brother is Liverpool, Catholic family, don't think there is a plausible sectarian narrative to attach to those clubs in a city that feels majority Catholic

and their dad is kinda "come on clubs from Liverpool" tho he leans red i guess

That's true too, in ye olden days it was common to just go along to whichever club was at home that Saturday.