http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/40209/ A Mirror survey revealed that Southampton are the most loved club in the EPL (after the fans own team obviously). Loveable....we are absolutely adorable. Does suggest we are not disliked by fans of all the clubs we hate.
I suppose our popularity is down to the fact we play decent football and Saints fans are not aggressive, but a major fact is that we are not their traditional rivals. Fans of the Big 4/5 aren't going to vote for each other. However that mustn't be allowed to tarnish our award.
People like an underdog. We are seen as a small club punching above our weight trying to compete with the Top 6. We've had a lot of publicity for a team outside of the Top 6, promoting our good football and impressive youth system. I don't know if we would be so high up if we hadn't done well 13/14, had our team cherry picked from the 'big boys' only to do even better the next season. People like an underdog story and we are that. It also helps that we are not geographically close to many teams and so don't have any real rivals except Portsmouth. There's not really many reasons as a neutral to dislike us.
Yep, overall we were. Interesting to note that Bournemouth fans had us as their 'most disliked' team, while our fans had them as our 'most liked' team.
Bothers me a great deal; I've mentioned before that there was some real, 70s style crowd trouble after our last game at St Mary's. I was in the middle of it on a bus. There is a large element down there desperate to make this the new South Coast bitter rivalry. It's OK saying "no, that'll always be Portsmouth" - these people don't think that. I predict trouble this year. Vin
I really don't get their beef with us. Do they feel patronised because we all like them and want them to do well and they just want to be taken seriously. We sent a fair number of good youth products out on loan with them, used to play pre-season friendlies etc. I just don't get where all their animosity comes from.
And when they were struggling we had a bucket collection for them. I think it must be jealousy directed at the biggest club in their area...we have never been true rivals.
Here's the straight link to the survey: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/revealed-premier-leagues-most-loved-6087046 I did it myself, and put Saints and Bournemouth in the 'like' goal [drag the ball into the particular net] and, like Vin, also noticed that we like Bournemouth most other than ouselves whilst they dislike us most. Ah well, perhaps our good vibe will dissipate their bad one. My Cherries supporting rambler friend has gone from a hater to a yeah, your lot are all right I suppose, so it's probably only the instinct of the herd that keeps their hate going.
We are the relative big club in the area of course they won't like us, we get plenty of fans from their part of the world, we have had all the history all the local media attention etc. - if you plonked someone like Liverpool 30 miles away from us we wouldn't think much of them. To be fair I don't think much of them at 240miles away let alone any closer.
Guessing the Saints/Portsmouth rivalry is the biggest driver; having that mutual antipathy up the road with no depth of feeling directed their way likely rankles. Too bad, though...manufacturing hate for the sake of it is so pointless.
UB Yeah, but its like being growled at by a Yorkshire terrier, you still want to give them a pat on the head and say "who's a good boy then, who's a good boy?"
Do you think we should stop patting them on the head and tickling their tummies and put on really, really scared faces.
