I know about Arsenal Gooners...
December 1, 2009 11:27 AM Subscribe
What are the reputations of the supporters of the different Premier League Clubs? Whats the stereotype of a Chelsea supporter? An Arsenal supporter? Aston Villa? Liverpool?
This is just part of my ongoing education as an American ex-pat in Britain. Thanks.
This is just part of my ongoing education as an American ex-pat in Britain. Thanks.
Best answer: Bill Simmons wrote this article in 2006 for ESPN.com when he was deciding on which EPL team to support. Not sure how much holds up, but I remember it being quite amusing, with his readers emailing him to both inform him and sway his decisions.
Make sure you read page 2 and there's also a box with links to some of his readers emails.
posted by buzzkillington at 12:15 PM on December 1, 2009 [3 favorites]
Make sure you read page 2 and there's also a box with links to some of his readers emails.
posted by buzzkillington at 12:15 PM on December 1, 2009 [3 favorites]
Apparently, Tottenham Hotspur has or had a large Jewish following (warning - slur).
posted by exogenous at 12:39 PM on December 1, 2009
posted by exogenous at 12:39 PM on December 1, 2009
I think you'll find a big difference between the people that actually go to the matches regularly (in particular including away games) and those that watch on TV and would say that they support a certain team.
If you support a sucessfull team, but you're not from the area, you'll almost certainly be accused of being a "glory hunter" and if you don't go sometimes to the home matches even more so. Most commonly nowadays used against Manchester United fans.
But I'll mention one stereotype that is I think is mainly accurate:
West Ham fans are generally relatively content if their team is playing attacking football, even if they don't actually end up winning many trophies.
West Ham fans also have/had a reputation for violence (eg. Bill Gardner), but there's much less violence at football matches these days for various reasons.
About the Tottenham "yids" thing, I think that's also related to the owners of the team as much as the supporters. I think the owners have been almost exclusively Jewish: famously Alan Sugar.
posted by selton at 12:54 PM on December 1, 2009
If you support a sucessfull team, but you're not from the area, you'll almost certainly be accused of being a "glory hunter" and if you don't go sometimes to the home matches even more so. Most commonly nowadays used against Manchester United fans.
But I'll mention one stereotype that is I think is mainly accurate:
West Ham fans are generally relatively content if their team is playing attacking football, even if they don't actually end up winning many trophies.
West Ham fans also have/had a reputation for violence (eg. Bill Gardner), but there's much less violence at football matches these days for various reasons.
About the Tottenham "yids" thing, I think that's also related to the owners of the team as much as the supporters. I think the owners have been almost exclusively Jewish: famously Alan Sugar.
posted by selton at 12:54 PM on December 1, 2009
For a long time Chelsea supporters had a reputation as being a bunch of thugs, psychos, and Combat 18 neo-nazi types (this was after their heyday in the 60s when for a time it was popular among the King's Road set to be seen at Stamford Bridge).
This was until a jumped up Russian mobster turned up with briefcases full of oil money and suddenly Billy Neck-Tattoo found the atmosphere to be a lot less welcoming.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:12 PM on December 1, 2009
This was until a jumped up Russian mobster turned up with briefcases full of oil money and suddenly Billy Neck-Tattoo found the atmosphere to be a lot less welcoming.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:12 PM on December 1, 2009
Arsenal fans are disproportionally likely to be posh, but pretend they aren't posh, as a sort of reverse snobbism.
posted by Rumple at 1:17 PM on December 1, 2009
posted by Rumple at 1:17 PM on December 1, 2009
Liverpool fans (also known as Scousers or Scouse) are perceived by Manchester United fans as being jobless and living in slums. This is reflected in the songs they sing.
For example, during tonight's match against Tottenham, the Man Utd fans were singing (to the tune of "Do They Know It's Christmas") "Feed the Scousers, let them know it's Christmas time". (It matters not that they weren't playing Liverpool, because this song has to be sung at every match between now and New Year, just to rub it in.)
