**** me! You've really walked into this one - a pet subject of mine.
You see, Skiddy, you and practically everyone else - certainly all of the ****wits on this site - make the grave grammatical error of referring to a football club in the plural, when it ought to be referred to in the singular.
How many of Arsenal is there? That's right - one.
How many of United? Good lad - one.
And Spurs? One - you're getting the hang of this, Skiddy. Good, lad.
See, ****wits like you get confused because although there is only one of each club, each club has lots of players in it. But - and here's the thing you really do have to watch out for - when you refer to the club, you are referring to a collective. And, again, a collective is referred to (in the English language) in the singular, not the plural. So, for example, one would say "the members' club is meeting on Thursday" not "the members' club are meeting on Thursday." Only a ****wit would say the latter.
You still with me, Skiddy? It's hurting your brain, I know, but stick with it, please.
Let me give you an easy example away from the World of football. Consider the following:
Tommy strokes the cat. Its fur is very soft.
Now, this:
Tommy likes cats. They're very soft.
Compare it with the following:
Tommy supports Chelsea. Its a **** club, but he's learned to live with that.
Now compare that with this:
Being a plastic, Tommy supports a lot of football clubs. They're all fair game for Tommy.
By the way, please don't ever try to contradict a Cambridge graduate every again, Skiddy. Thanks, mate.
Oh, and one last thing. Just because Spurs has an s on the end doesn't mean that there is more than one THFC. Perhaps that is what was confusing you?
