Wasn't more than 4 or 5 years ago that, in a table of football clubs, Aston Villa and Southampton were within a few pounds of each other in a valuation. I think approximately £125M was the figure. Now, Saints are considered to be worth more than £250M, whereas Villa were bought for £60M last year.
Going to have to spend a lot to realise that potential though. No history driven right to a big club again.
That'll disappear quickly enough. The rest of the world don't have the historical baggage UK supporters have.
Not sure, Leeds have been gone 13 years and still have huge worldwide support. On the subject of Villa, there was an interesting article on the bbc the other day. I'll try and link it in a minute.
I'm sure there are people who know Leeds Utd still. But can it actually be called huge support.? It may have been huge years ago, but I doubt if it so these days. People are fickle, especially if they don't really have a proper connection with a club, like an overseas supporter, but just choose to support them because they are successful. Just 10 years ago nobody would have been seen dead in a Man City shirt. Yet they had a fairly successful past. Now they're everywhere. These things are transitory. They come and go. Look at how many Leicester City shirts you saw last year just about everywhere. They're almost gone already.
Agreed on that... which is why when they come back up people will jump straight back on the bandwagon... in my opinion.
Fair point I think they will be up sooner rather than later though. Would quite like to see them come up this year.
Never a fan, me. I still wince over the 7-0 from the early 1970's at Elland Rd where they started to take the piss rather unnecessarily. Quite unprofessional. Nasty team. Monk is too good for them. You may think Everton and Adrian Heath is bad. It's got nothing on that 7-0.
Too young for either of those to be fair mate!! I've always enjoyed the games with Leeds to be honest, generally always a good atmosphere. Always great support from them too, among the best imo.
I would suggest you look up that Leeds game on Youtube. Regrettably it's there. But for your state of mind I would say stay away from it. Even the commentator started to feel sorry for us and that's when you know that everyone knows.
I know what game you are on about, just meant I'm far too young for it to impact my view on them as a club, same as Heath/Everton
I must lead a sheltered existance, because the only place I have seen a Leicester shirt in the last two years is in Leicester. Then again, I haven't seen many Leeds shirts either.
No. If you had read through the thread, you would have seen that we were talking about worldwide legacy support of clubs long since gone from the elite division, for example, Leeds. I wrote of the fickleness of overseas supporters who really just go for a successful name/club and drop it as soon as it becomes unsuccessful. I contended that Leeds may have had huge support worldwide before, but that the public had moved along. That fickleness could even extend to clubs like Leicester, who sold replica shirts throughout the world on the back of their success. And I wondered how many of those were still proudly worn. So we weren't really talking about shirts you might see worn in the UK.
Overseas fans may have learned one of the hardest lessons in football. An interesting result can attach your affections to a particular team and you carry them like an albatross for the rest of your life.
Heard that Katharina was so impressed by the club on Sunday, that she has found a new love for the club and its future. Just what I heard today.
