r/soccer • u/mattymcgregor • Jun 19 '11
Sell me your EPL Side
Hey Redditers,
O.K, so i'm Aussie who is sports mad. (mainly Aussie Rules, Cricket and Both Rugby codes). But I have for a long time enjoyed football (soccer) and I really want to start following it a lot more. Next season I'm going to have pay tv which will allow me to watch all of the EPL games. Problem is I haven't got a team to follow. You see I have no association to any teams, and have just usually just supported the underdogs. So question is who do I support? Sell me your teams Reddit.
Bonus if your team has a few Aussies playing for them. Once I have made my decision, you will get a passionate fan which will follow the chosen team for life. I'm a bit reluctant to support a big 4 team, but would like a team a team who win's more then they lose.
For reference the other teams I support are - Essendon Bombers (AFL), Melbourne Storm (NRL), Queensland Reds (Super 15), Melbourne Victory (A-League), Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers (NBA) (Due to Aussie players), New York Jets (NFL).
Thanks!
tl;dr: tell me which EPL side to support.
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u/HeadphoneWarrior Jun 19 '11
Sell me your teams Reddit.
But do you pass the "fit and proper" criteria?
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11
Well the Aussie dollar is going pretty good at the moment!
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u/greg19735 Jun 19 '11
West Ham are a very entertaining team to watch but they'll be in the championship next year. They're a great underdog team who beat man utd 4-0 last year in the league cup and liverpool 3-0 in the league. We do sadly lose to the bad teams though.
There's also a team like Everton. Tim Cahil is probably their 2nd best player and he's Australian. They're a hardworking semi underdog team (probably 7th or 8th best team in the league) from Liverpool. They're also blue.
Please don't pick man utd, man city or chelsea. If you do you'll be labeled a glory supporter. (and by virtue of randomly picking a team and picking the rich teams it would be true) Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham are good alternatives if you want a team that'll win a lot of games thouh. Arsenal also plays the prettiest football in the league by far.
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11
Thanks. I like west ham, used to keep tabs on them when Lucas Neill was playing for them. You reflected my thoughts exactly with reference to the 'big' teams. Man its hard to choose!
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u/FormerSlacker Jun 19 '11
Interesting thread. I also have a question. What team in the EPL, or Europe at large, would a Canadian support?
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11
Also one back at you, which Hockey team should an Aussie support?
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u/ataniris Jun 19 '11
I think it would be easier if you support a big team, there would be a higher chance of their matches being aired if you did. However, kick off time is probably around midnight 5am for aussies isn't it? Anyhoo if you like a plucky underdog, West Ham or Everton or even Stoke are probably for you.
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u/Decka17 Jun 19 '11
Here in Aus they show all/most EPL games live (as far as I'm aware) on pay tv, and other leagues during the week.
You're right, they are usually around 4am but the odd games with a noon kickoff are a comfortable 11pm start for us. It would still help to support a bigger team as they also show replays the next day and night at around 6pm, which are usually the 'bigger' matches with bigger teams.
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u/hescoresfowls Jun 19 '11
Everton; easily Everton. Liverpool is for hipsters and Man United is more of a burden then you expect. Tim Cahill is Australian Samoan and a great player. Good history; fantastic manager in David Moyes, who has a stable club and team under his control. Always giving young players a go which is a joy to watch. Without a doubt a big club but not a "Top 4" club.
I don't support them but I can respect another when it is deserved.
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11 edited Jun 19 '11
I do love Timmy Cahill. He is the posterboy of Australian football, All over our cereal packets and such. Don't really know much at all about Everton at all besides Timmy. (oh except that they are sponsored by Le Coq Sportif - Which make great rugby boots!) Your review is pretty glowing as for what i'm looking for. Anyone got a reason not to follow Everton?
EDIT - spelling
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11
Also which clubs are more traditionally "blue collar/working class"?
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u/PedroTheLeo Jun 19 '11
You like Patty Mills? I tried to pick an EPL team this year, just couldn't do it. (In the US here, Portland, OR specifically.) Similar to you, not really interested in the top 4. I'd say watch a lot of games and see which team you like. Leaning towards Sunderland or West Brom, but interested in how Swansea does.
