I was having a debate I'm sure many of us have had before over the weekend. Where should we be? Are we a lower Premier league team? A mid-table Championship team? Or quite frankly should we just consider ourselves fortunate we're in the football league at all?
Personally I've always thought of us as a mid-table Championship side (somewhere between 7th and 16th). The two people I was having the discussion with (Villa and Tottenham fans) were both adamant they were top 6 Premier League clubs.
But what does history, fan size and the trophy cabinet suggest? Over the past couple of days we've not done nearly enough work compiled the below list - far from agreed on all of them but it's as close to a consensus as we could manage.
I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on who is too high and who is too low.
1. Man Utd
2. Liverpool
3. Arsenal
4. Everton
5. Aston Villa
6. Tottenham
7. Chelsea
8. Man City
9. Newcastle
10. Leeds
11. Nottm Forest
12. Sunderland
13. Wolves
14. Sheff Wed
15. Huddersfield
16. Blackburn
17. Derby
18. Preston
19. West Ham
20. Ipswich
21. West Brom
22. Sheff Utd
23. Portsmouth
24. Burnley
25. Leicester
26. Birmingham
27. QPR
28. Fulham
29. Bolton
30. Norwich
31. Southampton
32. Charlton
33. Blackpool
34. Stoke
35. Coventry
36. Watford
37. Middlesbrough
38. Crystal Palace
39. Cardiff
40. Bury
41. Swansea
42. Brighton
43. Luton
44. Bradford
45. Oxford
46. Bristol City
47. Millwall
48. Reading
49. AFC Wimbledon (Counted old Wimbledon history as well)
50. Oldham
51. Wigan
52. Barnsley
53. Brentford
54. Doncaster
55. Notts County
56. Peterborough
57. Plymouth
58. Swindon
59. Hull
60. Port Vale
61. Southend
62. Rotherham
63. Bristol Rovers
64. Bournemouth
65. Tranmere
66. Colchester
67. Cambridge
68. Crewe
69. Wycombe
70. Grimsby
71. Scunthorpe
72. Exeter
73. Walsall
74. Gillingham
75. Carlisle
76. Northampton
77. Lincoln
78. Shrewsbury
79. Yeovil
80. Newport
81. Rochdale
82. Accrington
83. Burton
84. Mansfield
85. MK Dons
86. Stevenage
87. Fleetwood
88. Cheltenham
89. Macclesfield
90. Crawley
91. Morecambe
92. Forest Green
1
Comments
These lists are always hard as there are so many aspects to consider and the importance one person applies to a category (away support / trophies for example) will be different to the next person).
Ive never seen someone rate the full 92 though, so well done.
10th would seem about right for them imo.
Sky did something fairly similar for the last 50 years which I think is more realistic than factoring in FA Cup wins in 1897 or League wins in 1903 when a lot of clubs didn't exist. The Sky list thus has Southampton massively higher, but then they've been a top flight side for most of the last 40 years
Although we gave a little uplift for more recent success we tried not to let it push down clubs with great histories.
Out of interest who would you have above them?
NO#
2 League titles, 1 FA Cup
Proof, if needed, that we are indeed South London's Number 1
I am not sure what the +/- column refers to.
Just refers to the difference from actual position.
Example, Charlton are ranked 30th on the overall, all time table. But in 17/18 we finished 50th of the 92. hence -20
The resulting table looks like this
The best football teams in England, ever
1st. CHARLTON ATHLETIC 3pts2nd = Derby County 2pts
2nd = Manchester United 2pts
2nd = Wolves 2pts
2nd =Arsenal 2pts
6th = Burnley 1pt
6th = Blackpool 1pt
6th = Leicester City 1pt
6th = Liverpool 1pt
10th = everyone else 0pt
Not sure about that list. I guess it proves that palace have done better league postion wise over the years but that list doesn't reflect how big a team is. You could never say palace are bigger than wolves, Birmingham, Portsmouth and both Sheffield clubs.