History UsefulNotes / BritishFootyTeams

** ''Literature/HarryPotter'' character Dean Thomas is another fan of the team. This was done in tribute to a RealLife friend of Creator/JKRowling - it is in her honour that West Ham is the only football team identified by name in the ''Harry Potter'' series. Going back a few decades, [[Series/TillDeathUsDoPart Alf Garnett]] was quite vocal in his support of West Ham.

** AKA "The Bulls". White shirts, black shorts. Came to national attention in 1972 for the most famous act of [[DavidVersusGoliath giant-killing]] in the history of the UsefulNotes/TheFACup when they beat Newcastle United 2-1 in a third round replay. At the time, Newcastle were in the First Division and Hereford were ''non-league''. Ronnie Radford, scorer of Hereford's first goal (which levelled the scores, forcing the match into extra time) [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun got interviewed every January]] (the month when the cup's third round matches are played) for the next five decades; the match also proved to be a StarMakingRole for John Motson who was commentating on it for ''Series/MatchOfTheDay''. Hereford subsequently got elected to the League and spent 19 years in the Fourth Division before going down to the Conference; after a brief stint back in the League in the mid-2000s, the club was dissolved in 2014. A successor club, Hereford, currently plays in the National League North.

** One of the twelve founder members of the Football League, Villa dominated English football in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, winning the League six times and the FA Cup five times (including one Double in 1897, making them the second club to achieve that feat) prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Since then, they've had their ups and downs, being the first-ever winners of the League Cup in 1961, getting relegated six years later, coming back from that to win the European Cup in 1982 and then getting relgated again five years after that. Since the formation of the Premier League they have rarely looked like title contenders.

** Creator/RyanReynolds (yes, [[Film/Deadpool2016 that guy]]) and Creator/RobMcElhenney have owned the club (through their company, RR [=McReynolds=] Company LLC) since 2020. This is chronicled in the TV documentary series ''Series/WelcomeToWrexham'' which shows their efforts to connect with the local community, untangle the boondoggle Hamilton left behind, build a winning line-up and gain promotion back into the Football League. As a result, ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} appears to have been adopted as an unofficial club mascot (some fans can be seen dressed as him in the show). Thanks to the resulting higher profile, Wrexham were included in [[VideoGame/FIFASoccer FIFA 22]] as part of the "Rest of the World" section, the first non-League club to be thus featured (they'd previously been in FIFA 07 prior to their relegation from League Two).

*** Several evolutions followed: Coutinho's departur to Barcelona for a mind-boggling £142 ''million'' led to several key defensive acquisitions - cultured Dutch centre-back Virgil Van Dijk, Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker, Brazilian defensive midfielder Fabinho, and Scottish left-back Andy Robertson. Add academy right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, who went on to feature in two Champions League finals before he turned 21 and is widely considered to be arguably the one of the best right-backs on the planet, breaking the record for a defender's assists in a league season, before breaking it ''again'' the following year, and the restoration of talented but injury-prone centre-backs Joe Gomez and Joel Matip meant that Liverpool became a much more balanced team. The defence did its job, while the marauding full-backs provided the front three (renamed 'the Red Arrows') with the ammunition to become the terror of Europe, being the highest scoring front three in a single season in Champions League history.

