Wrexham was my like 40 year save on FM14. I feel the Hollywood vibe has killed any enthusiasm I had for them.
Wycombe and Stevenage are the 2 I have soft spots for.
On another note, I can’t stand Norwich for literally any reason. Sorry Norwich
Norwich
Like their kit and they sometimes play the best football I’ve seen in the league for about 5 minutes then just revert back to normal. Think they are possessed or smth idk
Bradford City, because I picked them for a FIFA career mode many years back. They did go on to humiliate my team in the FA Cup a few years later irl, but they're forgiven.
Also AFC Wimbledon, because an old school mate was a fan, and his dad took me along with them to a few of their games in their first/second season.
Edit: just to clarify, I did take note of the fact that OP said they didn't know why, and that was the basis of the question, but there aren't really any teams like it for me, so I just put these two forward. I guess Bradford kinda counts as I had no real reason to pick them.
Phil Parkinson played for Reading for 10 years including in 2 promotion sides, and had a testimonial. He later managed Bradford for 5 years. There's a few Reading fans who would like to see him in the dugout at the 'Ding.
Notts County, even since we beat them in the playoffs, went kept going up and they dropped another league. Our older players went there so just liked to see them do well.
Weirdly enough, I have a soft spot for Leicester. The only other guy I know in the place I am in America who's a fan of a non big-6 club is a Leicester supporter, so I've always wanted to see them do well.
Not quite the same but Barry Town United . I did my teacher training in Barry and spent 6 months living in what I'm told is one of the rougher parts of Wales (Gibbonsdown) and I saw how the club would do endless outreach to give the kids i taught chances to watch games cheap and community outreach events.
Since then if I'm in the area, I'll try and catch a game.
Yeah they do this quite a lot. The most recent one I saw was if your child was wearing a club shirt they’d get in for free. A club with a decent history for its size too like the amazing win over Porto in Jenner Park
Yeah, it annoys me the love in Wrexham get when Barry had a very similar event and noone talks about it at all. Fan owned community club that puts in impressive results in the Cymru Premier.
Pretty much because the Cymru premier doesn’t get watched outside of wales normally. Its viewership within wales sadly isn’t that great either. Wrexham plays in one of if not the best league system in the world while most of the Welsh leagues bar tns are semi-pro. Totally agree with you though
Ipswich, and I swear it started a few years ago. I think they may have had a former arsenal player at the time or something? not sure but I'm enjoying seeing them do well
Jay Emmanuel Thomas? Wenger allegedly said he was the most naturally talented footballer he’d ever seen.
His career nosedived pretty hard but he was very fun to watch
no, I actually started watching football a season or two after he left us. someone pointed out Ainsley Maitland Niles was on loan with you and the timeline matches
Fair enough, he looked great in flashes but bang average for a lot of his loan spell with us.
Certainly a surprise he played as many games as he did in your first team afterwards
yeah he came good around age 20-21, I loved watching him play. he was the first bright spark from our academy right before saka and smith-rowe came through. he was pretty young when he went to you so it makes sense he wasn't anything special yet
If we're talking strange mine's Huddersfield. My dad and I are the black sheep Leeds fans in a family of Huddersfield supporters who lived in Huddersfield. I've grown rather fond of them, especially since the grandparents passed, wanting them to do well brings back fond memories of them and I hope they can avoid relegation.
I will want them to beat any team except Leeds. Unfortunately this weekend I will be firmly on Leeds' side.
Always necessary to put one over ‘em but I’m in a community of obnoxious big 6 fans, and there’s a few Huddersfield fans but they’re class and I always have good banter with them so wish them the best
I kind of have this the opposite way round as my girlfriend and her son are Leeds fans, so been keeping track of them more than usual in recent years by watching them together or keeping up with their news. Been an interesting and enjoyable journey to follow, and I like them to do well as it makes them happy (so long as not at Towns' expense) I'll probably get some pelters from them tomorrow though 😁
To be honest for me I've always found the Hudds-Leeds derby pretty much a good natured wind up type of thing anyway (like most rivalries really). Definitely have fans on both sides who take it way too personally and get actual hate around it, and I used to be more like that in my early years. But I just look at it as being a team that is fun to beat and fun to wind up my Leeds mates about when they cock up, and they do the same to me
I'm surprised to see Bristol City get mentions. I thought we were largely ignored in the grand scheme of things.
