I'm fairly certain I saw an article where they were crowned the least liked English club in the world.
I always imagined we are quite an unpopular club as well, amongst other fans. Mainly due to the false belief that we ‘expect’ European football and trophies every year.
This was a rest of the world opinion thing, not UK opinion. Think we placed in the lower region of top ten most liked teams.
my opinion still stands, though I have only ever lived in the north east, so maybe I am wrong.