** 2023-24 is somewhat engimatic so far. The departures of Captain Jordan Henderson, Vice-Captain James Milner (a veteran so experienced that his top-flight career is officially longer than the period between WWI and WWII), and fading defensive midfielder Fabinho, the former and latter to Saudi Arabia, while Milner went to Brighton, were somewhat unexpected - Milner was half-expected, despite hopes he'd continue as a player-coach and stabilising presence. The other two, not so much. This forced a rapid readjustment, with the smooth recruitment of two highly rated young midfielders in world-cup winner Alexis [=MacAllister=] from Brighton, Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig, and the comprehensive fumbling of deals for Moses Caicedo from Brighton and Romeo Lavia from Southampton. Both went to Chelsea. Given the reputation Liverpool have earned for smooth, seamless, and secretive business in the transfer market, this was met with bafflement and speculation that the Caicedo bid was partly to screw with Chelsea (given the final price was ''£115 million'', this would make some degree of bizarre sense). Afterwards, the late arrivals of veteran Japan Captain Wataru Endo from VFB Stuttgart to plug the defensive midfield gap, and long admired and highly rated young midfielder Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern Munich, indicated business as usual. So far, it seems to be working out well, with Liverpool once again breathing down City's necks going into the third international break after 12 games only 1 point behind. A peculiarity of this season is that they've had four players sent off in three matches (one of which was overturned on appeal). The first two results were both wins, oddly enough, including against highly fancied Newcastle, with the observation that Liverpool seem to play ''better'' when down to ten men. The third, where Liverpool went down to ''nine'', was an extremely controversial match against Spurs, where at least one of the sendings off was contested, and a spectacular VAR error meant that Liverpool had a perfectly valid goal ruled offside - and even then, it took until the last kick of the game for a very unfortunate own goal to prevent them from snatching a point.

** Liverpool's fans[[note]]including Creator/JohnOliver, whom American media described as a “superfan”[[/note]], colloquially known as 'the Kop' or 'Kopites', after the Kop End, which itself is named after the hill on which the Battle of Spion Kop was fought in 1900, are some of the most famous in the footballing world and certainly among the most vocal, giving Anfield a reputation as one of the most atmospheric stadiums on the planet, famed for 'the Anfield Roar' - which, following the expansion of the Main Stand, taking the capacity to 54,000, and on completion will be 61,000, has only got that much louder, being voted the joint loudest stadium in Europe along with Barcelona's Camp Nou (which is almost twice as large, holding 99,354). No matter how well or badly the club is doing, the sight and sound of the Kop in full voice is truly breathtaking, and it is routinely cited by ex-pros as the most intimidating place to play in world football. This makes Anfield an intimidating place to go, and when on a particularly strong streak (such as when they went undefeated in the Premier League between April 2017 and January 2021), it's referred to as 'Fortress Anfield'. The current record is one defeat in the last 48 matches. Fans are also a fairly cosmopolitan bunch, with a fanbase estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. The club takes advantage of this with its summer tours to the US, Australia and South East Asia. More local support is drawn from North Wales, Ireland and Scotland, with a long tradition of club legends from those countries, such as all time top scorer Ian Rush (Welsh) and defenders Mark Lawrenson (Irish) and Alan Hansen (Scottish). There's also a certain fondness in Germany, partly because Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp is still beloved by fans of his former team, Borussia Dortmund, and also because of the Kopites' historic twinning with Borussia Mönchengladbach. Matchgoers in particular are pathologically loyal to the club; it takes ''a lot'' to make them stop singing for any length of time and if they have done so, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness it's a very bad sign.]] If they have started booing and you are the manager, you are likely to be fired soon afterwards.

** The best-known Watford fan who isn't Elton John is probably Chris Stark, DJ and co-presenter of ''Podcast/ThatPeterCrouchPodcast''. Other famous people from Watford, like [[Music/SpiceGirls Geri Halliwell]] and boxer Anthony Joshua, have tended to be somewhat lukewarm in expressing their support [[note]] Halliwell posed for a photo-shoot in a Watford shirt with her bandmates in 1996 and subsequently met with some of the players but has since been referred to as a Chelsea fan, while Joshua has at times declared that he does not support ''any'' football team, although at other times he has also claimed that he supports Watford [[/note]].

** Universally known as "Wolves" in the same way that everyone calls Tottenham Hotspur "Spurs". 'Old Gold' (not yellow, not amber) shirts, back shorts. Home games at Molineux. Founded in 1877, Wolves were one of the twelve founder members of the Football League. They had a successful spell in the 1950s, during which they won the League three times under the management of Stan Cullis and the captaincy of Billy Wright (who captained England a record 90 times, and if you thought David Beckham was the first England football captain to marry a pop star and thus become a celebrity off the pitch, think again — Billy was married to one of the Beverley Sisters [[note]] a 1950s British pop trio modelled on the Andrews Sisters [[/note]). At that time, they were one of the first British clubs to install floodlights at their ground, and were dubbed "Champions of the World" due to their success at beating top foreign sides, although these were friendlies as official European competition was not established at the time.