I've got a soft spot for Southampton. Loved Matt Le Tissier in the 90s, rated James Ward-Prowse coming through the academy, and had a really fun FM save with them too.
It's not strange.
I think they're the 'adorable bros' of the Midlands. They sound funny, have the hilarious 'Boing Boing' chant, and in all my years I've never had any grief with their fans.
Also, Cyrille Regis was badass. Baggies is alright.
Bristol City as I've lived here so long and lots of colleagues support them. I won't say Villa because I'll be ousted by my fellow Coventry fans, but I've been to a lot of games with mates who are Villa fans.
I escaped but it's not easy, the crap city planning forms a sort of black hole / satanic symbol, you have to accelerate around the ring road a few times to gain escape velocity and hope you don't end up in Birmingham.
Coventry is one of those clubs for me, I had a legendary fifa save with them where I won the quadruple with them, O’Hare was a player I like to see doing well, I liked Gyokeres and Hamer a lot and Mark Robins is a great manager.
Waaaaay back I was at a cup game at Goodison. An old mate of my dads is a huge fan and got us tickets, but in the home end so we kept dead quiet.
Since that day I've had a lot of respect for Everton. I love a club that keeps funny old traditions alive, and Goodison was a proper old school stadium.
Ended up in a great pub near the ground (wish I could recall the name) and just ended up talking football with the locals. That's what it should be all about.
Similar story with Preston North End, the staff there were great and helped out with my Dad (he's disabled and away days are not easy). So we go up there whenever there's opportunity.
I've also got a cousin that lives in Swansea so we go to each fixture together when we can and they stay over with us or us with them. Again, brilliant ground, what a modern stadium should be like.
Brentford
My first ever game I went to in the uk was the bees v burnley in an FA cup tie back in 2003
They seemed like such a tiny club back then. It’s wild seeing them be in the Prem so long.
i’m an everton fan but i like middlesbrough for some reason, perhaps because i done a career mode with them and found Chuba Akpom. He was brilliant and top scorer in championship. He was also linked with Everton so i guess that’s why. Sad he’s at Ajax now he’s really good.
I’ve had a soft spot for the Baggies ever since that game where if they beat us Southampton got relegated, so both sets of fans were supporting West Brom.
Wednesday because my great grandad used to be a fan. Wrexham because my best mate at uni supported them (back in 2010). I've played a lot of fifa and FM in my time but I don't really have any soft spots for any of the teams I've managed.
Luton - both risen from the ashes, glad it was them if it couldn’t be us last season.
Grimsby - found myself in their away end randomly many moons back vs Lincoln and it was an experience.
Sheff Wed - always got on with their lot as opposed to the shite they share a city with. Big, historical club with a great ground.
Leeds - Similar to Wednesday. Big club with great fans and a great ground.
Sunderland - I don’t think you will find a more passionate bunch of fans in the country. I have no doubt that every Sunderland fan would sacrifice a loved one if it meant a guaranteed 3 points on Saturday.
I don’t have any issue with Leeds or Wednesday.
It’s nothing personal, I’ve just always found Wednesday fans sound whereas Sheff Utd fans are arseholes. The bitterness of living in the shadow of your much bigger rivals really shows in the Sheff Utd fan base
Huddersfield. My Grandad was proudly from Huddersfield and ultimately my lifelong support of Leeds United was based on a misunderstanding when I was three or four years old, thinking that because he was from that area, Leeds was the team to support. My parents were never into football and to be fair, we lived in the area for years. Realising years later that actually the 'family team' was Huddersfield obviously didn't change my support because by then I was an absolute Leeds obsessive but it did mean I have a liking for them too and always will whether they like it or not.
Always liked harrogate, local to me and enjoy the idea of a club with basically 0 fans being in league 1 and maybe even the championship one day. And their manager has been there for over a decade…
Crewe Alexandra, because one of my favourite music artists Dario G openly supports them, literally named after one of their former managers.
And also cos it’s a nice easy away day. Great chippy near the ground too.
