I'm sure alot of people hadn't heard of Rooney and Ronaldo before they came to United. lol are you serious? Yes United used to have Scholes, the Nevilles, Nicky Butt, Giggs, homegrown players. But now all of their top 'homegrown players', Macheda, Rafael, Possebon, aren't even English and its a joke if you call them home grown. Same with Arsenal! Who's the last player to come out of their academy who is actually from North London?? It's a joke to say that United have such a great academy, because they really don't, they just buy and tap up expensive foreign talent while their really young. That's what arsenal do to, Fabregas isn't a product of the Arsenal academy. Van Persie isn't. Nasri isn't. Walcott isn't. If that's how a proper academy should look to you, tapping up expensive foreign talent, Chelsea has Stoch and Di Santo in theirs, who are strong players also I was joking you damn americans about only support chelsea for their money jesus christ stop taking everything you read so seriously get a sense of humor.
You bash Man Utd and Arsenal for "tapping up expensive foreign talent" then name two foreign players in the Chelsea academy who despite being too old for the academy were signed from foreign clubs Kieran Gibbs was born in North London and Jack Wilshere was born just outside London, both are English and have real potential to be future England players.
no im saying Manchester United's and Arsenals supposedly great academies do exactly what Chelsea's does yet Chelsea's academy is getting bashed. Manchester United you can't fault them because all the best players from Manchester play in City and are city supporters, seeing how no one from manchester actually supports United. Wilshere will not get an England call up. Ever. Keiran Gibbs might just because left back is so hard to fill and he is a good player. However you bring up that, Chelsea's supposed 'bullshit' academy has also produced the future England starting centerback Michael Mancienne, not to mention Carlton Cole. Get out of here with this Chelsea bashing. These three clubs academies are run exactly the same.
Oh great future seer, please tell me this weekends lottery numbers! Man Utd and Arsenal are seen as having good academies because they are their current squads have the products of them. Chelsea on the other hand have exactly diddly squat apart from Terry.
At least Manchester United have some sort of history. Chelsea's history revolves around greyhound racing. I hate both, though. Go retro and support Nottingham Forest. They'll be back up soon enough.
why do you even care about a clubs history, you're from Wisconsin, not to mention you 'support' Fulham, probably only due to Dempsey and McBride, and Fulham has hardly a history either. Arsenal has no products from its academy in the first team. They just have a bunch of french and african kids they tapped up from foreign academies. Do you honestly consider Robin Van Persie, Bentner, Nasri and Fabregas products of the Arsenal academy? United is the same. Old Giggsy for example they tapped him up from City when he was a school boy. Chelsea produced Carlton Cole, John Terry, Michael Mancienne to name a few of the current great players. Who has United's academy produced recently, Johnathan Greening and Chris Eagles, plus Keiran Richardson, did you see his great game this weekend? Lol all of the best players from the United 'academies' they just tap up from other teams ill say it again. You want genuine football academies in the premier league, rather then the big teams that buy expensive 16 year olds from foreign clubs and call them academy products, the best probably belong to Everton and Manchester City.
What meant to say was United buy players who haven't come to fame yet, not their own academy players. You do have me about Rooney, he was just rising to fame when United bought him. Chelsea usually just buys players after they have a good season, but they have gotten guys who are unkown
What are you talking about United bought Rooney just when he was coming up? He was hyped to hell since he was 16 years old, did you honestly forget that goal against Arsenal, and that season for Everton where he basically was the entire team?? You are pretending that United uncovered diamonds in the rough in Rooney and Ronaldo, in truth they were gauranteed sure things alot of clubs wanted but United signed because they had the most money. Yes you are right, Chelsea goes mostly for proven players, why is that a bad thing? It backfires sometimes, but then it backfires much more often for United, remember Liam Miller? Eric Djemba Djemba? Quinton Fortune? Nani????????????
-.- Getting slightly back on topic, I chose my team because my GF is in Hull going to the university there. They may or may not make it into next season's premier league, but I'll still support them. Unless you have a relative there, or a relationship to a person there, I don't think it really matters.
bloody bandwagoner! Loads of American fans who jumped on the Hull bandwagon beginning of the year lol.
LOL, but I'll be the only one left in a few years. Would you prefer that I supported Chelsea or Liverpool?
