what team should i support?

[CherryBomb]

You don't have to be Irish, Catholic, or even Scottish to follow the mighty Celts. Look at Notre Dame. A Catholic school that calls themselves the "fighting irish" and I know many people who follow them that are neither.

You didn't just compare Celtic's Irish ties vs. Notre Dame did you? I must be reading your post wrong.

[hasselbrad]

I think its that typical North American thing, rooting for the underdog, although personally I hate all the disney movies (Goal, Mighty Ducks) about sports where the underdogs win, cause in reality, it hardly ever happens.

The Bad News Bears lose to the Yankees.
My team is West Ham.
I like Fulham because of the Yanks and Craven Cottage. It reminds me of Fenway Park or Wrigley Field.
Oxford United are my "ancestral" team because my family tree's roots are in Oxfordshire.
When I make it to England, I plan on visiting Upton Park and The Kassam Stadium.

[luciusmagister]

You didn't just compare Celtic's Irish ties vs. Notre Dame did you? I must be reading your post wrong.
Yeah, you are reading it wrong.

[charlieblanko]

yo lou holtz was a bad ass though...the way he yelled and pulled players across the field by face mask was classic.
claaaasic.:)

i loved notre dame in those days.
The rocket was my boy.

[ToonUSA]

yo lou holtz was a bad ass though...the way he yelled and pulled players across the field by face mask was classic.
claaaasic.:)

i loved notre dame in those days.
The rocket was my boy.

What in the hell does that have to do with anything?

[charlieblanko]

What in the hell does that have to do with anything?

Earlier in the thread..someone compared liking the celtics to liking the fighting irish...i know it was off subject..and my response was late..but thats what i was reffering too.

[PKchoppa]

wt the hel is this bout celtic nd ireland stuf??????

[ToonUSA]

wt the hel is this bout celtic nd ireland stuf??????

Do you know who Celtic is?

If so, Wikipedia them. If not, Wikipedia them.

[hasselbrad]

wt the hel is this bout celtic nd ireland stuf??????

Do you know who Celtic is?

If so, Wikipedia them. If not, Wikipedia them.

And while you're at it, Wikipedia proper ********ing English. This isn't the ********ing fart-can muffler forum.

[musicl]

Have you chosen Spurs yet then?

[captdf]

ok, im new to this form and just wondering if anyone could give me a suggestion on what team to support in, i just started watching the EPL.

Getting back to what this thread is purportedly all about, Bill Simmons of ESPN's Page 2 had a great article a while back about choosing an EPL team to support. The complete article is here (http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060719), but you need an ESPN subscription, so for those of you who don't have one, here are the highlights.

Here were his criteria:


I kept six goals in mind throughout the screening process:


Goal No. 1: Avoid the whole "jumping on the bandwagon" thing. I didn't want to be like those losers in the mid-'70s who started rooting for the Cowboys or Steelers just because they were winning.


Goal No. 2: Avoid a team that's too tortured. Already went down that road with the Sox. Once was enough.


Goal No. 3: If possible, gravitate toward a city that could double as a potential vacation spot. (Translation: London.)


Goal No. 4: Put it this way: I'd rather have less hooligans in my life than more hooligans. I don't even like when my dogs get rowdy.


Goal No. 5: Pay careful attention to the list of celebrity fans attached to each team. For instance, one of the EPL teams (we'll reveal which later in the column) counts John Gotti and Osama bin Laden among its fans. I'm not a celebrity, but just in case somebody mistook me for one, that's not a list I'd want to be on.

Goal No. 6: Pick a team that's successful enough to crack Channel 613 from time to time and will avoid the ignominy of getting kicked out of the EPL. And by the way, that can happen. At the end of every season, the bottom three teams are relegated to the second division, with the top three teams from the second division getting called up. (Imagine if baseball did this?) You don't want to be stuck with a team that gets relegated. So that factored in more than anything else.


He then ranked them as follows:

6. Chelsea
5. Arsenal
4. Man City
3. Newcastle
2. Liverpool
1. Tottenham

More highlights in a minute...

[captdf]

More from the Simmons article:


1. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
• American Comparison: As one reader explains, "If the Dodgers had stayed in Brooklyn, they'd be the Spurs."

• Nickname: The Spurs. This is important: You either call then "Tottenham Hotspur" or you call them "the Spurs," but no other option is acceptable.

•In a Nutshell: If London was the Corleone family, Manchester United was Sonny and Arsenal was Michael, then the Spurs would be Fredo with a little more street smarts … the name "Hotspur" comes from the character Henry Hotspur in "Henry IV," so here's a team that really does have a Shakespearean legacy … blessed with a devout fan base in North London that routinely packs the other team's house during road games (a la Sox fans) … if they ever won the Premier League, it would be the American equivalent of the Jets winning the Super Bowl or the Indians winning the World Series.