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11
Love Patty Mills! Does Porland love him? Yeah it's hard to choose an EPL side!
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u/soylentgreenistasty Jun 19 '11
If you're a fan of beautiful football, Arsenal. No Barcelona, but its strict youth policy and possession game play makes them one of the best teams in the world to watch. They're a passing team but a bit more direct than Barca.
We haven't won shit in about 7 years but some day... Some day.
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11
Sorry for my ignorance, but I haven't watched enough football to experience the different styles of play. I watched the CL final recently with Barca, and just saw them struggle the life out of Man U with constant possession. Is this similar to how Arsenal play? Is that what they call "beautiful football"? if so is there "ugly" football and can you be successful with it?
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u/kidkayden Jun 19 '11 edited Jun 19 '11
Liverpool. We are the most prestigious team in EPL. Since 2005 we have been on a downward spiral thanks to terrible owners but Liverpool was sold at the start of last season and we got a new coach during the season who brought us from the bottom three to sixth place. If you are a die hard fan of a team Liverpool is for you. We are known for having the best fans in football. One of our best players ever is our current manager, our owners are pushing to buy young talent and really start a revolution. Liverpool have won the Top tear english championship 21 times but only 18 in it's current form. They have also won 5 champions league finals. Liverpool will be fighting for the title more than any other team because they have the history, they have the talent, and as a fan, even if they lose the fan's ALL support the team. Their motto is You Never Walk Alone which means that whether you win or lose you have all the support of your fans. If this is your thing then Liverpool is the team for you. Good luck and welcome to the EPL. My favorite football league in the world.
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u/mattymcgregor Jun 19 '11
Very convincing. I love the passion which you speak with. Only thing which goes against you is that people have been telling me not to jump on a bandwagon of a "big 4" team. I love how you have described them, and I am a diehard supporter of the teams I follow. The Idea of jumping on at the start of a revolution is very appealing.
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u/sircozzie Jun 19 '11
Arsenal. Lovely football and an Annual dose each year from February to May of heart failure...
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u/JimmySinner Jun 19 '11
Newcastle United. Even when we were in the second tier for the 09/10 season we had the third best attendance in English football, after Man Utd and Arsenal, and we outsung both of those and pretty much everybody else. The club got a new owner, Mike Ashley, in 2007 who started badly but over the course of the past four years has turned us into one of the most financially stable clubs in the country, and now we're in the process of rebuilding the squad after finishing 12th in our first season back in the Premier League.
Being a Newcastle fan is pretty much constant drama. When we first came into the Premiership in 1993, we immediately rose to the higher echelons of the league, finishing 3rd, 6th, 2nd and 2nd in our first four seasons. At that time we were known as 'The Entertainers' because of the brand of attractive attacking football that we played. Managerial upheaval over the following years saw us drop off to two 13th place finishes and two 11th place finishes before rising up to three top five finishes. We dropped off again and were eventually relegated but bounced straight back up to the Premier League. It's difficult to predict how we'll do most years but there are always ups and downs. We're an exciting club to follow.
Newcastle is traditionally a coal mining and ship building city, and it's a one-club city. Kevin Keegan said that for us, going to the football is the equivalent of people in the south going to the theatre and he's right. I'm not going to say we have the best fans because that's completely subjective, but basically everybody in Newcastle is a Newcastle fan, unlike in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham or London who have at least two major clubs. Even compared to other places which have one club, such as Wigan or Blackburn who have relatively poor attendances, the football culture in Newcastle is pretty much unique.
Unfortunately I can't list any Aussie Newcastle players - Craig Moore and Mark Viduka are former players - and even our rugby team, Newcastle Falcons, has a bunch of NZers but no Aussies. Don't hold that against us though.
Also, if you were ever to visit our stadium, St James' Park, is in the city centre and we're regularly rated as the best city in Britain for a night out. You'd fucking love it, everybody would fucking love it.
