Foreign NUFCs

[Dinho lad]

Was randomly thinking earlier today are Fiorentina our Italian equivalent?

 

Pretty big club from a 1 team city who have never quite capitalised on it for 1 reason or another and a club that a recent affinity for great football/strikers/shooting themselves in the foot. Have a pretty similar European pedigree to us says wiki too. Hmmmm.

 

In terms of Argieball I'd go for one of the two big Rosario clubs, NOB or Central, both of whom wildly underachieve at every moment possible and have fanatical support. Could easily be us and the mackems.

 

Yeah, I've always imagined Fiorentina as our equivalent.

 

Shearer - Batistuta.

[Guest Recoba]

Atletico being in the capital rules it out for me.  What about Real Sociodad, as a Basque alternative to Bilbao.

 

I think a regional club, distant from the capital, relative economic decline but a strong regional power are the biggest factors.

 

Napoli is the one for me in Italy.  Florence as a city rules out Fiorentina.

 

Schalke is a good one.  Industrial city and all.

 

Feyenord from Holland, although a mackem connection I understand.

 

Marseilles are the biggest club in France so I cannot compare. Lens for me. Industrial northern and failing expectations.

 

I like the Cleveland comparisons. Braves, Cavs and Indians all prone to NUFC style fuckups.  City a decent comparison too.  Newcastle is never Chicago.

 

 

[aussiemag]

Germany: Hamburg

Spain:Valencia

Italy: Udinese

France: Bordeaux

Netherlands: PSV

[Village Idiot]

Atletico being in the capital rules it out for me.  What about Real Sociodad, as a Basque alternative to Bilbao.

 

I think a regional club, distant from the capital, relative economic decline but a strong regional power are the biggest factors.

 

Napoli is the one for me in Italy.  Florence as a city rules out Fiorentina.

 

Schalke is a good one.  Industrial city and all.

 

Feyenord from Holland, although a mackem connection I understand.

 

Marseilles are the biggest club in France so I cannot compare. Lens for me. Industrial northern and failing expectations.

 

I like the Cleveland comparisons. Braves, Cavs and Indians all prone to NUFC style fuckups.  City a decent comparison too.  Newcastle is never Chicago.

 

 

 

Real Sociedad aren't a club with high expectations, though, and their regional identity is a bit more muddied than Athletic's. And Athletic are so extreme in their regional pride thing - with their Basque only policy - that I'm not sure they fit the bill. They have also been quite stable on and off the pitch all these years.

 

Betis aren't a bad comparison, though, although since their relegation their expectations have tempered a lot. However, having a bigger cross-city rival doesn't sit well. Zaragoza have travelled a similar path in the 90s and 00s (from CL football to relegation, you're now in far better state though) but they don't score too high on the regional pride thing.

 

Barça in the post-Cruyff era would have been a good comparison though. We were quite similar to your post-Keegan years, in my opinion. We as a club were obsessed on recapturing that magic with some good results (Bobby Robson era for you, Van Gaal for us), but crashed and burned badly in the late years (late Shepherd for you, Gaspart years for us), with incessant failed expensive signings that put the club on the verge of financial failure; all driven by extremely high fan expectations and a huge sense regional pride.

 

What about Depor? You even share a lot of players... You have regional pride, a "riches to rags" story that includes bouncing back from relegation and financial implosion after years of overspending, a huge regional rivalry with Celta...

 

[Guest Recoba]

Germany: Hamburg

Spain:Valencia

Italy: Udinese

France: Bordeaux

Netherlands: PSV

 

Hamburg as a city is too wealthy, along with Frankfurt a finance centre.

 

PSV are a sugar daddy club powered by Philips electronics.

[Guest Recoba]

VI I didnt know much about Sociodad, remember they were pretty good before Xabi Alonso left.

 

Didnt consider the Galician clubs.  Do you think Deportivo

 

are a better comparison than Celta Vigo? Deportivo used to be very exciting, just wikid them and cant believe Valeron is still there.

[Village Idiot]

VI I didnt know much about Sociodad, remember they were pretty good before Xabi Alonso left.

 

Didnt consider the Galician clubs.  Do you think Deportivo

 

are a better comparison than Celta Vigo? Deportivo used to be very exciting, just wikid them and cant believe Valeron is still there.

 

Real Sociedad had *that* season where they almost piped Real Madrid to the title, but then they started a big slide that got them relegated two seasons later.  They were pretty strong in the 80s, when they won their two league titles and challenged a few times, but they did so while playing a football that would make "1-0 to the Arsenal" look like Brazil 1970.

 

Depor used to be pretty good in the mid-to-late 90s and early 2000s. They were the last non-Barça/Madrid club to win La Liga, but did so spending what they didn't have since they are a modest club with fiercely loyal but modest following. When they were forced to sell most of their players to balance the books (usually to NUFC), they started the slide that put them in Liga Adelante (although they were "too good to go down", too). Celta Vigo used to be the more historic club, but never got the sustained success that Depor enjoyed the past 20 years.

[Shayno]

I've always thought Betis were our Spanish equivalent

[ponsaelius]

I've always thought Betis were our Spanish equivalent

 

Can see it in some ways in the path both clubs have followed over the last 20 years. Returned to the top flight in the early 90s and had forrays into Europe, both broke the world transfer record at one point (Shearer and Denilson), both flirted with the CL in the early 00s and both have had recent relegations. Not sure it can work too well considering they have Sevilla cross city who are a rival and a bigger club though.

 

Not sure whether the cities compare that well. Seville is very big and was once the hub of the Spanish Empire - becoming extremely wealthy because of it. There is the connection of both being port cities (sort of for Seville, it's about 50 miles in land by River) which meant they had key roles when the respective nations were booming. Both cities are also historic conflict frontiers and were both strongly fortified because of it.

 

Think it's a decent comparison on the whole actually. I always got the impression Seville was a very passionate footballing city.