• Bandwagon Potential: Invitingly low since they haven't finished in the top four since the Premier League launched back in 1993. Plus, as a reader explains, "Way back in the day, other English teams' fans would derisively jeer Tottenham fans, stereotyping them as Jews and calling them just about every anti-Semitic name you could call someone. So, the Hotspurs fans just turned the jeers around, proudly proclaiming themselves a 'Jew Army' and -- despite the fact that most weren't even Jewish -- embraced the imagery wholeheartedly. Just to spit in the face of the racist idiots who misidentified them in the first place." Seriously, how weird is English soccer?

• Celebrity Fans: Steve Nash, Salman Rushdie, Ray Liotta, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jude Law, the late Bob Marley, Donal Logue, Shania Twain, Baby Spice … and the head of ESPN, John Skipper. On the Sucking Up Scale, picking the Spurs would be a solid 10 out of 10.

• Colors/Jerseys: Traditional white shirts with blue pants, blue jerseys on the road. Does the job.

• Signature Players: Irish striker Robbie Keane (known for his crazy celebrations after goals), 20-year-old wing Aaron Lennon (considered the odds-on favorite to take Beckham's spot on the 2010 World Cup team), midfielder Edgar Davids (a black Dutchman with dreads and tinted goggles). In particular, Lennon looks like a potential Dwyane Wade-type down the road. So that's appealing.

• Unintentional Comedy: They have a Kafka-reading, gigantic Dutchman of a coach named Martin Jol who (A) has brothers named "Cock" and "Dick" (I'm not making this up), and (B) apparently talks just like Goldmember (in the third Austin Powers movie). Now there's someone who needs to be in my life.

• Sponsors: A gambling Web site called Mansion. Good times! This pick is almost becoming a foregone conclusion, right?

• Stadium: A 105-year-old stadium (White Hart Lane) that holds only 36,000 seats … the same number as Fenway Park. Hmmmmmm.

• Vacation Destination: They're based in London, so absolutely.

• Most Hated Rival: Arsenal. And "hated" isn't a strong enough word. As a couple of the readers explained, "[This] dates back to 1919 when Arsenal was promoted to the top division ahead of Spurs under the shadiest of circumstances. So they have an 87-year rivalry made worse by the fact that their stadiums are only a few miles apart. The equivalent of having Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium at opposite ends of Charlestown. Surpasses Yankees/Sox, Leafs/Habs, etc. There has been blood spilled between fans, not to mention the hatred started because of a corrupt Arsenal president. Add to that the fact that last season Spurs finished underneath Arsenal by two points because of a case of violent stomach flu, conspiracy theorists claiming that Arsenal fans poisoned the team's food at a hotel party prior to the final game of the season. Not even Aaron Spelling could come up with that plot line. It would have been the first time in years that they had finished above their North London rivals. What's not to love?"

(By the way, the food poisoning story DID happen -- it was the biggest EPL subplot of last year. Can you imagine if the Mavs had lost Game 7 in San Antonio because most of the team came down with food poisoning from their hotel food the night before the game? Cuban would still be blogging about it two months later. I'm telling you, crazy, crazy, CRAZY stuff happens in the EPL.)

(Bonus reason to pick them: They finished fifth last season and are considered the proverbial "Team on the Rise," but they haven't actually done anything yet and perhaps never will. Now that's tempting.)

• Single Best Reason NOT to Pick Them: One reader writers, "If you want a team that will absolutely crush your spirit, you must support Tottenham Hotspur for the '06-'07 EPL season."

You know what? Screw it. Since I started writing for ESPN.com in 2001, the Pats won three Super Bowls, the Celts made the conference finals, the Sox won the World Series, and I even bought season tickets for the Clippers and watched them win a playoff series for the first time in 30 years. Maybe I can help the Spurs in the Karma Department. Besides, they're named after a Shakespeare character! How can you beat that?

With apologies to the great fans in Liverpool, I'm going with Tottenham Hotspur. Let's hope they can keep that "new car smell" to them for the entire EPL season.

[captdf]

As for me, I'm an American and disagree with Simmons.

I support Chelsea based on my first trip to London in 1998. Prior to my trip, the only EPL teams that I had any knowledge of were Arsenal, ManU, and Liverpool and I definitely wanted to see an Arsenal match. Unfortunately, Arsenal's match was sold out, but someone told me about Chelsea, so I got tickets and got to see them face off against Coventry. To most, this might've been a crap match, but to me it was one of the most exciting things I'd ever been to. Chelsea won 3-0 (if I remember correctly) with 2 goals from Mark Nichols, and a brilliant goal on a pass that was dummied through Mark Hughes and banged in by Roberto DiMatteo. That day I decided that there real was "only one DiMatteo" and decided that Chelsea were my team, and there's been no looking back since.

