All perception about "bigishness" of football clubs is based on last 20-30 years of televized football. I had many discussions with KFA people here and they were shocked to hear me saying that Barcelona was fairly average in European football before this generation. They'd bet their lives on Barcelona always being the Messiutiful club. They just recall what they've seen in last 20 years, who was winning titles in that period and that's it - that are the big historic clubs.
I've went through all 1st division history and made points bar race video. It's a nice thing to throw at anyone talking too much bullshit about history.
For ex. Rags never were in top 10 until late 1970s, and first time they went ahead of City was in 1984-85 season, helped by City entering the period of calamity and 3 points per win that started in 1980. It would be even better if I could adjust the wins before 1980. to 3 points as it would be more fair, Rags would finish below Everton and us above SPurs and Chelsea, but would be pretty fucking hard and time consuming as even this took 10+ hours to fill all data.
So, here it is:
Hey @BosnianBlue just a suggestion if you're still into doing these. I'd be interested in seeing a bar chart race of the clubs with the most major honours in English football. Top 20 would make the most sense, since a lot of clubs were joint placed for long periods.
I've added them up a few times for different years, recently discovered at the close of 1970, Manchester City and Spurs were level on 8 major titles with the mighty Liverpool. Both clubs had of course picked up a UEFA recognised European cup by then, where Liverpool had not.
1970
1: Aston Villa 14
2: Man United 11
3: Arsenal 10, Everton 10, Newcastle 10
4: Man City 8, Liverpool 8, Spurs 8
5: Sunderland 7, Sheffield Wed 7, Wolves 7
More interesting than that though, unless someone took over Aston Villa before the late 70s. I gather that makes it close to a 90 year reign, as the most successful club in English football. Puts all the Liverpool and United history pandering into perspective that I think.
Fair enough it was just a suggestion.uh, I'm really buy these days