I feel a bit sorry for McBride after that assessment. Model pro as well. Surprised that doesn't move Tottenham up the list as well.
It's just a factor of when they played, McBride didn't play when the PL was all over US TV while Dempsey did. I don't know what Fulham being out of the PL is doing to their US fan base as I don't see to many people here supporting a club for to long that they can't watch on TV.
To be fair, Dempsey's record at Fulham is much better than I expected. Did Donovan's sojourn at Everton have a noticeable effect on their Stateside support?
Maybe, you do see Everton kits once in a while, probably as often as you see Liverpool kits but I never see Donovan's name on the back so I don't know how much he was involved in creating fans for them. I doubt to many people think of him as having played for them, I'm sure in most people's minds he will always be thought of as an LA Galaxy player. The longer Dempsey is away from Fulham the more it will probably change but I think in most people's minds Dempsey is a Fulham player first and foremost.
If we want American fans then we need to make an effort to get them which we haven't done. Winning trophies(the hardest thing to do obviously), preseason tours every couple years, signing young Americans(not the cameron types but the Johansson, Hamid, Green, Yedlin types), or a partnership with an MLS team (the easiest, cheapest option), are the types of things that will pull fans to us. Simply existing in the PL isn't going to be enough to draw people to us.
Gedion Zelalem, who is considered Arsenals best youth prospect, has chosen to play for America. Interesting. I wonder if one day we will be looking at bringing in youth players from abroad to add to our development squad.
I hope so. It only makes sense to pick up youth prospects for our development squad. We had 2 other people besides Zelalem pick the US recently as well. Ventura Alavarado has picked the US over the Mexican national team, he plays for Club America and William Yarbrough has also picked the US over the Mexican national team, he plays for Leon.
CLUBS RANKED BY AVERAGE LEAGUE FINISH Rank Club Average finish Years in league 1 Liverpool 8.26 110 2 Arsenal 8.78 110 3 Everton 9.71 115 4 Manchester United 10.42 111 5 Aston Villa 11.27 115 6 Tottenham Hotspur 12.4 95 7 Chelsea 13.66 98 8 Newcastle United 14.17 110 9 Manchester City 14.23 111 10 Sunderland 15.46 113 11 West Bromich Albion 17.89 115 12 Leeds United 18.99 87 13 West Ham United 19 88 14 Blackburn Rovers 19.12 115 15 Derby County 20.11 115 16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 20.65 115 17 Middlesbrough 20.76 104 18 Bolton Wanderers 20.77 115 19 Sheffield Wednesday 21.05 111 20 Sheffield United 21.63 111 21 Birmingham City 22.32 111 22 Stoke City 23 107 23 Nottingham Forest 23.07 111 24 Leicester City 23.17 109 25 Burnley 27.06 115 26 Southampton 27.75 87 27 Ipswich Town 29.8 69 28 Preston North End 29.89 115 29 Portsmouth 31.02 87 30 Huddersfield Town 33.6 93 31 Charlton Athletic 34.06 86 32 Fulham 34.15 96 33 Blackpool 35.05 106 34 Coventry City 37.08 88 35 Norwich City 41.2 87 36 Notts County 42.17 115 37 Cardiff City 42.43 87 38 Barnsley 42.63 105 39 Hull City 43.43 98 40 Queens Park Rangers 43.48 87 41 Luton Town 43.58 85 42 Oldham Athletic 44.17 96 43 Bury 44.24 109 44 Bristol City 45.33 102 45 Crystal Palace 46.28 87 46 Wigan Athletic 48.5 36 47 Bradford City 50.02 100 48 Millwall 50.21 87 49 Swansea City 50.92 87 50 Oxford United 52.52 48 51 Watford 53.11 87 52 Reading 55.78 87 53 Leyton Orient 56.44 98 54 Brighton and Hove Albion 57.17 87 55 Brentford 58.1 87 56 Carlisle United 59.27 78 57 Swindon Town 60 87 58 Northampton Town 72.74 87 59 AFC Wimbledon 86.67 3 So based purely on average finish position we are 39th or just above the relegation places in the Championship....It might just be me and when I started watching but I thought we'd be lower than that. (First number is average place and second is the number of years in the league.)
