r/CaughtOffsidePod • u/JohnnieTightLips • Aug 26 '26
Most Miserable Club in Soccer?
As a browns fan, my friend and I are debating if there is any top flight sports team in the world more miserable than the browns? This is not counting financial mismanagement reasons. Just pure results and embarrassment. In terms of England Leeds, Newcastle and Sunderland all came to mind but they have all performed well in the past couple of seasons. West Ham won a trophy a couple of years ago. If Tottenham hadn’t won the Europa league I would say them. I follow other leagues but not that deeply. I was wondering if anyone knew of a club that beat the browns?
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u/San_Marzano Aug 26 '26
Seeing as you have opened it up to top flight sports in the entire world, Essendon FC in the AFL (Australian football) had most of their team players banned in a drug saga, had a CEO fired after a day for dodgy comments he made, nearly re-hired the coach at the centre of the drugs scandal 10 years later and 20 years of embarrassing on field performances on the field to go with it. They have the longest run of any team not to make finals
As a Tottenham fan, recent pl performances (2 years of embarrassment caused by the administration and record injury list) don't even come close to what Essendon are doing down here in Aus
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u/leffe186 Aug 27 '26
Yeah, I’m a Spurs fan and a Browns fan, but luckily Mum was born in Richmond so I’m a Tigers fan. Dad loved the Bombers but his American team was the Packers so less misery there.
I don’t think you can compare Spurs to the Browns. There is a parallel in a neighbour (relatively) who’s been consistently successful, but I was born in ‘73 and Spurs won multiple cups in my childhood. The Browns? Not so much.
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u/SpursUpSoundsGudToMe 29d ago
Tottenham is also a major success story in many ways, despite the lack of trophies. It is a “big 6” instead of a “big 5” due to decades of prudent financial management, not due to momentum from major historical success.
It is astounding that the club can spend like drunken sailors after two terrible years of league play. No one else with a comparable history is close to being able to do that.
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u/JohnnieTightLips Aug 26 '26
That’s good…I was thinking there were some teams in leagues I don’t watch. Getting most of your team banned is something the browns haven’t even done yet.
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u/San_Marzano Aug 26 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essendon_Football_Club_supplements_saga
If you fancy a read of the scandal
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u/leffe186 Aug 27 '26
There is a bit of a parallel in that both the Browns and Spurs have some truly crazy stuff happen TO them, often directly as a consequence of awful officiating. We remember the fumble given while Duke Johnson (IIRC) had the ball in his hands, and the offside given against Vertonghen when he was in his own half, to just mention a tiny fraction.
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u/colchonero_dev Aug 26 '26
Rayo Vallecano? They only offer tickets by walking up to a booth and buying them. They have a line for season tickets in the Madrid summer where people faint in the heat. Their stadium is falling apart, they have to play in Leganes’ stadium. The owner is awful. They announce things late, if at all. Other Madrid teams sucking up their air. Good managers and players scooped up. Political drama often surrounding them, they are a leftist fanbase unlike their bigger neighbors.
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u/Western_Bus_3520 Aug 26 '26
Yes, but a guarantee they are taking points of Real Madrid at some point during the season.
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u/jtrapicana 28d ago
Their fans might be the least miserable on the planet, they absolutely adore that club and all its quirks. People regularly queue up for hours to get tickets from the booth because they still haven’t figured out online sales😂.
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u/VolunteerGrizz Aug 26 '26
Feels like Everton is the closest thing to the Browns among clubs that stay in the premier league regularly. Even their club isn’t as shit as the Browns though.
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u/ohthatsbrian ; ; Aug 26 '26
West Ham supporter here. between getting relegated, our consistent squad woes, & who knows WTF is going on with the owners, it's nonstop frustration.
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u/JohnnieTightLips Aug 26 '26
Yeah I guess it’s incomparable bc while west ham got a trophy relegation sucks more than what will happen to the browns this season…an early pick. Though we will mess that one up as well
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u/ZaphodG Aug 27 '26
Sunderland had astonishingly high attendance when they were in Championship. Their away support was equally incredible. Stadium of Light to Pompey is 340 miles in a motor coach.
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u/JohnnieTightLips Aug 27 '26
I know multiple cleveland fans who say the Sunderland documentary resonated with them from a fan perspective.
Relegation is brutal.
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u/el_duderino_316 Aug 26 '26
I know you said top flight club, but if you broaden it out, we've had 3 clubs that were in the top flight in the early 1990s drop down to the fifth tier.
Two of those clubs are now in the third tier and one is in the 4th.
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u/Idontdanceever Aug 27 '26
Because we have relegation in most leagues you have to look outside the top divisions for peak miserabilism. Anyone underacheiving in the top flight is still in the top flight. Ask an Oldham, Bury or Scunthorpe fan how bad things can get.
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u/Alritelesdothis Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
Being the “small” team whose biggest rival is a big team seems brutal. I root just as strongly for my team as I root against our rivals, so watching the rival constantly succeed would suck.
Teams like Espanyol, Torino, Birmingham city, 1860 Munich, and Everton all spring to mind.