** AKA "The Hornets". Yellow shirts, black shorts (although they've sometimes gone in for red shorts instead [[note]] if you ''really'' want to get Watford fans [[FlameWar arguing among each other]], express an opinion either way [[/note]]). Home games at Vicarage Road. Hertfordshire club [[note]] ''not'' London, although some people do get this mixed up as Watford is located within the M25 [[/note]] which has had its fair share of ups and downs but has never actually won anything significant. The most famous thing about Watford is that Music/EltonJohn supported the club as a child and invested heavily in the club from the mid-1970s onwards, becoming chairman and appointing a promising young manager called Graham Taylor, who managed the club from 1977 to 1987. As a result, for a time during the 1980s Watford rose to the top of English football with a [[MundaneSolution simple, yet effective long ball strategy]]. They finished second in the League in 1983 and reached the FA Cup final for the first time a year later (they lost to Everton). Off the pitch, Elton and GT worked hard to promote Watford as a family-friendly club ... several years before anyone else thought of encouraging families to go to football matches. While Taylor's unsuccessful spell managing the England national team from 1990-93 made him generally unpopular with most English football fans, he remains a revered figure at Watford to this day, and Elton himself has stated that he came to regard Taylor as a brother he never had, who told him in no uncertain terms to get his act together (in terms of drug-taking) in a way that most football club managers would not have ever dared speak to their chairmen. Taylor managed the club again from 1996-2000, taking them into the Premier League, and later served as chairman.
** Recently, they've been moving between the Premiership and the Championship after being bought by the Pozzo family, who successfully bussed in foreign players from the two other clubs they own - Italy's Udinese and Spain's Granada, turning Watford into a winning team. The flip-side of this has been an [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity extremely high turnover of managers]] in recent years. Since the Pozzos took over in 2012, there have been ''nineteen'' of them, although prior to 2021 the main man was striker Troy Deeney, who after a three-month enforced absence in 2012 (due to his being sent to prison for affray) proved to be nothing short of inspirational on the pitch, cementing himself in the hearts of all Watford fans several months after his release with [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6TnKvlQ2h7s this goal]]. Watford won promotion to the Premier League in 2015 (after an eight-year absence from the top flight) and made it to a second FA Cup final in 2019 -- only to be comprehensively blown away by Manchester City (6-0). The Hornets were relegated back to the Championship the following year but won promotion back to the Premier League in 2021, before being relegated yet again in 2022.

** AKA "The Hornets". Yellow shirts, black shorts (although they've sometimes gone in for red shorts instead [[note]] if you ''really'' want to get Watford fans [[FlameWar arguing among each other]], express an opinion either way [[/note]]). Home games at Vicarage Road. Hertfordshire club [[note]] ''not'' London, although some people do get this mixed up as Watford is located within the M25 [[/note]] which has had its fair share of ups and downs but has never actually won anything significance. The most famous thing about Watford is that Music/EltonJohn supported the club as a child and invested heavily in the club from the mid-1970s onwards, becoming chairman and appointing a promising young manager called Graham Taylor, who managed the club from 1977 to 1987. As a result, for a time during the 1980s Watford rose to the top of English football with a [[MundaneSolution simple, yet effective long ball strategy]]. They finished second in the League in 1983 and reached the FA Cup final for the first time a year later (they lost to Everton). Off the pitch, Elton and GT worked hard to promote Watford as a family-friendly club ... several years before anyone else thought of encouraging families to go to football matches. While Taylor's unsuccessful spell managing the England national team from 1990-93 made him generally unpopular with most English football fans, he remains a revered figure at Watford to this day, and Elton himself has stated that he came to regard Taylor as a brother he never had, who told him in no uncertain terms to get his act together (in terms of drug-taking) in a way that most football club managers would not have ever dared speak to their chairmen. Taylor managed the club again from 1996-2000, taking them into the Premier League, and later served as chairman.

