Max wrote:

the crew I am working with are mostly English, with one Spaniard who pulls for Barcelona, but lives and works in London.  One of the Brits pulls for Arsenal . . . it's been a rough summer for him.  Another pulls for Liverpool . . . had to watch them get beat by . . . who, Tottenham? I can't even keep it all straight.  But they put a TV and satellite dish in the field station and these guys are up at all crazy hours of the night watching Premiere League.

There are two glamour teams in Spain - Barca and Real Madrid. Which team you root for says a lot about your personality. Without getting too much into what would be a very long explanation, Real was Franco's team, and Barca represented the oppressed, downtrodden masses.

I'm an Arsenal guy, going back (not too long) to the days of The Invincibles.
There have only been four teams to ever win the Prem - Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Blackburn. The first three along with Liverpool (which had its glory days in the '70s and '80s, before the formation of the Premier League) are the British glamour teams. Manchester United are the Yankees of English soccer - they have the most money, their fans are obnoxious and entitled, and you either love them or loathe them.
(Ironically, John Henry's group bought Liverpool last year, but the Reds need to get better before the Yankees/Red Sox comparisons start.)
Chelsea is kind of the new money team. A Russian billionaire bought them a few years ago and paid top dollar for the best players from all around the world.
Tottenham Hotspur is another North London team that has a wicked rivalry with Arsenal. Spurs are usually a 2nd tier side, but they've been spending money lately and should finish in the top six. The other team to watch is Manchester City - the other Manchester team - which has been spending gobs of money lately and beat out Arsenal for third place on the last day of the season last year (significant because the top three automatically qualify for the European Champions League group stage. Arsenal had to win a home-and-away set with an Italian team to make the CL group stage).
Outside of the Prem and the European leagues, there are two single-elimination domestic tournaments that take place during the season - the League Cup (or Carling Cup, after the main sponsor) and the FA Cup. The FA Cup is considered the more prestigious of the two, since it is open to any professional team in England, and instances where minnows knock off the big fish have become folklore. The final is played at Wembley, just after the conclusion of the league schedule.

Last edited by artie_fufkin (9/20/2011 9:21 am)

Max wrote:

They were telling me that Arabs bought Manchester City and shit money on it.  Apparently the teams are public corporations (or something similar) and not allowed to lose money by English business law (more or less) but English football owners get away with murder in these regards.

I thought Man U. was owned by the Glazers (the same people who own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) but I'm not fully aware of what goes on with ownership.
I recall a lot of animosity because Americans controlled the most recognizable English sports franchise, but Liverpool is almost as prominent and there seemed to be no issues with John Henry's ownership, but Henry et al bought Liverpool from another group of Americans.
There was a movement afoot a couple of years ago for "real" fans of the  Manchester United to cobble their finances together and start their own team, but it's like a fifth division club.