What do English fans value the most?

[Norcalvb]

I'm new to following the English football and I find the structure of the league and tournaments to be intriguing.

In the United States, if a team has a great regular season, then fails to perform well in the playoffs after the season, it is almost considered not worth having the success in the first place. I was wondering what it was that English fans valued, is it winning the league, the FA cup, or would be winning the Champions league be better than any of those?

[Wide Boy]

The vast majority of English teams fail to win anything at all. A huge majority of supporters have clubs that are failures on the basis of playing results.

I think that means that English fans mostly value being a part (even a peripheral one) of something (a club) that has some sort of social significance, even if just in local terms.

For some supporters there is even an element of pride (however perverse) in following a club that doesn't win things.

[As for Newcastle, I just wish we would damn well win something again soon.]

[Boro_lad]

check out the thread in the cups and competitions forum about ranking of the cups in importance, i woudl say domestic league comes first over anything else as it is your bread and butter, The cup competitions are great to win, however it is the league standings that keep a club going.

[Powdered Water]

If you're asking about the fans, the core fans generally follow the club because ... they just do, so any success is good. It can be a family thing or you might have caught the bug somehow. Most of them are happy to win anything really, cup or league or whatever, as someone else pointed out earlier most of us are going through tough times one way or another, so winning anything makes us proud. I think the FA cup is great, for me it has that special something, just passion thing, and I'm not alone in this - probably because technically speaking it involves 'every' club (to use that term broadly).

But then, there are also the fans outside that 'core' fanbase, who either follow a certain player and move from club to club, or glory seekers who just start supporting whichever one is looking strong. I have a mate who's following a certain player and he's happy so long as that player's playing... win or lose. So there we go. I suppose everyone has his own agenda.