TalkSports' 30 biggest clubs in the UK

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longers said:
These lists are silly because everyone uses different factors to judge how big a team is depending on the club they support.

For some total trophy count will be the sole defining reason, typically fans from historically big clubs like Everton etc will use this as the definition for bigness as it allows us into the conversation despite the fact we haven’t won anything for twenty odd years. The fact is though that there is an entire generation now who view us as complete no marks who are here just to make up the numbers... so long as never win anything in younger generations lifetimes we will continue to be viewed this way.

Youll then have other clubs who have no history of winning trophies who think they should be in there purely because they have fantastic attendance... see Newcastle. This is delusional.

Ultimately for me it has to be a combination of total trophies, recent history of success, current attendance and worldwide fanbase. With those things in mind I think we place about 7th.

There is no way in hell we’re bigger than Chelsea nowadays. They have been near top of English footy for the past ten or so years and have developed a significant worldwide fanbase.

City are a bit different. Historically they are not a big club, same goes for Chelsea but they are winning trophies now at a time when the sport and premier league is bigger than ever. They will grow massively as a club over the next decade or so and most likely end up on similar level to Chelsea in terms of popularity.

Spurs I kind of view the same as us, good history of winning trophies but not enough success in modern times. They do have a bigger fanbase though but that’s to be expected given the size of London. Sure they haven’t won the league as much as us but they’ve won lots of FA Cups back when that was considered a very big deal.

I think 6th/7th is fair enough.
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Of course trophies are a valid way of measuring the size of a club.

Look at Liverpool, haven't won the league for nearly three decades and only won one league cup(on penalties against a championship side) in over a decade but they are still seen as being bigger than Arsenal, Chelsea and City.
 
Gwladysstreetlad said:
That list however is a total joke (which is no surprise as its form talksh##e). For example, i can understand why they'd have Chelsea and Man City higher up then us since they've been winning titles and cups in recent years but Spurs?! Remained me what they've won in that time?
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Spurs have a bigger overall fanbase than us and a very similar amount of major trophies and have actually won a trophy in the past ten years. They have also had a lot more big name players play for them over the years. I’d also argue in terms of local fanbase they are the biggest club in London even ahead of Arsenal. Combine this with the fact they have had three or so seasons of champs league football in the past decade which only increases exposure. Most people definitely consider them to be bigger than us I’m afraid.

Gwladysstreetlad said:
Leeds United (a club I proper hate) is apparently lower then West Brom, Southampton and Stoke?! Just LOL at that B.S. there's also the likes of Sheffield Wednesday who are missing that are much bigger then Stoke and West Brom could ever hope to be on any level.
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As I said in my previous post that is logical, they are now bigger clubs because they have been competing in the league during its largest ever period of growth. There will be millions worldwide who have never even heard of Leeds whereas every week there are matches televised to every corner of the globe involving Stoke, West Brom and Southampton on the TV.

This league is bigger than England now, it’s a global phenomenon and Leeds have missed out on its most important years.
 
longers said:
Spurs have a bigger overall fanbase than us and a very similar amount of major trophies and have actually won a trophy in the past ten years. They have also had a lot more big name players play for them over the years. I’d also argue in terms of local fanbase they are the biggest club in London even ahead of Arsenal. Combine this with the fact they have had three or so seasons of champs league football in the past decade which only increases exposure. Most people definitely consider them to be bigger than us I’m afraid.
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A bigger draw certainly, bigger club? Nah, they're gonna have to win at least a few cups and league before they can boast that. Chelsea and Man City I can understand but with Spurs the media have always portraid them as bigger then they actually are.
longers said:
As I said in my previous post that is logical, they are now bigger clubs because they have been competing in the league during its largest ever period of growth. There will be millions worldwide who have never even heard of Leeds whereas every week there are matches televised to every corner of the globe involving Stoke, West Brom and Southampton on the TV.

This league is bigger than England now, it’s a global phenomenon and Leeds have missed out on its most important years.
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Leeds still have a larger fan base then West Brom, Stoke and Southampton despite ears in the wilderness. I seriously doubt that the vast majority of people who watch the premier league around the world do so to see those clubs and will no doubt simply remembered them as the side Man Utd or Chelsea or whoever beat that week. They can have all the exposure they want but the reality is Leeds are still more know to this day by causal fans for their run in the 2000 champions league then any of those clubs could ever hope to be.
 
Gwladysstreetlad said:
Leeds still have a larger fan base then West Brom, Stoke and Southampton despite ears in the wilderness..
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In the UK no doubt, worldwide i don't think so.

Just look at social media for one example of it... Leeds 300k, Stoke 900k, Southampton 900k, West Brom 750k.

That doesn't necessarily 100% reflect how many fans they have but it definitely reflects brand awareness.

Gwladysstreetlad said:
I seriously doubt that the vast majority of people who watch the premier league around the world do so to see those clubs and will no doubt simply remembered them as the side Man Utd or Chelsea or whoever beat that week. They can have all the exposure they want but the reality is Leeds are still more know to this day by causal fans for their run in the 2000 champions league then any of those clubs could ever hope to be.
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I think you're drastically underestimating how many fans premier league clubs have gained worldwide over the past decade. The Guardian had an article on it a couple seasons ago. Obviously more people are going to glory hunt and go with the big teams but the other teams have all seen huge increases in mechanside sales and their worldwide fanbases during this period.
 
I remember Blackburn being perceived as a big club
3 nice new stands
Buying whoever they wanted
Then their benefactor passed away and well we know what happened next
 
It's clearly subjective but one way to overcome that would be to rank all sides in terms of trophies and then factor it by some sort of "current relevance" which, basically, puts the likes of City and Chelsea (and Spurs) right up there and the likes of Leeds and Villa a lot lower (now)... so, basically it would come out something like - United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, City, Everton, Spurs... or whatever.. which isn't a whole lot different to "today".. but wouldn't ignore the likes of Wolves, Leeds, Derby, Forest, Villa who are still at Level 2 and have some fine achievements in the past (and, except Wolves, all since Spurs last won the league)
 
Haha Newcastle fans must be fuming

Would have ditched Celtic out of top ten. Villa 9 and hammers behind them.

Otherwise that list was quite alright (10)
 
Terrible list and way to judge clubs.

What makes a big club? Well I'd say it's a combination of.. Trophies won(especially league titles and European trophies, Fanbase(Home and away),History, big name players, and also how you are perceived by fans of other clubs. My list would be something like this..
Man Utd
Liverpool
Arsenal
Spurs/Everton(cannot decide)
Chelsea
Aston Villa
Man City
Leeds Utd
Newcastle Utd
That's my top ten. Other clubs worth a mention are Wolves, Forest, Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland. Must admit I do have trouble leaving Forest out with those two European cup wins which carry a lot of weight.
 
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