** AKA "The Hornets". Yellow shirts, black shorts (although they've sometimes gone in for red shorts instead [[note]] if you ''really'' want to get Watford fans [[FlameWar arguing among each other]], express an opinion either way [[/note]]). Home games at Vicarage Road. Hertfordshire club [[note]] ''not'' London, although some people do get this mixed up as Watford is located within the M25 [[/note]] which has had its fair share of ups and downs but has never actually won anything significant. Its most famous fan (by some considerable distance) is Music/EltonJohn, who supported Watford as a child and invested heavily in the club from the mid-1970s onwards, becoming chairman and appointing a promising young manager called Graham Taylor, who managed the club from 1977 to 1987. As a result, for a time during the 1980s Watford rose to the top of English football with a [[MundaneSolution simple, yet effective long ball strategy]]. They finished second in the League in 1983 and reached the FA Cup final for the first time a year later (they lost to Everton). Off the pitch, Elton and GT worked hard to promote Watford as a family-friendly club ... several years before anyone else thought of encouraging families to go to football matches. While Taylor's unsuccessful spell managing the England national team from 1990-93 made him generally unpopular with most English football fans, he remains a revered figure at Watford to this day, and Elton himself has stated that he came to regard Taylor as a brother he never had, who told him in no uncertain terms to get his act together (in terms of drug-taking) in a way that most football club managers would not have ever dared speak to their chairmen. Taylor managed the club again from 1996-2000, taking them into the Premier League, and later served as chairman.

** For famous fans, we must enter into the realm of fiction — [[Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses Del Boy]], believe it or not.

** AKA "The Seasiders" or "The Tangerines". Orange shirts, white shorts. Home games at Bloomfield Road. Their only major honour is winning the FA Cup in 1953, a match known to history as the "Matthews Final" after legendary winger Stanley Matthews inspired the team to come back from 3-1 down to win 4-3; although his team-mate Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick (the only player to do so in an FA Cup final at Wembley), it is [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Matthews for whom that final is remembered]]. (Even Blackpool's other goal was scored not by Matthews but by Bill Perry, the first black player to score in an FA Cup Final.) It's also considered to be the first major televised sporting event (in Britain at least), as many televisions had at the time been bought or rented by households across the country in anticipation of the Queen's Coronation which took place a month later. Blackpool graced the old First Division from the 1930s to the 1960s, subsequently sliding down to the Fourth Division before becoming the only club to get promoted from every division of the Football League by way of the play-off system, leading to them spending one season (2010-11) in the Premier League -- before going all the way back down to League Two. Currently in League One, having returned to the Championship before getting relegated again in 2023. Fierce rivals with Preston North End.

** AKA "The Seasiders" or "The Tangerines". Orange shirts, white shorts. Home games at Bloomfield Road. Their only major honour is winning the FA Cup in 1953, a match known to history as the "Matthews Final" after legendary winger Stanley Matthews inspired the team to come back from 3-1 down to win 4-3; although his team-mate Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick (the only player to do so in an FA Cup final at Wembley), it is [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Matthews for whom that final is remembered]]. It's also considered to be the first major televised sporting event (in Britain at least), as many televisions had at the time been bought or rented by households across the country in anticipation of the Queen's Coronation which took place a month later. Blackpool graced the old First Division from the 1930s to the 1960s, subsequently sliding down to the Fourth Division before becoming the only club to get promoted from every division of the Football League by way of the play-off system, leading to them spending one season (2010-11) in the Premier League -- before going all the way back down to League Two. Currently in League One, having returned to the Championship before getting relegated again in 2023. Fierce rivals with Preston North End.

