The ‘size’ of football clubs is the focal point of debates between fans. ‘Is X bigger than Y?’ Should this player move to Z because they’re bigger than his current club?’
It’s a pattern of discussion that is common among fans. The debates are often cyclical because there’s no fixed definition on what makes a football club ‘big’.
Subjective for the most part, it’s a conversation that can roll on indefinitely. Club size doesn’t have a clear metric, and it isn’t even judged by the same criteria.
Does a top spot in the football odds point towards being a big club? Or is the size of the club more about the past than the present?
History
History clearly plays a part in the reputation of a club. Past success elevates a club’s standing, but there is a half-life.
Leeds have had plenty of success, but it’s a long time since they were a consistent force.
Those born in the mid-1990s and later will not remember Leeds as a force. Others who witnessed them challenge for titles in the late 1960s and early 1970s will have a very different view of the club and are more likely to view them as a ‘sleeping giant’.
Huddersfield’s threepeat between the wars isn’t relevant in 2024, though Arsenal’s successes in the 1930s are part of a greater history of the club.
It was the bedrock for a team that has been a staple at the top of English football, running through to the only unbeaten season and 13 league titles. There is relevance when it’s backed up in the decades that followed.
Historical success, like everything in sport, needs context. A league title in the 1890s means less than a European Cup or two in the 1970s.
That brings us to Nottingham Forest’s curious place in this conversation.
With just one league title (fewer than Preston, Portsmouth and Derby), but two European Cups, they are often regarded as one of the biggest clubs in the country.
Winning in the past matters to a degree. All the teams to have won a league title have a certain pedigree, even if it happened a century or so ago.
Those trophies in the cabinet cannot be taken away, and it clearly has an influence on how a club’s ‘size’ is perceived.
Support
Home advantage can influence sports betting. The loyalty of support, and decibels generated, is an oft-used argument about the size of a club, too.
To use Leeds as an example again, the consistent support (home and away) clearly means something. What weight it holds about the size of a club is a different matter, however.
Equating great support to the size of a club can be misleading. While Leeds and Newcastle have been well-supported through tough times, it’s still a relatively small scale compared to the number of fans the biggest clubs have worldwide.
Even at venues like Elland Road, we’re dealing with tens of thousands rather than tens of millions for teams like Manchester United, Liverpool, and Real Madrid.
Support is linked to past and current success (for the most part, anyway). It can be difficult differentiating the two things when evaluating the size of a club.
While location influences it too, winning trophies always attracts more supporters.
The way Leeds and Newcastle have retained fans perhaps tells us more about the relationship they have with the club, how important it is to them, than the club’s overall size.
Keeping such a loyal, core fanbase should give a club a higher floor. Gate receipts will remain through even the darkest times, and the lure of playing at Elland Road or St James’ Park is a real factor for new signings.
In the modern game, though, matchday revenue is only a slither of total income, and local support is dwarfed by global television deals and vast sponsorship packages.
Being well-supported holds some weight when we’re looking at the size of a club, but that significance has dwindled as the sport has globalised. Fandom has evolved massively in the Premier League era.
Revenue
Money is an objective way to judge the size of football clubs. Revenue tables give a black-and-white view of which club is the ‘biggest’.
While it might not be how a lot of fans want to resolve a debate about a club’s ‘size’, it’s certainly the most straight forward.
This view effectively wipes out teams that aren’t competing right now. History and local support are near-irrelevant compared to the revenues generated at the top of the game.
With the influence of TV money and sponsors, it is massively biased towards teams in the top flight too. Are a team playing their first two Premier League seasons really much bigger than a sleeping giant in the Championship?
At the top of the sport, using revenue as a metric makes Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Barcelona the biggest clubs in the world. It works better as a metric for the biggest clubs, though it is heavily biased towards the Premier League.
Current Success
A lack of parity in the Premier League might create a ceiling for a lot of teams, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore current success.
Being good right now is worth something. It brings European football, wealth and better players. The club’s reputation and brand recognition increase worldwide.
The established ‘big’ clubs in Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United have seen Chelsea and Manchester City compete on and off the pitch over the last 15 to 20 years.
The longer City are the country’s best team, the more metrics suggest they are a truly big club. The way they have got the top is always going to see them excluded from these discussions by some fans, yet club size is an ever-changing situation.
Chelsea might not be the force they were in the 2000s or 2010s at the moment, but there’s no question the Roman Abramovich era increased the ‘size’ of the club.
Mix Of Factors
Chelsea, City, Leeds, and Newcastle are great examples of how broad the debate is.
The relevance of recent success, the current competitiveness of the team, is too often downplayed.
Club size doesn’t have to be a historic status, a closed group of highly regarded clubs. It is more fluid than that.
Winning silverware in decades past has an impact, but it’s nowhere near as important as what has happened in the last five or 10 years.
There’s a combination of factors that decide the size of a club, history, wealth, and support are all key.
The on-field product is ultimately what matters most, however, and that, for the short-term at least, tells us more than anything else.
Manchester City are enormous right now. Chelsea have established themselves at the top. Aston Villa and Newcastle have taken a step up with Champions League appearances in recent years.
Some teams in the Championship might be bigger than some of their peers, but until they produce on the pitch, it’s little more than immaterial.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Adobe*
