Arsenal fan on Radio 5 Live in tears

[Guest Manini]

2 hours ago, Wookie said:

We're better than them yeah but in terms of fanbase and history they dwarf us. Currently being better than them doesn't mean we're a bigger club - that'd mean Bournemouth are a bigger club than Villa and Leeds and it's not true at all.

You've got to take top flight appearances in to account as well - until recently Villa were a mainstay of the old division 1 (I believe, well before my time) and the prem. They've cemented their place as the biggest club in the midlands by some margin, it wasn't all that long ago that they won the European cup as well, let's be fair. 

 

Forest, you could argue, could also be considered via the same criteria as Villa but historically their appearances in the top flight haven't done enough to justify it. I still consider Forest to be the biggest team in the East Midlands, I'm comfortable with saying that. 

 

I suppose its slightly subjective as well because it depends what era you get brought up watching - my dad for example still associates West Ham with being a big club (generally, not location specific) because of past glory where I associate them as being one of the 'also ran' clubs in London. It's only because I'm (and I'd imagine you're the same) interested in it as to why I've gone back and read about past teams etc. There will be kids growing up now who couldn't imagine Man City ever being Shit and they will always think of them as a big club, it's different for us. 

[Stadt]

1 minute ago, Manini said:

Forest, you could argue, could also be considered via the same criteria as Villa but historically their appearances in the top flight haven't done enough to justify it. I still consider Forest to be the biggest team in the East Midlands, I'm comfortable with saying that. 

I'd disagree there because Forest had a good spell but haven't done anything to back it up, they've not been in the top flight for 20+ years and their fan base isn't as good as it should be

[Guest Manini]

1 minute ago, Wookie said:

I'd disagree there because Forest had a good spell but haven't done anything to back it up, they've not been in the top flight for 20+ years and their fan base isn't as good as it should be

I know what you're saying, but I think all in all they edge it. When you talk about the fan base I think it's harder to judge with them. There's a team over the water, the overall county is massive so people in North Nottinghamshire will likely go and support Wednesday/Sheff U/even maybe Mansfield? Because geographically they're closer than Forest - you tend to find Forest fans in obscure parts of the country too, based on their good spell. I know I sort of half contradicted myself when I spoke about their time in the top flight not putting them on the same level as Villa, but when I piece it together I always think of them just being an overall bigger club than us - if we can fully cement ourselves as a top half prem team in this era (the mega money era) then yeah we'll shade it. 

[Stadt]

1 minute ago, Manini said:

I know what you're saying, but I think all in all they edge it. When you talk about the fan base I think it's harder to judge with them. There's a team over the water, the overall county is massive so people in North Nottinghamshire will likely go and support Wednesday/Sheff U/even maybe Mansfield? Because geographically they're closer than Forest - you tend to find Forest fans in obscure parts of the country too, based on their good spell. I know I sort of half contradicted myself when I spoke about their time in the top flight not putting them on the same level as Villa, but when I piece it together I always think of them just being an overall bigger club than us - if we can fully cement ourselves as a top half prem team in this era (the mega money era) then yeah we'll shade it. 

They've not really been relevant since the early nineties, that's far too big a spell not to be even in the top flight. You can comfortably say Villa are still a much bigger club because they were playing in Europe about 7 years ago and were still almost selling out every other week despite being awfully mismanaged for a long time. Forest spent years in league 1 and are stuck in the same cycle we were from 2004-2008 there past success was huge but at what point does it become consigned to history and about as relevant as Huddersfield's three consecutive titles? For medium sized clubs to become big they have to win stuff and pull in the crowds - they did that at one stage but aren't anymore.

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

I really hope we beat these and make him cry some more, they’ve been our bogey side for years.

[Corky]

I'm sure there was a Tottenham fan in tears tonight, around 9.45pm?

[sylofox]

20 minutes ago, Corky said:

I'm sure there was a Tottenham fan in tears tonight, around 9.45pm?

Hopefully thousands of the fvckers  

[Bunyip]

On 04/03/2018 at 19:31, katieakita said:

A golden era for us and hopefully more to come yet some on here think we have some sort of divine right to be above where we lie now, here and now we are the biggest club in the Midlands not just the East Midlands and that is some achievement. You take the rough with the smooth or go and follow Celtic as for an Arsenal fan in tears good grief look at some of the garbage we have had to endure over the years. We are so lucky to have the owners we have and they often get taken for granted with a state of the art training facility to come things look good for us but we should never forget where we have come from and take nothing for granted. 

We may be the highest achieving club at the moment but we are certainly not the biggest club in the Midlands.