** AKA "The Seasiders" or "The Tangerines". Orange shirts, white shorts. Home games at Bloomfield Road. Their only major honour is winning the FA Cup in 1953, a match known to history as the "Matthews Final" after legendary winger Stanley Matthews inspired the team to come back from 3-1 down to win 4-3; although his team-mate Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick (the only player to do so in an FA Cup final at Wembley), it is [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Matthews for whom that final is remembered]]. It's also considered to be the first major televised sporting event (in Britain at least), as many televisions had at the time been bought or rented by households across the country in anticipation of the Queen's Coronation which took place a month later. Blackpool graced the old First Division from the 1930s to the 1960s, subsequently sliding down to the Fourth Division before becoming the only club to get promoted from every division of the Football League by way of the play-off system, leading to them spending one season (2010-11) in the Premier League -- before going all the way back down to League Two. Currently in League One, having returned to the Championship before getting relegated again in 2023.

** In 2021-2022, Liverpool won the League Cup (beating Chelsea on penalties), won the FA Cup (beating Chelsea... on penalties... again, after dispatching City in the semi-finals) and casually crushed everyone else in their Champions League group, a so-called 'Group of Death', achieving maximum points, before dismissing Inter Milan, Benfica, and (after a brief scare in the second leg) Villareal, in successive rounds to set up a Champions League Final rematch with Real Madrid. They were the only team with a shot at the mythical 'Quadruple', coming within 8 minutes of snatching the Premier League from under City's noses, before City came from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa on the final day, and their scoring and defensive records were second only to City - and that by the finest of margins. They likewise lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid, also by fine margins and thanks to a borderline supernatural goalkeeping performance by Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois. The result was something of a hollow victory: of the four trophies, they won arguably the two least prestigious, both on penalties, and didn't score a single goal in the three finals they played in. Some respect was regained by promptly beating Manchester City 3-1 in the Community Shield, but their season promptly went downhill from there, with a dramatic slump variously blamed on an exhausted squad, an ageing squad, a lack of fresh blood in midfield, defensive injuries, the departure of Sadio Mane, a misfiring Darwin Nunez who varied between the sublime and the ridiculous, being found out, and Klopp's so-called 7th season syndrome. A brutal 5-2 thrashing at Anfield by Real Madrid, after dropping a two goal early lead, summed up the issues for many. While highlights included a monumentally vicious ''7-0'' thrashing of an in-form Manchester United side, and running riot against a luckless Leeds, thrashing them 6-1, before going on a five game winning run, unlike last season it was too little too late - Liverpool's late charge fizzled out with two draws, a 5th place finish and failure to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2016.

** Famous fans include Music/PaulMcCartney (apparently) [[note]] none of Music/TheBeatles were really into football; the appearance of Albert Stubbins (who played for Liverpool in the 1940s) on the cover of ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' is somewhat random, the most likely explanation for this being that John Lennon thought his name was funny [[/note]], [[Music/TheCult Ian Astbury]], former Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson, Claire Sweeney and Gareth Evans.

** Recently, they've been moving between the Premiership and the Championship after being bought by the Pozzo family, who successfully bussed in foreign players from the two other clubs they own - Italy's Udinese and Spain's Granada, turning Watford into a winning team. The flip-side of this has been an [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity extremely high turnover of managers]] in recent years. Since the Pozzos took over in 2012, there have been ''nineteen'' of them, although prior to 2021 the main man was striker Troy Deeney, who after a three-month enforced absence in 2012 (due to his doing three months in prison for affray) proved to be nothing short of inspirational on the pitch (to the point where in 2020, the club didn't even bother with having a supporter poll to find the 'player of the decade' as it was so obviously going to be him). Watford won promotion to the Premier League in 2015 (after an eight-year absence from the top flight) and made it to a second FA Cup final in 2019 -- only to be comprehensively blown away by Manchester City (6-0). The Hornets were relegated back to the Championship the following year but won promotion back to the Premier League in 2021, before being relegated yet again in 2022.