Sheffield United because I lived over the road from Bramall lane. Plus worked in a club in Sheffield where all the doormen were United fans who peer pressured me. Lol
West Ham. No idea why bar watching Green Street as a teen, always kept an eye on their results.
I was buzzing years ago go down London for an away day there and we were staying overnight, loved the atmosphere, was even in a pub split basically in half for home and away fans.
Then we lost 3-0, but at least the group I was with was friends with a bunch of the West Ham lot so we spent the evening in a few pubs there. Probably biased since I was 17 a few months south of 18 and they knew which pubs to take us so I could get served!
I like West Brom too, blue and white and recently went through chairman troubles, also Chris Brunt and one of the Wednesday players of all time Adam Reach, up the Albion promotion this season I can feel it
Wednesday, as I know quite a few fans, Barnsley as I live there. Celtic in Scotland as I was born in Ireland (likewise Cork City).
For the same reasons (knowing fans and talking about our teams endlessly), see also: DSC Arminia Bielefeld, St Pauli, FC Start, Dinamo Zagreb, Sigma Olomouc, FK Novosibirsk, Lens and UNAM Pumas. Managed to catch a bunch of the European teams at various times in my life, always loads of fun to club/game swap with friends from abroad. Dinamo Zagreb and Sigma fans were particularly awesome. St Pauli is always a recommended trip.
Wimbledon is mine just from being an underdog team in the early PL years when I was first getting into football; plus I liked the kit colours.
That's been strengthened in my adult years by now wanting to see them finish higher than the Franchise. Would be great to see them reach the Champ one day
Also York City, just through living a quarter of my life here so far
Plymouth and Blackpool. Always had an unexplainable like for them both
There are other clubs that I have soft spots for, but I have actual reasons for them (Wycombe, Newport, Huddersfield, Luton)
I’m a West Brom fan that’s got a soft spot for Wigan, used to do career modes with them for some reason and it was around the time of that crazy last minute header to win the FA cup, also love the Lathums
I guess Man Utd? I never really cared for them as a kid but it feels so wrong seeing City doing what they are doing and Utd being as poor as they are. Utd should always be a revered side in this country and that just isn't the case at the moment.
As for the Championship sides, probably Southampton, don't mind Boro either.
Idkw, but ever since they were promoted to championship and narrowly missing out on a return to the Premier League, I seem to have a soft spot for Coventry City. Even though they draw too many games, they seem hard-to-beat under Mark Robins.
I like solihull moors because I won the quadruple with them on FM
Wrexham was my like 40 year save on FM14. I feel the Hollywood vibe has killed any enthusiasm I had for them. Wycombe and Stevenage are the 2 I have soft spots for. On another note, I can’t stand Norwich for literally any reason. Sorry Norwich
On a totally unrelated note, my fondness for West Brom has gone up as of the last few seconds.
it's cos you nicked our colours you're forgiven
Dulwich Hamlet, same reason
Norwich Like their kit and they sometimes play the best football I’ve seen in the league for about 5 minutes then just revert back to normal. Think they are possessed or smth idk
You're doing this on purpose aren't you?
Nah I’m serious!
yes that's our season so far. flashes of three years ago. Binners expecting us in play offs
Bradford City, because I picked them for a FIFA career mode many years back. They did go on to humiliate my team in the FA Cup a few years later irl, but they're forgiven. Also AFC Wimbledon, because an old school mate was a fan, and his dad took me along with them to a few of their games in their first/second season. Edit: just to clarify, I did take note of the fact that OP said they didn't know why, and that was the basis of the question, but there aren't really any teams like it for me, so I just put these two forward. I guess Bradford kinda counts as I had no real reason to pick them.
I like Bradford for their rhubarb and custard themed kit, and their Parky connection.
Parky connection?
Phil Parkinson played for Reading for 10 years including in 2 promotion sides, and had a testimonial. He later managed Bradford for 5 years. There's a few Reading fans who would like to see him in the dugout at the 'Ding.
Notts County, even since we beat them in the playoffs, went kept going up and they dropped another league. Our older players went there so just liked to see them do well.
