I had a conversation with a colleague of mine, born and raised in Southern California, who is a HUGE American football fan. Despite there being two teams in LA when he was a kid - the Raiders and the Rams - he arbitrarily chose to support the Minnesota Vikings, purely because he liked purple and yellow! I hear this story regularly, usually from American football fans, who choose teams based on colours or the name, and it has nothing to do with local pride or community or the team from your home town running through your blood... it always strikes me as odd. However, when chosing a foreign team to follow, you obviously can't have that kind of heritage apply to you, so the best way to do it is (as has been said) find some kind of link to a part of England - ancestors, family and friend connections, or so on. I've been a Sheffield Wednesday fan since I was six years old, I was born and raised in the city, and even though I live in California now, I remain blue and white through and through. They are a team with a wonderful history, league champions and FA Cup winners multiple times, although they haven't won a MAJOR trophy for many many years, they were among England's best until the mid-1990s. Then, through a combination of financial mismanagement, bad luck, and over-paid under-performing players, they had a fall from grace to the third tier. Fighting their way back now, trying to reclaim their former glories! Other Nationwide teams I have a soft spot for (through family/friends connections, and my own personal preferences) - Walsall, Ipswich Town and Rochdale. From further down the pyramid, I also always look for the results from Accrington Stanley, Whitby Town, Hallam and Sheffield FC!
Carlisle owns sheffield wednesday cumbria forever, carlisle will make it to the prmier ship and beyond in the next few years...eat that sheffield....
Huh? How do you get beyond the Premiership? You can't get promoted any higher! Plus, you'll need to add about 5,000 seats to Brunton Park to make it Premiership-standard. What's with all the hostility anyway?
I can describe how I picked a club, perhaps a similar thing might work for you... couple of years ago when the American season ended, I decided to pick a team in England...I looked for family connection...a place my family had lived at one point. The other choice would have been a side who's chairman had been my parents landlord back in the late sixties and early seventies...
Derby county 20,000 crowds plus every game. As a DCFC fan you also get to hate the tree huggers on the other side of the trent!
Try supporting/following Plymouth Argyle after all it was from Plymouth, England where The Mayflower set sail for the US and colonised the Eastern Board of New England. Family connection possibly if any ancestors go back that far. We are the only team to have the name Argyle and uniquely play with all green shirts.
Got to agree with pilgrimmark. Lets face it in 5 years we've climbed 59 places through the leagues spending little money, making profits all the way and increasing our average home gates by 10000 in that time (though this season was too low for my liking). Come and join us on our bandwagon http://.pafc.premiumtv.co.uk
I usually make a post once a year in this thread telling people to support Coventry City(I missed last years though). So here's my post for 2006.
As an American, who obviously doesn't live near any English clubs or was raised as a club supporter, I tend to follow and support English clubs with Americans playing for them. However, this is getting increasingly more difficult. Which Championship club do you support as a Yank: Reading, Leeds, or Watford? In the Premiership: ManU, Fulham, Citeh, Everton, Rovers? For me it comes down to clubs who seem to support US players. I may be wrong, but in my opinion, Fulham & Reading are good examples of clubs that are supporters of American footballers.
Then pick Sheffield Wednesday! We had one of the first US nationals to play in the old English D1 (John Harkes), had the first US player ever to play in an English cup final at Wembley (Harkes again), and currently have an exciting young American defender (Frankie Simek). Come on, be an Owl - you know it makes sense
I've got a friend from Sheffield and he's a Arsenal supporter, so Sheffield can't be much to get excited about (kidding of course). John Harkes does commentary on TV for MLS now and I've heard a bit about Simek. He scored his first professional goal this season I believe. I hope he's doing us "Yanks" proud!
Stoke City! A new Chairman with lots of dosh; a top manager just re-signed today. The future's bright; the future's red & white. Stoke on the up!