I read and hear consistently how Leeds fans are deluded, thinking that Leeds are a bigger club than they actually are. My personal opinion, and addressing the accusation from the QPR fan after yesterday's game, is that he/she is on this board because they think Leeds is a big club. I bet they don't do the same to Wigan or Barnsley after the game. How do you actually judge how big a club is? My opinion is that it is a mixture of your history and your away support. Bournemouth fill their ground every week, I think, but it only has just over 10k capacity. They're only a big club because they're in the PL. How many fans do they take with them to Newcastle? Since we're talking about Leeds: 6 teams have won the English top division since Leeds did. They have won the title 3 times and have been runners up 5 times (too many times on GD alone) which ranks them =11. Of the teams who have won the title more than Leeds; 2 last won in the 1920s, 1 in the 30s, 1 in the 50s and 2 in the 80s (including Liverpool who last won in 89/90). Leeds have also won every domestic cup as well as the UEFA (Fairs) Cup, in fact, Leeds were one of the earliest English teams to reach the final of the European Cup. Since the PL started Leeds have reached the semi finals of the UEFA Cup and the Champions League. I'm sure, even though they didn't quite make it, Hull and QPR can only dream about such things. What about support? According to footballfancast the only 2 teams with better away support than Leeds are Rangers and West Ham. So how do you judge a big club?
Your hitting the nail on the head if I am reading you right In my opinion a big club is one who has the best away following and constantly amongst the highest home support. Forget about what happened in yesteryear
I think it has to be relative to time, Bury, Bradford, Barnsley, Bolton all with major trophies yet I wouldn't class any as a big club. Blackburn three league titles and six FA cups but an attendance averaging 14,000 and I wouldn't call them a big club either. The PL has distorted everything in recent years because there would have been a time that a player would have preferred to join Leeds a division lower than Brighton, Burnley, or Norwich but the lure of PL wages and you just can't compete. If Sky TV pulled out tomorrow and you stripped back the big money owners and you had to have clubs reliant on paying their players relevant to their income you would have to go on gate receipts and fan base. Manchester City would class themselves as a HUGE club but it is heavy backing that has achieved that, Liverpool and Man U would claim they are the biggest because of trophy wins, you'll never get anyone really agreeing what defines a big club.
The only people who constantly refer to their Club as being "big " are those whose lives are fairly humdrum. It sits up there with ' my dick is bigger than yours ', and, ' my father's car has got a bigger engine than yours ', etc. They have little self esteem and a massive inferiority complex. They desperately need some status, and describing their Club as being " big " somehow fits their emotional needs. Following a self appointed " big Club " somehow fills the vacuum, but they need other, independent football followers, to acknowledge that. It's sad to see people get so worked up when the rest of the population just doesn't give a toss about their so called " big Club ".
Got to say, I don't care myself where Leeds United sit in regards to being a big club, if you're not competing for trophies it doesn't matter. I want promotion of course I do but if we're going to sit in the PL and be another Everton plodding along never expecting relegation and never expecting top 6 it isn't good enough for me but then I never dreamed we would have been out the top flight this long
I support Leeds, so they're the biggest club in the world for me, & always will be. I simply don't care about other clubs. Someone mentioned dicks there. Perhaps that's a good analogy. My dick is the biggest one in my life & always will be. I don't care about anyone else's dicks. Why would you? Please, no reply from the Tranny Three.
Whatever about the definition of a big club is, the definition of a small club is definitely one where their few fans need to visit forums of the truly big clubs looking for a little attention bless them
Hmmm. A big club. Suppose I should stick up for Leeds here. Suppose its income based. I don't mean tv money, I mean their own income from their own support base. When you go on holiday what shirts or tattoos do you see the most. Unfortunately it's the big 4 or 5 that you see. Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool are the most common but then there are a clutch of clubs like Chelsea, Spurs and now Man City who have "young" fans (started with success). After that there are another clutch which I would include Everton, Leeds, Newcastle and maybe Sheff Wed, Villa and West Ham. These clubs if owners income and tv income were pulled would probably rise to the top under their own financial (global) fan base. I've probably made a good attempt at picking 12 of the bigger clubs in England there. Apologies if I missed any. I'm happy to change the list.