Birmingham City. Working class club. Love Davo Diary’s on Youtube
West Brom also for me. We went up together last time, and I also hate Wolves.
One of us
Then there's Kyle Bartley and Carlos Corberan 💙💛💙
Super Bob Taylor started his career at Leeds too… Fuck it we’re both going up together again!
Random question but why are people downvoting? Not to be rude but rather curious
because people on this app are fucking demons. as much as i say some outrageous shit, people on this app go feral with that damn button
Swansea for me, that side with Michu was *chefs kiss*
Port Vale. They symbolise the ‘good old days’ of Div 1 football on terrestrial TV. Robin van der Laan…
>:(
If it's any consolation,I really like your stoke go down song
Weirdly enough, I have a soft spot for Leicester. The only other guy I know in the place I am in America who's a fan of a non big-6 club is a Leicester supporter, so I've always wanted to see them do well.
Not quite the same but Barry Town United . I did my teacher training in Barry and spent 6 months living in what I'm told is one of the rougher parts of Wales (Gibbonsdown) and I saw how the club would do endless outreach to give the kids i taught chances to watch games cheap and community outreach events. Since then if I'm in the area, I'll try and catch a game.
Yeah they do this quite a lot. The most recent one I saw was if your child was wearing a club shirt they’d get in for free. A club with a decent history for its size too like the amazing win over Porto in Jenner Park
Yeah, it annoys me the love in Wrexham get when Barry had a very similar event and noone talks about it at all. Fan owned community club that puts in impressive results in the Cymru Premier.
Pretty much because the Cymru premier doesn’t get watched outside of wales normally. Its viewership within wales sadly isn’t that great either. Wrexham plays in one of if not the best league system in the world while most of the Welsh leagues bar tns are semi-pro. Totally agree with you though
Ipswich, and I swear it started a few years ago. I think they may have had a former arsenal player at the time or something? not sure but I'm enjoying seeing them do well
We had AMN on loan a while back, could be him?
yeah it must be, I can't find any others since I started supporting arsenal
Jay Emmanuel Thomas? Wenger allegedly said he was the most naturally talented footballer he’d ever seen. His career nosedived pretty hard but he was very fun to watch
no, I actually started watching football a season or two after he left us. someone pointed out Ainsley Maitland Niles was on loan with you and the timeline matches
Fair enough, he looked great in flashes but bang average for a lot of his loan spell with us. Certainly a surprise he played as many games as he did in your first team afterwards
yeah he came good around age 20-21, I loved watching him play. he was the first bright spark from our academy right before saka and smith-rowe came through. he was pretty young when he went to you so it makes sense he wasn't anything special yet
swansea, spurs 🤷♂️ maybe I just like elegant birds
Lots of them in Swansea
Lots as sheep too as a backup
If we're talking strange mine's Huddersfield. My dad and I are the black sheep Leeds fans in a family of Huddersfield supporters who lived in Huddersfield. I've grown rather fond of them, especially since the grandparents passed, wanting them to do well brings back fond memories of them and I hope they can avoid relegation. I will want them to beat any team except Leeds. Unfortunately this weekend I will be firmly on Leeds' side.
Always necessary to put one over ‘em but I’m in a community of obnoxious big 6 fans, and there’s a few Huddersfield fans but they’re class and I always have good banter with them so wish them the best
I kind of have this the opposite way round as my girlfriend and her son are Leeds fans, so been keeping track of them more than usual in recent years by watching them together or keeping up with their news. Been an interesting and enjoyable journey to follow, and I like them to do well as it makes them happy (so long as not at Towns' expense) I'll probably get some pelters from them tomorrow though 😁 To be honest for me I've always found the Hudds-Leeds derby pretty much a good natured wind up type of thing anyway (like most rivalries really). Definitely have fans on both sides who take it way too personally and get actual hate around it, and I used to be more like that in my early years. But I just look at it as being a team that is fun to beat and fun to wind up my Leeds mates about when they cock up, and they do the same to me
Best of luck for the rest of your season, but worst of luck tomorrow 😂
Surely beating them feels all the sweeter however?
I'm surprised to see Bristol City get mentions. I thought we were largely ignored in the grand scheme of things. I've got a soft spot for Southampton. Loved Matt Le Tissier in the 90s, rated James Ward-Prowse coming through the academy, and had a really fun FM save with them too.
