I'm being singled out in a group on Facebook related to football about how big your club is. Sunderland fans think their club is bigger than Spurs because they have 6 League titles compared to our two. What makes a big club and is there a list?
Big clubs Manchester United Barcelona Real Madrid Juventus Milan Inter Bayern Boca Juniors Clubs that aren't quite big enough to consider themselves big clubs Arsenal Chelsea Roma Lyon Marseilles Valencia Porto Benfica Dinamo Kiev Shakhtar Donetsk Borussia Dortmund Bayer Leverkusen Chivas Guadalahara Ajax Feyenoord PSV Eindhoven Clubs that really aren't big clubs Anzhi Makhachkala Paris Saint Germain Manchester City Liverpool Rangers Celtic LA Galaxy Malaga Small clubs Teams whose fans bang on about their team being a big club in comparison to anyone else's
Depends on the definition of 'big'. Without question over the years and including fan bases etc the two English clubs that stand firm are Manchester Utd and Liverpool. If someone was to ask me a flippant question as to who's bigger Spurs or Sunderland... without having to think I would say Spurs. But like I say arguments like this will always split people and until the person asking the question defines 'big' it's a tough one.
In terms of recent history, spending, and quality of players, clearly Spurs is the bigger club, and only a complete idiot would doubt that. However, as people have already said, even Spurs cannot be counted as a big club, in absolute terms. How do I know that (without looking at the size of our fan-base, stadium, and turnover)? Simple. Our players are more likely to leave for clubs like Barcelona, Madrid, and United than vice versa.
Shows how perceptions change. Not so many years ago nobody would have put Chelski on a list. Clearly it shouldn't be on that list anyway, but the fact that someone puts it on there says something about "purchasing glory". Sunderland are clearly a big club, with ambition for those big fat "0" scorelines!
Sunderland won all six before 1936. They WERE a big club, much the same as they USED to be a centre for shipbuilding and coal distribution. Since their period of success thay have spent most of their time in div2.
my lord. you cant expect logic and unbiased from a bunch of dikheds on facebook!! and facebook? you might aswell open your front door and invite everyone in to know your business...even those people tht dont know you!
I put them on a par with PSV Eindhoven - not because of their recent successes (paid for or otherwise) but because their support is extremely localised to Hammersmith, rather than all over the country and/or overseas. In that regard, that would put Spurs on an equal term of "bigness" as Chelsea based on consistency of league positions. Newcastle are a difficult team to categorise in this regard, as they have the large local support, but their league performance is anything but consistent - in the space of three years they've been relegated, stormed the Championship, solidly mid table and battling for European football, and that's been their story for most of the Premeir League era. You can argue the amount of Liverpool and Celtic fans in Dublin would make them a bigger club than I listed them as, but that says more about the quality and support the Irish league has than Liverpool or Celtic.
More than 50 years of winning the league? Impressive. Talking about club size is pointless. It's undefinable and subjective.
The bluntest way to put it would be to talk about the number of empty seats at every home game - if you need Manchester United to visit in order to fill those 6000/8000/10,000 empty seats, you aren't a big club. Even when punching (and kicking, and elbowing, and hoofing...) above their weight under O'Neill, Villa were unable to do that. I can't help but notice you don't have any complaint about being Man City being filed in that regard...
Taking your total dislike of Liverpool out of the equation and using logic instead. Based on our total trophies won,our global fanbase and merchandise sales,the fact that we are still in the worlds top 10 most valuable clubs(according to Forbes),and not forgetting our being European Champions 5 times makes us a very big club lad.
History, pal. Dwindling since Klan-gate, pal. Now comprised mainly of KKK outfits and skinhead "oi, oi, oi!" records, pal. Sorry, but that isn't a fact, pal. It's a made-up stat. 'Pool were bought for a bargain-basement price by cheap-skate Yank owners looking to make a fast buck. They might have succeeded if only they had not sacked "gentleman" Roy and appointed Queen Kenny, an aging tramp who used to be a very average player who happened to score some very lucky goals. If 'Pool was such a "big" club, why does it have a donkey like Carroll as its new Robbie Fowler? Answer me that, pal.
I'm not a City fan, and I agree that City can hardly be counted as a 'big club' yet, although they have a fairly decent history/stadium/fans. They need a few more trophies first. Ridiculous however to not include Liverpool as a 'big' club or at least in your second tier.