I also live in Wisconsin. I would love to hear from Blue Day why living in the middle of America means I shouldn't care about a clubs history. Sounds like ignorance and biggotry to me. Little mans complex. You must be English. Sorry, but the empire ended long ago. Giggs was a 12 year old who played with City's youth academy because his coach as an under 11 was a scout with City. At 13 Fergie offered him school boy forms. City declined to do the same, much to Giggs happiness. He was raised properly with United. John Terry was a Chelsea product yet Giggs isn't a United product? Funny, maybe you should tell John Terry that the booing he hears from WHU fans is because he is a tool and has nothing to do with playing with WHU as a kid. Though the truth (he is a tool) if Giggs doesn't count as a United product, then JT doesn't count as a Chelsea product. Which leaves Chelsea with who exactly? United has Giggs (more medals than any EPL player ever), Scholes, Gary Neville (Captain of United), Phil Neville (Everton Captain), Beckham (Life long United fan, but I guess brought in as a kid he doesn't count either. He needed to be brought in out of the womb.), Nicky Butt (servicable player, but a brilliant career next to Carlton Cole), and that was just one generation. Campbell, Welbeck, Chester, Evans, etc may be the new generation. Time will tell. United buys but also grows the youth, constantly blooding the kids. Equating Chelsea and United is insanity to me. To the original point of the post, what team to support... Don't let anyone tell you what team to support. Don't support any club. Watch the matches. Watch Manchester United. Watch Aston Villa. Watch Everton. Watch Arsenal. Watch Leeds. Watch Derby. Watch Nottingham Forest. Watch Inter Milan. Watch Palermo. Watch Vissel Kobe. Watch Valencia. Watch Celtic. Don't pick a team, wait for a team to pick you. What club is run the way you like? What club plays a style of football you like? What club has players you love? What future does a club have? If you follow United for Ronaldo or Fergie, what will you do when they are no longer there? If you follow Arsenal for Cesc or Wenger, what will you do when they are no longer there? You don't pick a club to support, they pick you. If you pick one, you are stuck with it for life, no matter how many medals come to them, or how many years they tumble through the leagues in relegation hell. Don't pick. Let it be more organic, or it will be a wrong choice and probably won't be a life long obsession.
This has been repeated time and again on both versions of this thread, and thats because its the truth. I will admit that Henry had something to do with me initially following Arsenal, but I didn't really look to deep into it until after a comeback against Wigan, and then one against Man U, got me so excited that I knew there was no way I could follow anyone else. Then when Thierry left a season later I didn't even think of leaving the Gunners. Just let it happen, something will lead you to your team, there's no reason to frustratingly search it out.
Carlton Cole's great? Who knew! West Ham's academy is good, as well as Everton, and ManU to name a few. Oh, and I love all the ManU, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea fans telling people to let a club pick them and don't let players decide what club to support!! Ohhhhhhh hamburgers, you guys crack me up with your reasons.
Yea, I'm not gunna take sh*t from a guy who supports Seattle while being from Omaha. Hint: we're only 2 hours away, thus we are your "local" team, so don't even pretend that you're some beacon of true-fanship just because you chose Watford so that you could act like you're better than those of us that actually get to watch our teams.
Hull fans from Michigan, Watford fans from Nebraska, Fulham fans from Wisconsin what is this world coming to. If you are going to support and jump on a foreign teams bandwagon atleast choose a good one!
You're a complete tit you know, jumping on the bandwagon is to support a team that is successful. Choosing to support Hull or Watford means that they have done no such thing but decided to support those teams for whichever reason they feel like. I see no reason why an insufferable ******** like you has any reason to judge them.
all the same, I am still judging them nonetheless as bandwagoners and not true supporters-how can you call yourself a supporter if you havent even been to the stadium, know nothing of the teams history, have no ties to the region and can hardly even watch them on TV, only read scores the day after
There are an awful lot of assumptions in there. You should have stopped at your first point, about not visiting the stadium, and even that is an assumption. There's no way you can know any of the other things you mentioned. Also, there are these things called satellites that orbit the Earth. And they beam these wonderful waves of electromagnetic radiation that were sent from England back to the Earth anywhere around the world and we can watch the same damn games that you do. If that doesn't work for you, then there's also video available over the Internet, you know that worldwide network of computers that you're accessing right now.
Well, I hope you have season tickets then and go to every game. Because otherwise, by your own viewpoint, you're not a true supporter. Why are you even in this thread then? To harass people that you don't believe are real supporters? Obviously, from the way you see things there is no other purpose for you to post here.