What does in take to be "massive"

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antipodean exile

antipodean exile

Well-Known Member
Mar 22, 2012
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Terrigal NSW Central Coast
New signings quite often say that they are coming to a Massive club. What makes a club Massive ? Is it the clubs perceived ambition - a perception held in the publics eyes - a clubs structure - supporter base etc can it be narrowed down to one particular asset or a combination of all the above or more - any thoughts ?
 
Indeed. It must be ambition. I would also add infrastructure and financial backing. It certainly can't be past trophies and achievements, although a reasonably long stay in the elite division, these last 40 odd years counts for a bit. We're very much in the alsoran area otherwise.
 
TheSecondStain said:
Indeed. It must be ambition. I would also add infrastructure and financial backing. It certainly can't be past trophies and achievements, although a reasonably long stay in the elite division, these last 40 odd years counts for a bit. We're very much in the alsoran area otherwise.
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It has to be fan-base. Jack Walker had massive ambition for Blackburn and they also have a long history and yes he did win the Premier League but I never considered them to be a massive club. Of course, relative to Burnley, Saints are a massive club.
 
Have to say that every time we sign a player he seems to say that Southampton is a massive club.
So the word "massive" seems to be the going word at the moment to describe an ambitious club perhaps? Our average gates over the last few years have been good and other than a 2/3 year period have been quite good since our arrival at St Mary's.
I was going to do a thread a while back in reply to some of Pompey's chimes about player attendances but decided not to. I had done some research and had come to a conclusion that we were something like 15/16th in England as far as attendances were concerned and we were somewhere in the region of 25/26th in Europe as a whole at the time as far as my then research had carried me when I gave it up. (Incidentally Pompey were something 20/21st in England for attendance at the time so you can see how far down that table they have slipped.)
So does that make us a massive club, of course it doesn't.
Our world wide appeal has gone down hill for quite a while probably since the 90's. In those days we had fan clubs all around the world. Japan and even China had their little covens.
I am lucky to have traveled world wide and still do to some extent and I have to say the only way I can judge what size a club we have become is by how others around the world perceive us. Anywhere I went up to the early/mid nineties most football fans would know us and be able to tell me who their favorite player was. (Which was always a goal scorer)
After that it kind of went down hill the odd person had heard of us but could not name a player in the side.
More recently I was in Singapore and was talking to the bar man in the airport about football as there was a game on TV, Spurs and someone.
When I said we hoped to be in the premier next season he asked who the side was I supported. When I told him he said he had money on us to be promoted!! The conversation was joined by a Burmese gentleman and an Indian, all business men traveling home. This was back in November! So once again we have become noticed abroad and as we progress our following will again increase world wide. That still does not of course make us a massive club but perhaps that is how you become one by being a household name across the world. Would you not agree?
 
As I travel around Europe I am pleased to say that our academy is well known as are the young players we have produced.

All I have to say is "I support Southampton" and people enthuse about our "massive" academy.

Now I want them to start enthusing about our great club and if Nicola's ambitions are realised then this shouldn't be too far away.
 
I think a club can define itself as massive if they have:

1) A prestigious history
2) A large fanbase

We sort of tick one of those boxes, but I think it is a bit stupid to describe Saints as a massive club. But as others have said when we were signing players in L1 from other L1 sides or small Champ sides, we were a massive club in comparison, and now in the Prem if we get players from Championship clubs who don't tick the aforementioned boxes, they will probably describe us as massive aswell.
 
Saintmagic said:
I think a club can define itself as massive if they have:

1) A prestigious history
2) A large fanbase

We sort of tick one of those boxes, but I think it is a bit stupid to describe Saints as a massive club. But as others have said when we were signing players in L1 from other L1 sides or small Champ sides, we were a massive club in comparison, and now in the Prem if we get players from Championship clubs who don't tick the aforementioned boxes, they will probably describe us as massive aswell.
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PL and CL status help too.
 
Saintmagic's criteria I would agree with but no offense Saints are not anywhere near massive in absolute terms. The only massive teams in the Premiership are Man U and Liverpool and maybe, just maybe, Arsenal or Chelsea.
 
