Biggest underachievers in football

Who is the biggest underachiever in football? I'm inclined to go for Sunderland (they average more than Chelsea, Everton and Spiurs). They consistently get huge crowds despite being permanently crap, and every year they seem to either get relegated or just scrape another season in the top flight.

Newcastle as well.

Grimsby Town?

Aston Villa and Leeds too.

If we are including players as well I'd like to throw in Francis Jeffers.

Quoted from sutton mariner

Grimsby Town?

Only recently , at least we have won things,

Not every club can say that.

Leeds one club in a huge city massively  under achieve

Birmingham City, a club like that should not be anywhere near the bottom of the Championship. Sheff Wednesday and Bristol City as well?

Quoted from Wrawby_Mariner

If we are including players as well I'd like to throw in Francis Jeffers.

Won more league titles than Steven Gerrard

England ?

Quoted from Abdul19

Won more league titles than Steven Gerrard

Didn't receive a medal

Portsmouth

Quoted from promotion plaice

England ?

If we are looking at countries then India are massive underachievers. Over a billion people and not in the top 150!

I would have thought that Newcastle are greater underachievers than Sunderland really.

Player wise I'd for for Matt Le Tissier who could have gone so much further if he hadn't been excrement scared of leaving Southampton.

Player-wise I would say ME. As a toddler I was destined for the top-flight, World Cups, etc. Never quite made it  

Quoted from GrimRob

If we are looking at countries then India are massive underachievers. Over a billion people and not in the top 150!

Get the football infrastructure in place and you could tap into some potential. I know they have  said similar things here in the UK with the large Indian population yet hardly any pros which is probably a cultural thing eg they play mainly cricket .

Quoted from GrimRob

If we are looking at countries then India are massive underachievers. Over a billion people and not in the top 150!

What about China ?

They should dominate every sport and every thing,

I hope I have not given them any idea's.

China for Sure, and Russia as well. Club wise, for me Newcastle

Quoted from Rick12

Get the football infrastructure in place and you could tap into some potential. I know they have  said similar things here in the UK with the large Indian population yet hardly any pros which is probably a cultural thing eg they play mainly cricket .

They can send an object around Mars though

Quoted from Garth

They can send an object around Mars though

We've had players who could do that at BP.


Don't agree about Sunderland or Newcastle. They are in the Prem after all.

Birmingham City should be in the top tier as should Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and/or United. Possibly Coventry and Bristol City should have the clout to do it as well if properly managed.

Birmingham and Newcastle

Leeds did get to the Champions League semi-final not so long ago. They were a top team in much of the 60s and 70s.

Newcastle have not won anything worthwhile since the Fairs Cup in the late 60s.  

Sheffield Wednesday, a massive club

To be fair, the amount of clubs that 'could' (and whose fans believe they should) be in the top flight is about 50!

If we are talking managers, Mike Neweel and Neil Woods  

Ravel Morrison for players surely? If he had the right attitude he'd go far in the game.

Quoted from Garth

They can send an object around Mars though

yes  

Quoted from Tom13

Ravel Morrison for players surely? If he had the right attitude he'd go far in the game.

Agree probably could put Peter Sweeney in that category as well

Quoted from Rick12

yes  


Agree probably could put Peter Sweeney in that category as well

I'd add Conlon to the list as well, him and Sweeney showed how good they could be in that spell when they were playing for a contract, just a shame it didn't last any longer than that!

Ashley Sestanovich

I'd have to go for Newcastle - always managed to member it up somehow (usually off the pitch) despite such massive, loyal support
Leeds is a good call - should have won so much more under Don Revie

Bristol is a huge under-achieving city - one of the UK's biggest but neither club has achieved anything of any note

Quoted from Stevie Saunders

I'd have to go for Newcastle - always managed to member it up somehow (usually off the pitch) despite such massive, loyal support
Leeds is a good call - should have won so much more under Don Revie

Bristol is a huge under-achieving city - one of the UK's biggest but neither club has achieved anything of any note

I agree, Bristol City did make the top league some years ago though.

So did Barnsley, Wimbledon, Huddersfield and Swindon to be over-achievers.

Leeds were competing mainly with Liverpool and Chelsea who were also good sides and there was real competition at the top then. Everton, Man U, Derby, Man City all had championships, but losing to Sunderland was a disaster for Leeds.

Hull has got to be up there in the Underachievers League. Biggest city never to have been in the top flight until they went up under that tanned bloke. Couldn't even manage a full-time professional club until well into the 20th century, and only then because of support and intense lobbying by a certain club on the south bank of the Humber.

