How do you define a big club? I'm probably old fashioned here but to me the most important thing is the fans. We are playing ****e but get 40,000. With Reidy we were getting 48,000 and even now have amazing away support. We didn't suddenly become a big club in '73. Wimbledon didn't become a big club after their cup success. Continuous champions league gives a high profile so our top 4 or 5 ARE big clubs but just below are clubs like us and the mags, who have the potential to be big clubs. I would say we are in the top ten biggest clubs in England even with our poor last 40 years. I also think Leeds are still a big club but going through a bad decade. Clubs like Norwich, Watford and Palace come and go but us and the mags were, are and will always be bigger. We do have everything in place (except the team) to be a top ten club and we belong in about the same group as say Everton. So, for me it's the fans are the biggest part of the club.
I'm not 100%, but I don't think the Stadium got extended in Reid's time. I know we were selling out every game with fans trying to buy tickets off touts outside the ground, I think the capacity was 42k then?
I think if anyone could define what a big club is, they'd be a genius. They could also probably answer the question, how long is a piece of string?
aaah Privilege, them were the days. 25 Euros for a Vodka Red Bull to wash your Mitsubishi's down with, job done.
Big is always going to be relative, Bournemouth are a huge club compared to say Salford City Reds (for now). United are a huge club compared to Bournemouth. Every PL team is big in more ways than one, each of them represents one of the top 50 richest clubs in the world now by turnover. Add to that history, stadium size, average crowd, world fan base, marketability, good players... there's so many parameters that every club can argue they're a big club at some point. 42 of the 61 European Cups belongs to a group of 8 Clubs, with each team winning it at least 3 times. But in a list of categories where does history rank? There's no structure is there? Is History at the top? Is money at the top? Fan base? Chelsea fans could argue til they're blue in the face that Forest aren't a big club, Forest fans will disagree, but each fan base will have valid arguments to support their stance.
I believe so. Dunno if they still do Manumission there though, that's what put that club on the world map. I remember going, in about 2000, absolutely wrecked and I walked in the door and immediately tripped over a 19 stone fat bloke on the floor in nothing but a nappy smashing ice cubes up with a rubber mallet.
I think he was an employee to be fair, but it was very weird, not the kind of thing you need to trip over when you're already wired.
