What Football Team Do I Support?

Apparently, if you like to watch football (soccer, to you Transatlantic people), you have ‘a team.’ A club you’ll support no matter what. A club you buy merch for, cheer when they win crucial games, and cry when they get relegated.

So, what team do I support?

Well, I support Portsmouth. I spent a year living right by their stadium, after all. “Play up Pompey, Pompey play up!” is burned into my memory. Plus, I came to love the city, the club and the people while I lived there.

I also support Southampton, because we lived near there. We drove past their stadium often. I like their manager, Hasenhuttl, and I like the way they put a strong emphasis on their youth facilities.

Some of you will already be seeing a problem with this: Pompey and Sotton are age-old enemies.

I like West Brom, because they’re a local club to me. I also like Wolves, Villa, and Walsall for the same reasons. I like Port Vale, because I went to a match at their stadium once. These clubs – their fans usually hate each other.

I like Leeds, a club lots of people love to hate, because I like Bielsa’s football philosophy and I think it’s great that they’ve made their way back to the Premier League after so many years away. I hope they do well.

I like Burnley and Crystal Palace, because I picked them when I first started getting interested a few years ago. Burnley do lots of good stuff in their local community, and the board of directors are all local to the club. I like that, I think it’s good for football that a club with such a small-money attitude is able to be so successful (they finished 7th in the whole country recently), because it shows that money isn’t everything if you want to win at this game. Palace? I liked the name, but now I like their style of play, too.

I like Charlton Athletic and Blackpool, because they’re the clubs of my friends. I want to see them do well.

I like Man United, because I think Solskjaer is a great manager and I like that they chose an ex-player to lead them. I like Liverpool because I LOVE Jurgen Klopp. He has a very relaxed approach to his job, and seems like he wishes the best for everybody. He seems to realise that it’s just a game (in fact he outright said it – when the coronavirus hit, he said football doesn’t matter in comparison). I enjoy that approach to the game.

In general, I like to see small clubs triumph over big clubs, and local clubs beat those from further away. I support clubs who have a good football philosophy, or who do things for their local community, or who have a fan-friendly spirit. I don’t like clubs who focus solely on money, treat their fans terribly, or who have dodgy owners or general business practises.

So yeah, I don’t like Manchester City.

0:)