Quoted from Garth

They can send an object around Mars though

And we still send them aid?

Quoted from KingstonMariner

And we still send them aid?

From memory it is being phased out by 2015, £250 million ish at the minute I think.  Not sure what the overall aid to over seas countries is but it is over several billion and six of those countries have space programmes.

Quoted from Marinerz93

From memory it is being phased out by 2015, £250 million ish at the minute I think.  Not sure what the overall aid to over seas countries is but it is over several billion and six of those countries have space programmes.

I don't mind aid, and even keeping it high* (at least relative to everyone else), in fact I'm proud we do. But countries like India don't need owt from us.

* target was 0.7% of GDP and UK is the only country anywhere near it.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

I don't mind aid, and even keeping it high* (at least relative to everyone else), in fact I'm proud we do. But countries like India don't need owt from us.

* target was 0.7% of GDP and UK is the only country anywhere near it.

Agreed, I believe we are the 3rd largest donor of aid but when it is broken down to population we give twice as much more than the US and Germany, it's about £140 pound per person a year.

There are a lot of countries who do not need it and some who don't deserve it!

Quoted from Tom13

I'd add Conlon to the list as well, him and Sweeney showed how good they could be in that spell when they were playing for a contract, just a shame it didn't last any longer than that!

Yes I was going to add him as well.Remember first time I saw him I liked him. Big target man who impressed.Only thing is as rumours were at the time was his drinking habits.Big shame for me as had ability but he undermined himself.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Hull has got to be up there in the Underachievers League. Biggest city never to have been in the top flight until they went up under that tanned bloke. Couldn't even manage a full-time professional club until well into the 20th century, and only then because of support and intense lobbying by a certain club on the south bank of the Humber.

Barton Town?  

Shearer. One Premier League title for a player who consistently finished with 25+ goals

Quoted from Stevie Saunders

I'd have to go for Newcastle - always managed to member it up somehow (usually off the pitch) despite such massive, loyal support
Leeds is a good call - should have won so much more under Don Revie

Bristol is a huge under-achieving city - one of the UK's biggest but neither club has achieved anything of any note

A city with divided loyalties. If there had only been one team think of the support it would have got.

This will help:

http://thegeographist.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/largest-cities-uk-population/

So on the grounds that Liverpool too is a divided city but with only 17,000 more people than Bristol you've got to say that either Liverpool/Everton are overachieving or Bristol City/Rovers are underachieving.

Other notable under-performers: Bradford and Cardiff (1/2m), Brighton and Plymouth

Surprised to see Lincoln is bigger than Grimsby (104,000 to 88,000!).

And more surprised not to see Cleethorpes on it at all.

Brizzle is in egg chasing territory too,but do think they should be better placed. When I first read this, my instant reaction was Sheffield, big city, big potential, crap teams.
As far as towns go, isn't Warrington the biggest without a professional football team ( I'm not counting RL)

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

As far as towns go, isn't Warrington the biggest without a professional football team ( I'm not counting RL)

I thought it was Wakefield. They all support Leeds there anyway.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

This will help:

http://thegeographist.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/largest-cities-uk-population/

So on the grounds that Liverpool too is a divided city but with only 17,000 more people than Bristol you've got to say that either Liverpool/Everton are overachieving or Bristol City/Rovers are underachieving.

Other notable under-performers: Bradford and Cardiff (1/2m), Brighton and Plymouth

Surprised to see Lincoln is bigger than Grimsby (104,000 to 88,000!).

And more surprised not to see Cleethorpes on it at all.

Grimsby and Cleethorpes is the largest conurbation in Lincolnshire ( far greater than Lincoln ).

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

As far as towns go, isn't Warrington the biggest without a professional football team ( I'm not counting RL)

I thought it was Wakefield too. It's often thought to be Croydon, but Crystal Palace's ground is in South Norwood which is part of The Borough Croydon.

Quoted from Les Brechin

I thought it was either Wakefield or Croydon, although Crystal Palace's ground is only a stone's throw from Croydon.

I'll give you Wakefield, didn't realise it was that big. Croydon is Palace in all but name. Warrington still tops 200k though.

Could be a coincidence but a lot of the teams mentioned (Town, Newcastle, Leeds, Sunderland) have supporters who are very quick to turn on their team when things go wrong. This may well be because they are crap but it doesn't help the situation. There are certainly parallels with Town and Newcastle fans looking for any excuse to criticise their manager.