can anyone tell me what do albion, wanders, rovers, mean? ive noteced many teams use them as there name
They're just names like LA Galaxy, Chicago Bulls and Miami Dolphins, mostly. Some of them relate to how the team was set up, or by who or under what circumstances. These clubs are old though and so their names are not as up to date as todays sides. Albion, incase you're wondering, was an term used a long time ago as an alternative word for England. It's seldom used these days. It's Great Britain these days, apparently.........
...and no, "United" doesn't mean clubs merged to form a bigger club. The original United were the United Cricket Club from Sheffield, a Select XI of the best cricket players from the various cricket clubs in the city (which carried on as separate clubs). They formed Sheffield United FC, and Newton Heath FC from Manchester copied the name when "rebranding" the club as Manchester United, to sound more professional. Further clubs copied the name as well.
Slight divergence. Are the Arse the only team that does not include there location in their name? or are they officially something like London Arsenal?
...when the name referred to the munitions factory in Woolwich where most of the early players hailed from. Originally the club was called Dial Square, which was the name of the factory. Elsewhere, Port Vale are named after the pub in which they formed, which was in turn named after a canal port in Stoke, but the Port Vale name no longer exists on maps, and the club play in a different part of the city. Chelsea don't play in Chelsea, and have no actual link to Chelsea at all. They just took the name of the nearby upmarket district to sound a little grander. Millwall dont play in Millwall, which is a new(ish) financial district of London, on the other side of the river, although they were originally from Millwall until moving a couple of miles across the river. Crystal Palace were a team who played at the stadium next to the giant Victorian glass exhibition hall until being kicked out during WWI, and moving several miles south. Queens Park Rangers don't play in Queens Park. Many of the original players came from the area though, and as they played at 20 "home" grounds in their first 25 years, they may well have played in Queen Park at one point.
Since we're on this topic... What was the deal a few years back with Wimbeldon changing their name to Milton Keys Dons (sp?) or something like that. Sponsorship change? were they bought out?
To expand a little on Wimbledon, they were sharing a ground with Crystal Palace, were getting low attendances so losing money and the owners decided to move to make more money. Milton Keynes had no football team at the time despite beinga large town and despite relocating from cities being against the rules, they recieved permission to leave so changed their name to reflect the new location and the clubs nickname. I still don't like that decision. Some Wimbledon fans founded their own club, AFC Wimbledon, who have risen up the leagues and are only two divisions below league 2.
That's not entirely true - MK certainly did have their own football team in MK City, but it was very badly supported, and went bankrupt. Winkleman had already tried to move various teams to MK before, I think Luton were definitely mentioned as well as one of the other London clubs? The reason MK didn't have a team at any decent level though is that it's a new town. They're an abomination, the fact that they exist at all is disgusting, and the fact that they still call themselves "Dons" is just ridiculous. I had to correct two of their "fans" when we played them last season. You're certainly not the dons. Which brings me to this video: [youtube]4dwFL_qB-VY[/youtube] They were originally called Burslem Port Vale, but dropped the Burslem for some reason. Also, Leyton Orient used to be just Orient, then Leyton Orient, then Clapton Orient, then Leyton Orient again. There's plenty in non-league too, including Marine in Liverpool, and Fisher Athletic, who've been forced to add (London) to their name, although Rotherhithe would probably have been a better option.
It's not even though the fact that Milton Keynes is a new town which has prevented them for having a side at a high level. Both Stevenage and Telford have had far more success on the pitch, in the former case only failing to make the League on ground grading requirements. Non-League sides in and around MK have been notably poorly supported though, several of them have gone bankrupt in the past.