On the one hand you can’t win if you can’t score

But on the other hand, if your opponent scores more than you then you’ll definitely lose.

A good defence will guarantee you points, while a good attack will offer you wins. The trick to winning is having both

Only 2 teams have gone undefeated, plus one team helped inspired the Champions League. Therefore I submit the answer must be

Arsenal, Preston North End and Wolverhampton Wanderers

I will not be taking questiond at this time

Teams win trophies, not individual players

He’d probably keep them up, but I’d be surprised by even top half tbh

The only difference between the big 6 and the other 14 is just how much media attention they get and how likely it is a eandom fan will support them. Finishing position is kind of completely irrelevant.

Give me 100 random fans and I’d pretty 50+ of them will support the “Big 6” clubs

https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/sports-business-group/articles/annual-review-of-football-finance-premier-league-clubs.html

Just for a Preview this has a bar chart. If you double Burnley’s 22-23 revenue you get $5 mil shy of West Ham, who are still >$100m short of Arsenal and if doubled would still be less than Man City, Liverpool or Man Utd.

That table should really be in PPG, but it doesn’t chamge Villa’s position

1. 10 point is a ridiculously large amount, particularly considering by all accounts they’ve apparently been quite forthcoming in the process of investigation

2. Nobody believes Man City or Chelsea, despite far bigger and somewhat flagrant rulebreaking will be punished anywhere near as harshly

3. It was just over a bit extra money for work on their stadium, not some massive conspiracy moves

Feels a bit stupid that managers can rightfully point out a wrong call by the referee and get carded for it, meanwhile the referee will completely avoid punishment.

They lost to Chelsea (who then drew with City), and then 2-1 to Wolves (who beat City 2-1) and that was that. Title hopes over.

I’m not expecting them to be a proper contender for the title but Football fans are a bit fickle

I think for the science of it, I think area covered, fan-base spread and available wealth would be important factors determining the optimal size of a football league.

The smaller the area, the more teams can be supported due to overall decreased travel costs (of course this applies for the total number of teams before they become regionalised and may extend beyond the league, such as England hitting 116)

The better the spread of fans too, the more teams you can have. Scotland has I think 5 teams with an average attendance over 10,000. England has I think 40+. This is why Scotland only has 12 teams despite probably being able to host a decent few more is the lack of support.

Available wealth. This covers three-bases. Is there the money for newly promoted teams to be viable, is there money available to make extra matches profitable and also are all the clubs rich enough for it to be even. If there is money in more teams and they can be competitive, more teams will likely be added.

Best answer I can give is it’s funny and they’re an easy target.

They’re part of the “Big Six”, but just can’t win a trophy making them a bit of an outsider to the other members of the 6, but also getting that same disdain from the “Other 14” clubs.

They are in that perfect range of good but not good enough to always be the perfect target to make jokes about

Four things that matter imo to make a good tournament:

1. History: Hard to build and typically relies on other factors to have carried the tournament through. But by the time anything hits 50+ years of running there is a certain prestige gained.
2. Prize Money: Pretty self explanatory, but if the money is there, the teams will compete
3. Upsets: If the results are often fairly predictable, a tournament will struggle to succeed. I think for the NBA this will have to be the big thing they need to get right in this set up, otherwise it will fail
4. Bragging Rights: This one is harder to quantify as it kind of comes down to the fans, but if it feels like something you can brag about winning, then people will brag about winning and make others want to take it off them

Murder is worse than theft, but that doesn’t make theft okay

In the same vein paying refs and other teams off is worse, but that doesn’t excuse financial doping

I prefer my success without an asterisk

The football quality is worse (NZ), but the the hours are typically better. 6:00 am and 8:30 am are honestly pretty decent if I feel like watching, in comparison to the 2:30 am of last week.

The annoying part is the games don’t feel like they matter too much half the time and if we’re in a cup the best teams we’re playing are like Tahiti and New Caledonia. Soccer Ashes might be back, so can get to watch us get a battering by Aussie every once in a while too.

NZ National League is still on on the weekend if I want anyway so can watch great matches like Auckland City vs. Christchurch United, Eastern Suburbs vs. Cashmere Technical, Auckland United vs. Napier City Rovers, Petone vs. Manurewa or Wellington Olympic vs. Wellington Phoenix Reserves if I wanna watch some football. Final week with top 2 already determined though.

Going to take a stab and say most Man Utd aren’t 70+ years old so this is an irrelevant argument

We can look at this in a few categories and so I will

Short-Term Success

Big 6: You’ll see plenty of wins for your club, probably trophies (unless you picked Spurs) and overall good finishes. It’ll be exciting fun and watching the team will be fun. It’s a lot easier to become a fan of these teams because things are going well.

Other 14: You are likely to have a 50/50 record at best and could be facing relegation at worse. It’s not improbable at some point you’ll employ an ugly style of football to survive and even then it may fail. FA Cups, Premier League, Champions Leagues etc. are unlikely to come to you. It can be a bit hard to get into a times because 12th place might be the good finish you’re aiming for and you could be losing more matches than you are winning.

Long-Term Success

Big 6: Instant gratification will usually come back to bite you. It sets your expectation high and anything but victory feels like a disappointment. If you don’t win a trophy (unless you picked Spurs) feels like a failure. You are pretty much guaranteed misery because your expectations are too high to be realistically attained. Your expectations are so high 10th place is a disgrace and even 5th is considered bad

Other 14: Maybe you get relegated, maybe you just barely survive. Maybe your team almost went bankrupt. But you are use to the losses and can accept them a bit easier. But those wins, particularly over the big 6 are incredible. When you win the Championship or FA Cup or Europa Conference League or Europa League or whatever else it is incredible and probably 10x time better than a big 6 win. Your expectations are more realistic and 10th place is typically pretty decent and 5th is absolutely awesome

Media Coverage

Big 6: Absolutely everywhere, everyone is talking about your squad what went well, who was good. You’re in title race, you’re looking at this exciting manager or player to bring to your club. But at the same time if you lose it is being put in your face absolutely everywhere. I remember when Wolves beat Spurs & Man City this season. People were roasting their fans every where.

Other 14: You’ll barely hear about your club and half the time when you do it’s really obvious they barely know what they’re talking about. If a player is playing well “They’re going to move to a bigger club”. Most pundits are just from the 6 “bigger” clubs, mainly the old “big 4”. When you beat a big 6 side it’s always what they did wrong, NOT what you did right. But I think the communities are a bit more tight knit in comparison. Also if you get relegated r/Championship just seems to be a really fun subreddit.

Overall

My advice is always to pick an other 14 club. Yeah, it’s rougher to get into for a start. You want to be winning and stuff. But the benefits of the long term commitment are just so much better and will give you untold joy that a big 6 club will just not be able to give you.