When Man Utd's Korean player, J S Park, did something well, the fans sang (to the tune of "Lord of the Dance") "Park, Park, wherever you may be, you eat dogs in your home country. But it could be worse, you could be a Scouse, eating rats in your council house."
Chelsea fans are seen as glory hunters, only jumping on the bandwagon when the club became successful and glamorous again with an influx of Continental players in the late 1990s.
West Ham fans are seen as yobs. Millwall fans are the Death Squad of fans. QPR and Crystal Palace fans are considered to be masochists. Chelsea fans consider Fulham fans to be the poor relations from over the river.
Tottenham are known to be the 'Jewish' team of London, with their players regularly being taunted by opposing fans with the chant of "Yiddo, Yiddo" (yes, even including a Moroccan named Nayim who used to play for Spurs).
Arsenal is meant to be the team supported by 'intellectuals'. Yeah, I know. I don't get it either.
I, of course, having been born in Australia, brought up in the Midlands and living in Essex for the last 30-odd years could be nothing other than a Manchester United fan.
posted by essexjan at 4:10 PM on December 1, 2009
For example, during tonight's match against Tottenham, the Man Utd fans were singing (to the tune of "Do They Know It's Christmas") "Feed the Scousers, let them know it's Christmas time". (It matters not that they weren't playing Liverpool, because this song has to be sung at every match between now and New Year, just to rub it in.)
When Man Utd's Korean player, J S Park, did something well, the fans sang (to the tune of "Lord of the Dance") "Park, Park, wherever you may be, you eat dogs in your home country. But it could be worse, you could be a Scouse, eating rats in your council house."
Chelsea fans are seen as glory hunters, only jumping on the bandwagon when the club became successful and glamorous again with an influx of Continental players in the late 1990s.
West Ham fans are seen as yobs. Millwall fans are the Death Squad of fans. QPR and Crystal Palace fans are considered to be masochists. Chelsea fans consider Fulham fans to be the poor relations from over the river.
Tottenham are known to be the 'Jewish' team of London, with their players regularly being taunted by opposing fans with the chant of "Yiddo, Yiddo" (yes, even including a Moroccan named Nayim who used to play for Spurs).
Arsenal is meant to be the team supported by 'intellectuals'. Yeah, I know. I don't get it either.
I, of course, having been born in Australia, brought up in the Midlands and living in Essex for the last 30-odd years could be nothing other than a Manchester United fan.
posted by essexjan at 4:10 PM on December 1, 2009
Man U's rep for having fans who live nowhere near the place because they were winning a lot? That was previously true of Liverpool for about fourteen straight years up to the mid-to-late 80s (almost every kid in my Essex primary school in 1979 had a Liverpool bag), and I've met plenty of incongruously-distant Wolves fans in their fifties for the same reason.
posted by genghis at 8:25 PM on December 1, 2009
posted by genghis at 8:25 PM on December 1, 2009
Slow day at work so...
I think the difference between 'diaspora' Man United fans and Liverpool fans is that United are already suspect due to not actually being from proper Manchester, as City are, but instead the suburb Trafford; All 'real' Mancs support Citeh, according to the Gallaghers among others. In other words almost all of Man Utds support are glory hunters, instead of just half of Liverpool's. FWIW United have had a very strong non-local support (the Cockney Reds for example) as long as I can remember, even during very lean 1970s and 1980s, but this may be to do with them winning the European Cup in 1968. United fans also have a rep for not caring much about the England team, but I think to some extent this is true of all fans of successful clubs, for whom England is actually less glamorous/successful than their club.
Arsenal fans are notoriously quiet nowadays, the old stadium was nicknamed the Highbury Libraryin the last few years, which is sometimes put down to the style of play under Wenger being more cerebral and less passionate. Arsenal were famous in the 1980s and 1990s for grinding out 1-0 wins in a very dour fashion.
