Clubs that should be bigger than they are.

chopperbyrne

What clubs for you, are far, far smaller, and less successful than they should be?

There are two obvious ones for me.

Hertha Berlin

They play in a massive stadium, in one of the best European cities to live in, but post war their only major successes are two league cups in the early 2000's. They've been relegated and promoted several times too.

Bray Wanderers

Seaside town, with good nightlife, great transport links, and a huge catchment area. A complete yoyo club, who only ever seem to have a few hundred dedicated fans at any one time. With the positives they have going for them, they should be one of the most successful clubs in Ireland.

adaminho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058256294/clubs-that-should-be-bigger-than-they-are

https://youtu.be/O6Gh-XEPzDI

Great video on Hertha.

Gusser09

Aston Villa and Birmingham City I suppose. England's second city and they aren't overly successful to be fair considering the potential fan base they both have.

NIMAN

Perhaps, although villa have been European champions.

ArmaniJeanss

Bristol (either club) - 4th biggest city in England and pretty affluent, yet never had even 1 season in the EPL.

It may be a city that veers towards other sports (Rugby Union?) though that hasn't stopped the Northern cities where Rugby League is strong.

Scoundrel

Newcastle United who since the late 60s have chronically underachieved.

HalloweenJack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058256294/clubs-that-should-be-bigger-than-they-are

Sorry but no. I'm a Seagull and I don't see where you're getting that from.

When we're in the Prem, the crowds are boosted because of games with the big Dublin teams and exiles for the likes of Cork and Derry. Play any 'provincial' team and the crowds are weak on our part. Our core fans are probably 400-500. About 40k people in Bray, another 150k in the rest of Wicklow (and getting back to wherever else in Wicklow on a Friday night after ten is a nightmare). Wicklow is also a mixed bag in terms of sports. Bray and Greystones are mostly football, the mountains and the central part are more Gaelic and the south's more hurling.

There's a bit of support from Shankill but after that most people consider south Dublin to be Rovers territory, especially since they built the stadium in Tallaght.

The team are in a mess right now. What positives are there?

Fwiw, what's the deal with Bordeaux these days? They always struck me as a decent sized club that has massive potential. I'm sure there's any number of German clubs that could be doing better given the size of their stadiums and the populations.

adaminho

Bordeaux were relegated to the 3rd division for financial reasons but were reinstalled to the 2nd the other day. Hitc 7's have a good series on teams like these.

https://youtu.be/sJGqAzoufSQ

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119394676#Comment_119394676

Bristol might be the 4th biggest City but there are a lot of Cities with bigger City/urban area's than Bristol , Bristol is some what isolated from other large catchment area's if you get me , the closest is probably Bath which wouldn't be know for football

You'd have London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester ,Bradford, Liverpool's , Newcastle (Tyne side) all bigger overall area's

Scoundrel

Just to emphasise how badly Newcastle have underachieved since the late 60's in 1974 Newcastle played Liverpool in the FA cup final and up to that point Newcastle had won more trophies than Liverpool.

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119402653#Comment_119402653

Bloody hell, 48 years ago! I remember that - it was supposed to be SuperMac's final, but they lost 3-0.

Scoundrel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119404206#Comment_119404206

Yeah that's right supermac was the best striker in England at the time but Liverpool crushed Newcastle 3-0 it was the start of the great Liverpool teams of the 70s and 80s was winning that cup final.

Both teams went very different directions after it Newcastle lost the league cup final in 76 to Man City sold supermac and were relegated in 78 not promoted back again till 84 thanks to Keven Keegan whereas during that time Liverpool went on to dominate English and European football.

Dillonb3

I'll throw in the 2 Genoese teams Genoa and Sampdoria.

Both from a very affluent northern Italian city, Genoa, but find themselves fighting relegation each year.

Sampdoria have had spells where they got into Europe only to implode and drop down the league

kagni

Leeds.

One of the largest cities in UK. One club City. Competition from Rugby League but still have underachieved over the last few decades.

timothydec77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119426838#Comment_119426838

Castleford

artanevilla

In Ireland, Limerick should really have a bigger team.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119426838#Comment_119426838

Or, you could take the view that the 60’s and 70’s were a blip for Leeds. Incredibly successful during that time, but they haven’t done much since, and very little before. Don’t really know much about English cities, didn’t realise Leeds was twice the size of Liverpool.

The_Kew_Tour

Cork City and Limerick.

England and Poland in international terms

artanevilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119428241#Comment_119428241

Cork have won the league fairly recently and get good gates, you can't imagine them being in the 1st Division for long, just the usual financial mismanagement that has them there as opposed to not being a "big club".

adaminho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119429043#Comment_119429043

That's pretty much the norm for every LOI club. Sure rovers were in the First division a few years ago.

Lazio and Roma have both grossly underachieved.

Over two centuries of footballing history and they have a handful of league titles between them.

In Europe, Lazio bring a Cup Winners' Cup & a Super Cup to the table, Roma bring their shiny new Europa Conference League title.

They have, admittedly, a fair collection of Coppa Italia medals in the attic.