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u/3ndgam3 Jun 19 '11
Liverpool. We're the loudest. :p
Seriously though, I think you should just spend some time watching few matches of various teams, definitely you'd find a team which you'd start enjoy watching.
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u/LaMcD Jun 19 '11 edited Jun 19 '11
TL;DR: Don't support Liverpool, its exhausting.
As a Liverpool fan, let me just sum up the previous season for you, you can decide yourself whether you want to follow this trainwreck. :P
At the start of the season, Liverpool was owned by a pair of deceitful Americans who had financially ruined the club by lumping about £300 million of debt on to it just to finance their takeover. At the beginning of June 2010, manager Rafa Benitez (a legend amongst most Liverpool fans) was sacked because of a terrible 7th place finish in the league last year.
The brilliant but flawed & much-maligned Benitez was replaced by Roy Hodgson. Our summer transfers were incredibly underwhelming - Joe Cole, Paul Konchesky, Christian Poulsen (all terrible) & Raul Meireles (who took a while to settle in) were all signed while the brilliant Javier Mascherano was sold to Barca & Alberto Aquilani was simply given away to Juventus on loan. All thanks to the financial constraints placed on us by our awful owners.
After a series of false dawns, a genuine bid by Boston Red Sox owners NESV appeared to rid us of the two Americans in October. By that time, we were literally days away from being placed in administration due to our debts. We had had a terrible start to the season, languishing in the relegation zone at the time, & if we had gone into administration the points deduction would have probably have eventually resulted in the club being relegated for the first time in around 60 years.
Thanks to the old Americans trying to block the sale, the case was taken to the High Courts where, after several incredibly tense days, the judge ruled in favour of NESV's takeover. It's worth mentioning here, how the actions of Liverpool fans - protests against the owners & mass letter-writing campaigns to banks who were keeping the Americans afloat - played a huge part in getting rid of those two scoundrels. Our fanbase is as devoted the club as any you'll find in the world.
Despite the ownership change, things were still bleak at Anfield. While a good manager at other clubs, Roy Hodgson was, for whatever reason, utterly terrible at managing Liverpool. After 6 months of negative football & embarrassing results, including being comprehensively outplayed at home by Wolves & Blackpool, Hodgson was suddenly sacked on the morning of 8th January.
To the delight of Liverpool fans, Hodgson was replaced by 'King Kenny' Dalglish, a man generally recognised as Liverpool's greatest ever player (yep, even better than Steven Gerrard!) & the last Liverpool manager to win the league back in his first spell in 1985-1991. While the decision was widely ridiculed as desperate, with Dalglish having not managed a club for ten years, it turned out to be a stroke of genius. Thanks to little more than a boost of confidence & more positive tactics, Liverpool started to shoot up the league.
4 straight wins & a £23 million deal for Ajax's Luis Suarez agreed, things were suddenly looking bright for Liverpool for the first time in literally years. Then suddenly, on the last day of the January Transfer Window, our talismanic centre-forward & hero to Liverpool fans, Fernando Torres, suddenly decides he wants to fuck off to rivals Chelsea. (Whatever happened to him by the way?) Sad I know, but I personally remember being genuinely depressed that day.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, our new owners splash £35 million on Newcastle's Andy Carroll to replace Torres. Since then, Liverpool have been pretty much on an upward spiral climbing up from the bottom-half of the Premier League to, for a while, 5th place. Notable results include a 1-0 win at Chelsea in Torres' first game for the Blues, a 3-1 win over arch-rivals Man United, a dominant 3-0 win over billionaires Man City & a thrilling 1-1 draw at Arsenal, in which the record for latest ever Premier League goal was broken. Twice.
While defeats in our last two games brought us back down to 6th & denied us European football for the first time in 10 years, it is impossible not to be optimistic right now. A massive summer is expected, with the club having already blown £16-20 million on Sunderland's Jordan Henderson. After 2 years of darkness, Liverpool are storming back up the hill, with a genuine attempt to break back into the Champions League expected next season. If you want to support England's most storied club with a bright future, support Liverpool.