I've been fortunate that Chelsea have done so well in recent years, but even if they flounder, I'd be happy to support them and to wake up early to watch them on Fox Soccer Channel.

[Kytana]

Like most people have already said just watch a couple of ELP matches. Or....do you have family in England? Just support whatever team they do..lol

That's what ended up happening to me, most of my family live in Slough and Islington, London and are all mad Gooners. So I started watching Arsenal young and have just stuck with them. In all seriousness though, you need to watch a few matches before you can decide.

[afowler2988]

This seems like a thread that would be very heated. Correct me if Im wrong but I did not feel like reading every page. Most Americans are in this boat. Its a vicious cycle. We like soccer but we dont look within our country for a team to support, and I admit Im the same way.

The MLS doesnt even get a giant fanbase from Americans so its a bad cycle of pretty much soccer not getting very far in this country which allows these ESPN assholes to downgrade the sport and assume no Americans like it. It's bullshit.

Anyways Im a Liverpool supporter. Could I give you decent reasons why? No. But hey its fun to follow a team and players and all the news around it. Gotta love the passion of the EPL.

[Bluebirds Boyo]

Goal No. 6: Pick a team that's successful enough to crack Channel 613 from time to time and will avoid the ignominy of getting kicked out of the EPL. And by the way, that can happen. At the end of every season, the bottom three teams are relegated to the second division, with the top three teams from the second division getting called up. (Imagine if baseball did this?) You don't want to be stuck with a team that gets relegated. So that factored in more than anything else.I have no idea who 'Bill Simmons' is, but he sounds like a complete twat.

[ToonUSA]

I have no idea who 'Bill Simmons' is, but he sounds like a complete twat.

He picked Spurs does that tell you anything?

[charlieblanko]

Like most people have already said just watch a couple of ELP matches. Or....do you have family in England? Just support whatever team they do..lol

That's what ended up happening to me, most of my family live in Slough and Islington, London and are all mad Gooners. So I started watching Arsenal young and have just stuck with them. In all seriousness though, you need to watch a few matches before you can decide.


Thats what i did...got foxsoccer channel..after watching enough games..i picked arsenal(the world cup helped Henry is a beast on the pitch).
But its weird..i have about 3 epl teams...i like arsenal,united...and the spurs...is "Beasley" on the spurs(i support the teams i call "black")?

[NebraskaAddick]

I never caught the answer to what team do Gotti and bin Laden support?

Anyways, I like Charlton Athletic because they have a good plan, even if temporarily derailed. Twenty years ago they didn't have a stadium, and when they returned it could only hold 8,000 fans, and now they have a 27,000-seater, and are looking to expand to 40,000+, which will make it bigger than Tottenham's. And if the Greenwich Council doesn't approve their development plans, a new stadium is not out of the picture. They have ambitions. And--they have a corner on a fan base from southeast London all the way to the sea, so they can pull support from all these communities, with Gillingham being the only club in their way--but they're not much of a threat for promotion to the EPL. Plus, Charlton have the City Learning Centre and do all these community charity things, further endearing themselves to fans, in the effort to win them back. Plus they have overseas academies in South Africa and China. Eventually they'll start bearing fruit. In the 1930s and 40s they were one of the most popular clubs in England, and I think they can return to a similar stature if they keep to their current long-range growth plan.

[ToonUSA]

I never caught the answer to what team do Gotti and bin Laden support?

Anyways, I like Charlton Athletic because they have a good plan, even if temporarily derailed. Twenty years ago they didn't have a stadium, and when they returned it could only hold 8,000 fans, and now they have a 27,000-seater, and are looking to expand to 40,000+, which will make it bigger than Tottenham's. And if the Greenwich Council doesn't approve their development plans, a new stadium is not out of the picture. They have ambitions. And--they have a corner on a fan base from southeast London all the way to the sea, so they can pull support from all these communities, with Gillingham being the only club in their way--but they're not much of a threat for promotion to the EPL. Plus, Charlton have the City Learning Centre and do all these community charity things, further endearing themselves to fans, in the effort to win them back. Plus they have overseas academies in South Africa and China. Eventually they'll start bearing fruit. In the 1930s and 40s they were one of the most popular clubs in England, and I think they can return to a similar stature if they keep to their current long-range growth plan.

They support Arsenal.