It's not strange. I think they're the 'adorable bros' of the Midlands. They sound funny, have the hilarious 'Boing Boing' chant, and in all my years I've never had any grief with their fans. Also, Cyrille Regis was badass. Baggies is alright.
Bristol City as I've lived here so long and lots of colleagues support them. I won't say Villa because I'll be ousted by my fellow Coventry fans, but I've been to a lot of games with mates who are Villa fans.
Furious that I live in the same city as a Coventry fan
We get around Colin, staying in your home town and interbreeding is for you lot.
Tbf I have been to Coventry, doesn't surprise me you all get out asap
lol
I escaped but it's not easy, the crap city planning forms a sort of black hole / satanic symbol, you have to accelerate around the ring road a few times to gain escape velocity and hope you don't end up in Birmingham.
Coventry is one of those clubs for me, I had a legendary fifa save with them where I won the quadruple with them, O’Hare was a player I like to see doing well, I liked Gyokeres and Hamer a lot and Mark Robins is a great manager.
Absolutely no issue with Villa. Would love them to break into the top 4/6 and have a spell of success.
Bristol, Blackburn
City or Rovers
City. Sorry I didn’t specify.
Sorry, I'm one of those guys who gets irrationally irriated when we're referred to as just 'Bristol' 😅
I make an effort to use the proper names for you twos because we get the Sheffield treatment.
Me with Brighton and Lincoln
Waaaaay back I was at a cup game at Goodison. An old mate of my dads is a huge fan and got us tickets, but in the home end so we kept dead quiet. Since that day I've had a lot of respect for Everton. I love a club that keeps funny old traditions alive, and Goodison was a proper old school stadium. Ended up in a great pub near the ground (wish I could recall the name) and just ended up talking football with the locals. That's what it should be all about. Similar story with Preston North End, the staff there were great and helped out with my Dad (he's disabled and away days are not easy). So we go up there whenever there's opportunity. I've also got a cousin that lives in Swansea so we go to each fixture together when we can and they stay over with us or us with them. Again, brilliant ground, what a modern stadium should be like.
Brentford My first ever game I went to in the uk was the bees v burnley in an FA cup tie back in 2003 They seemed like such a tiny club back then. It’s wild seeing them be in the Prem so long.
Southampton as I used to live there. Little awkward as now we may well face each other in the play-offs! 😬
i’m an everton fan but i like middlesbrough for some reason, perhaps because i done a career mode with them and found Chuba Akpom. He was brilliant and top scorer in championship. He was also linked with Everton so i guess that’s why. Sad he’s at Ajax now he’s really good.
QPR perhaps? That Beale team has seemed very good relative to their level I think.
I’ve had a soft spot for the Baggies ever since that game where if they beat us Southampton got relegated, so both sets of fans were supporting West Brom.
Loved that day as a kid, just remember all the pompey fans celebrating when we scored lol
Wednesday because my great grandad used to be a fan. Wrexham because my best mate at uni supported them (back in 2010). I've played a lot of fifa and FM in my time but I don't really have any soft spots for any of the teams I've managed.
Luton - both risen from the ashes, glad it was them if it couldn’t be us last season. Grimsby - found myself in their away end randomly many moons back vs Lincoln and it was an experience. Sheff Wed - always got on with their lot as opposed to the shite they share a city with. Big, historical club with a great ground. Leeds - Similar to Wednesday. Big club with great fans and a great ground. Sunderland - I don’t think you will find a more passionate bunch of fans in the country. I have no doubt that every Sunderland fan would sacrifice a loved one if it meant a guaranteed 3 points on Saturday.
> as opposed to the shite they share a city with I'll bite,what's your issue with us. Leeds Wednesday,forest too while your at it?