Chelsea have always been seen as a bit of glamour club, i think a hangover from the 1960s when Chelsea and Fulham both attracted support from their posh locals as class barriers began to fade and football became fashionable for the chic set, and had, similarly to Spurs, a reputation for playing stylish football at the expense of success, which has completely changed since Abramovich arrived. They also had the honour of a cabinet minister losing his job after being caught having his toes sucked while wearing a Chelsea shirt by a woman who wasnt his wife.
Portsmouth ("Pompey") fans are renowned as some of the most passionate and were praised by none less than Thierry Henry after Arsenal thumped them 5-0 but they kept up a incredible racket throughout the whole game
All teams had a "firm" of hooligans - Chelsea's Headhunters, West Ham's ICF, etc - but Millwall were famous partly because of a televised riot in (i think) 1985 in a game against Luton, plus their chant (to the tune of Rod Stewart's Sailing): "We are Millwall/No-one Likes Us/We Don't Care".
Newcastle fans are commonly known as the most committed and frequently feature on TV shows having painted their entire life in black and white stripes and other symptoms of mental illness
Oh and Tottenham fans are all scum
posted by criticalbill at 3:17 AM on December 2, 2009
I think the difference between 'diaspora' Man United fans and Liverpool fans is that United are already suspect due to not actually being from proper Manchester, as City are, but instead the suburb Trafford; All 'real' Mancs support Citeh, according to the Gallaghers among others. In other words almost all of Man Utds support are glory hunters, instead of just half of Liverpool's. FWIW United have had a very strong non-local support (the Cockney Reds for example) as long as I can remember, even during very lean 1970s and 1980s, but this may be to do with them winning the European Cup in 1968. United fans also have a rep for not caring much about the England team, but I think to some extent this is true of all fans of successful clubs, for whom England is actually less glamorous/successful than their club.
Arsenal fans are notoriously quiet nowadays, the old stadium was nicknamed the Highbury Libraryin the last few years, which is sometimes put down to the style of play under Wenger being more cerebral and less passionate. Arsenal were famous in the 1980s and 1990s for grinding out 1-0 wins in a very dour fashion.
Chelsea have always been seen as a bit of glamour club, i think a hangover from the 1960s when Chelsea and Fulham both attracted support from their posh locals as class barriers began to fade and football became fashionable for the chic set, and had, similarly to Spurs, a reputation for playing stylish football at the expense of success, which has completely changed since Abramovich arrived. They also had the honour of a cabinet minister losing his job after being caught having his toes sucked while wearing a Chelsea shirt by a woman who wasnt his wife.
Portsmouth ("Pompey") fans are renowned as some of the most passionate and were praised by none less than Thierry Henry after Arsenal thumped them 5-0 but they kept up a incredible racket throughout the whole game
All teams had a "firm" of hooligans - Chelsea's Headhunters, West Ham's ICF, etc - but Millwall were famous partly because of a televised riot in (i think) 1985 in a game against Luton, plus their chant (to the tune of Rod Stewart's Sailing): "We are Millwall/No-one Likes Us/We Don't Care".
Newcastle fans are commonly known as the most committed and frequently feature on TV shows having painted their entire life in black and white stripes and other symptoms of mental illness
Oh and Tottenham fans are all scum
posted by criticalbill at 3:17 AM on December 2, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
Manchester United supporters always used to be people that never live in Manchester (often never having even been there) and only started liking the club because they were winning everything - fair weather fans, if you know what I mean. Chelsea attracted an element of that over recent years, too, but it wasn't a predominant element last time I was home (ie not the main reputation).
Millwall fans were considered the ones that are most violent, but I don't know if they are premiership.
Liverpool fans are immensely close knit, from my experience (helped by the bonding over the Hillsborough disaster to no small extent) and very loyal. From an outside perspective perhaps more so than other fans (ie loyal to each other, not just the club).
posted by Brockles at 11:35 AM on December 1, 2009