Prestigious History, Large fan base.. Suggests Everton, Notts Forest, Aston Villa even Derby County. We are in a position to overtake these and others. It doesn't make us 'massive'. We do however have the opportunity to grow. If you consider the capitalist idea that growth is the end all and be all, (which I don't), then market forces suggest we have a chance given the financial muscle behind the club. I do however suspect the premier league plays by these assumptions, thus we who have the potential to grow have a chance. If you stretch the analogy of course you run into the premise that those at the top, (the bankers and the w*nkers), will connive to maintain the status quo. So we need a 'Southampton Spring'. Some underlying reason why change in the status quo is necessary. I suggest it may well be the European edict that clubs will have to play by more realistic financial rules.

10 years ago Chelsea would have 'ill' fitted with Everton and Villa but have joined the 'massive club' club. Their castle is built on sand, I hope and believe we have more durable foundations, it might take longer, but one hopes it will be more sustainable..
 
tiggermaster said:
Prestigious History, Large fan base.. Suggests Everton, Notts Forest, Aston Villa even Derby County. We are in a position to overtake these and others. It doesn't make us 'massive'. We do however have the opportunity to grow. If you consider the capitalist idea that growth is the end all and be all, (which I don't), then market forces suggest we have a chance given the financial muscle behind the club. I do however suspect the premier league plays by these assumptions, thus we who have the potential to grow have a chance. If you stretch the analogy of course you run into the premise that those at the top, (the bankers and the w*nkers), will connive to maintain the status quo. So we need a 'Southampton Spring'. Some underlying reason why change in the status quo is necessary. I suggest it may well be the European edict that clubs will have to play by more realistic financial rules.

10 years ago Chelsea would have 'ill' fitted with Everton and Villa but have joined the 'massive club' club. Their castle is built on sand, I hope and believe we have more durable foundations, it might take longer, but one hopes it will be more sustainable..
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I agree about the growth bit, but at the moment we are not as big a club as the teams you have listed or even several others. We do have the potential with the backing, infrastructure etc to get on par with, or overtake these teams in terms of league position (with the exception of Derby and Forest who we have already overtaken) but they will still be bigger clubs until we can match them in terms of winning trophys imo
 
I think the difference between a big club (i.e. Villa) and a massive club (i.e. Man U) is whether the fan base is global or not. While Villa has big fan base, it is mostly within the West Midlands and if you go to countries like China or India I wouldn't expect you would find that many Aston Villa fans, however you would find lots of Man U fans.
 
PompeyLapras said:
I think the difference between a big club (i.e. Villa) and a massive club (i.e. Man U) is whether the fan base is global or not. While Villa has big fan base, it is mostly within the West Midlands and if you go to countries like China or India I wouldn't expect you would find that many Aston Villa fans, however you would find lots of Man U fans.
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And why do you think this is?
 
sussexsaint said:
It has to be fan-base. Jack Walker had massive ambition for Blackburn and they also have a long history and yes he did win the Premier League but I never considered them to be a massive club. Of course, relative to Burnley, Saints are a massive club.
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The key word is I

There was a time when Blackburn Rovers would have been considered massive, although the fans at the time wouldn't have said such a word. At the same time, Bolton Wanderers would have been considered massive, back then, yet both now exist in the shadow of the two Manchester teams. There was a time when Huddersfield, for example, would have been considered the biggest club in Britain. These things are relative and they have their place and time. These were also times when a fan pretty much supported his or her local team, although there were definitely star players, like Stanley Matthews, who could sway support and get a personal following.

As it happens, I also think a strong fanbase helps to produce a mythical massive club.
 
And why do you think this is?
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I think the main reasons are due to the consistent success Man U have had as well as the massive amounts of media coverage they get in other countries (which is to quite a large extent because of their success). People in India or China are likely to become Man U fans because chances are Man U will be the first team they see when they're a kid. Plus there's also the clubs own marketing initiatives as well as the signing of players from other nations facilitating support from that particular nation (i.e. the signing of Ji-Sung Park facilitating a strong South Korean support for example).
 
So if another club had had as much success as Utd (lets say Villa) in the last 20 years then they would have the worldwide fanbase. So I don't think that having the fanbase makes you massive, its the winning of things to get you that fanbase which makes you massive.
 
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