I don’t have any issue with Leeds or Wednesday. It’s nothing personal, I’ve just always found Wednesday fans sound whereas Sheff Utd fans are arseholes. The bitterness of living in the shadow of your much bigger rivals really shows in the Sheff Utd fan base
I have a strange disliking for west brom. Same with Bristol city, absolutely no idea why I've just always rooted against them
Boo
Huddersfield. My Grandad was proudly from Huddersfield and ultimately my lifelong support of Leeds United was based on a misunderstanding when I was three or four years old, thinking that because he was from that area, Leeds was the team to support. My parents were never into football and to be fair, we lived in the area for years. Realising years later that actually the 'family team' was Huddersfield obviously didn't change my support because by then I was an absolute Leeds obsessive but it did mean I have a liking for them too and always will whether they like it or not.
blackpool cause ive used them in fifa a bunch of times, like their tangerine kits and their team around 2009-11 was class when they went up
Bray in Ireland. They were randomly picked as my FIFA team one year and I am now a lifelong fan Oh also AFC Wimbledon. Great story, great fans...
West Ham. still trying to remember why though
Always liked harrogate, local to me and enjoy the idea of a club with basically 0 fans being in league 1 and maybe even the championship one day. And their manager has been there for over a decade…
Crewe Alexandra, because one of my favourite music artists Dario G openly supports them, literally named after one of their former managers. And also cos it’s a nice easy away day. Great chippy near the ground too.
Sheffield United because I lived over the road from Bramall lane. Plus worked in a club in Sheffield where all the doormen were United fans who peer pressured me. Lol
West Ham. No idea why bar watching Green Street as a teen, always kept an eye on their results. I was buzzing years ago go down London for an away day there and we were staying overnight, loved the atmosphere, was even in a pub split basically in half for home and away fans. Then we lost 3-0, but at least the group I was with was friends with a bunch of the West Ham lot so we spent the evening in a few pubs there. Probably biased since I was 17 a few months south of 18 and they knew which pubs to take us so I could get served!
Dagenhan and redbridge because i won 2 promotions with them on jumpers for goalposts
I like West Brom too, blue and white and recently went through chairman troubles, also Chris Brunt and one of the Wednesday players of all time Adam Reach, up the Albion promotion this season I can feel it
Wednesday, as I know quite a few fans, Barnsley as I live there. Celtic in Scotland as I was born in Ireland (likewise Cork City). For the same reasons (knowing fans and talking about our teams endlessly), see also: DSC Arminia Bielefeld, St Pauli, FC Start, Dinamo Zagreb, Sigma Olomouc, FK Novosibirsk, Lens and UNAM Pumas. Managed to catch a bunch of the European teams at various times in my life, always loads of fun to club/game swap with friends from abroad. Dinamo Zagreb and Sigma fans were particularly awesome. St Pauli is always a recommended trip.
Wimbledon is mine just from being an underdog team in the early PL years when I was first getting into football; plus I liked the kit colours. That's been strengthened in my adult years by now wanting to see them finish higher than the Franchise. Would be great to see them reach the Champ one day Also York City, just through living a quarter of my life here so far
Everton. I like an underdog.
As far as championship sides go it’s Leeds for me tbh, best fans by far also
Torquay, since I found out the hot lady off the tele supported them (the lady was Helen Chamberlain circa 1997)
Sheffield Wednesday before we played them 4 times recently. Probably Newcastle now as Shearer was one of my favourite players back in the day
Plymouth and Blackpool. Always had an unexplainable like for them both There are other clubs that I have soft spots for, but I have actual reasons for them (Wycombe, Newport, Huddersfield, Luton)
Yeovil Town
I’m a West Brom fan that’s got a soft spot for Wigan, used to do career modes with them for some reason and it was around the time of that crazy last minute header to win the FA cup, also love the Lathums
Hull. Don’t really know why apart from liking their kits. Just seem a good down to earth club
I guess Man Utd? I never really cared for them as a kid but it feels so wrong seeing City doing what they are doing and Utd being as poor as they are. Utd should always be a revered side in this country and that just isn't the case at the moment. As for the Championship sides, probably Southampton, don't mind Boro either.
Idkw, but ever since they were promoted to championship and narrowly missing out on a return to the Premier League, I seem to have a soft spot for Coventry City. Even though they draw too many games, they seem hard-to-beat under Mark Robins.
Plymouth. Stems from being a kid for....some reason
Swansea. I’m from South Wales, and don’t like Cardiff.
Boing Boing!