' Everyone' wanted to see football come back during these times. 'Everyone ' wanted the 5000-1 outsiders to win the PL in 2015/2016.
I agree with your sentiment, it's right and should be the case but it's hard to get away from the history of the game and it plays a big part in the perception of teams and their place in it. It does for me anyway. In a game so dependent on money the use of the term 'deserve' is out of place in my opinion. The top teams are there because they are richer. The riches used to come from their fan base, so fair enough, but now it can come from a rich owner prepared to shovel in huge amounts of cash. This element was always there but with Sky it has attracted the world to the Premier League and it's looked on as a giant money machine. It doesn't alter the view of older fans that teams like Brighton and Bournemouth have little football pedigree and are only there because they are both places of wealth on the South Coast of England. Crystal Palace will, for me, always be a third division side, and that's where I grew up. You may have a perception of Leeds fans being somehow worse than others, which incidentally is laughable as a concept, most football clubs have their quota of idiots and if we judge teams on that basis we'd hardly have any of the big pro sides left. Some places are football places and always have been, Newcastle is Watford is not. Leeds is Bournemouth is not. It has been pretty much set in stone but I suspect it will not be in future, if you are young now you will see Brighton and Watford as big football places and wonder who the hell Leeds are or Sheffield Wednesday so I think it will change, but right now there are enough old supporters still here who are steeped in pre PL football that will keep these traditional perceptions alive.
Dear SD Please PM me your address so I can come round and slap you every time I say a word containing the letter P as I recite "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper" in it's entirety Your sincerely RCL PS