** The most famous Watford fan who isn't Elton John is probably Chris Stark, a DJ and presenter of ''Podcast/ThatPeterCrouchPodcast''. Other famous people from Watford, like [[Music/SpiceGirls Geri Halliwell]] and boxer Anthony Joshua, have tended to be somewhat lukewarm in expressing their support [[note]] Halliwell posed for a photo-shoot in a Watford shirt with her bandmates in 1996 and subsequently met with some of the players, but has since been referred to as a Chelsea fan, while Joshua has at times declared that he does not support ''any'' football team, although at other times he has also claimed that he supports Watford [[/note]].

** Recently, they've been moving between the Premiership and the Championship after being bought by the Pozzo family, who successfully bussed in foreign players from the two other clubs they own - Italy's Udinese and Spain's Granada, turning Watford into a winning team. The flip-side of this has been an [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity extremely high turnover of managers]] in recent years. Since the Pozzos took over in 2012, there have been ''nineteen'' of them. Watford won promotion to the Premier League in 2015 (after an eight-year absence from the top flight) and made it to a second FA Cup final in 2019 -- only to be comprehensively blown away by Manchester City (6-0). The Hornets were relegated back to the Championship the following year but won promotion back to the Premier League in 2021, before being relegated yet again in 2022.

** Universally known as "Wolves" in the same way that everyone calls Tottenham Hotspur "Spurs". 'Old Gold' (not yellow, not amber) shirts, back shorts. Home games at Molineux. Founded in 1877, Wolves were one of the twelve founder members of the Football League. They had a successful spell in the 1950s, during which they won the League three times under the management of Stan Cullis and the captaincy of Billy Wright (who captained England a record 90 times [[note]] and if you thought David Beckham was the first England football captain to marry a pop star and thus become a celebrity off the pitch, think again — Billy was married to one of the Andrews Sisters [[/note]). At that time, they were one of the first British clubs to install floodlights at their ground, and were dubbed "Champions of the World" due to their success at beating top foreign sides, although these were friendlies as official European competition was not established at the time.

** Major rivals are Forest (of course) and, as a result of the two Nottingham clubs not having been in the same division for many years, Mansfield Town (which is also in the county of Nottinghamshire). However, due to the above, a rivalry has developed between Notts County and Wrexham; reaction against the notion that Creator/RyanReynolds and Creator/RobMcElhenney were essentially using their wealth to buy promotion for the club they'd just bought seemed to naturally coalesce around Wrexham's main promotion rivals. When a County supporters' group was asked to provide a profile of the club by the makers of ''Series/WelcomeToWrexham'', they responded: "No. Shove your shite documentary up your arse", which everyone involved deemed to be ActuallyPrettyFunny. So too was the (entirely unfounded) tabloid rumour that Music/TaylorSwift was interested in buying Notts County as a result of the success of the Wrexham documentary.

** As a result of the above, County fans have come to regard Wrexham as major rivals, despite the geographic distance; reaction against the notion that Creator/RyanReynolds and Creator/RobMcElhenney were essentially using their wealth to buy promotion for the club they'd just bought seemed to naturally coalesce around Notts County. When a County supporters' group was asked to provide a profile of the club by the makers of ''Series/WelcomeToWrexham'', they responded: "No. Shove your shite documentary up your arse", which everyone involved deemed to be ActuallyPrettyFunny. So too was the (entirely unfounded) tabloid rumour that Music/TaylorSwift was interested in buying Notts County as a result of the success of ''Welcome to Wrexham''.

*** Famous [[UsefulNotes/EuroFooty Italian club Juventus]] were gifted a set of old Notts County shirts when their old (pink!) shirts faded; Juve have played in black-and-white stripes ever since.
*** The stadium at which Notts County play their home games, Meadow Lane, is the shortest distance in the English League from another stadium, the other being the City Ground, home of [[TheRival Nottingham Forest]] [[note]] for the shortest distance between stadia in the UK as a whole, see under Dundee and Dundee United in the Scotland section [[/note]].
*** County fans like to sing about being "the only football team in Nottingham", since (despite the name) the City Ground actually lies outside the city's boundaries, in the neighbouring borough of Rushcliffe on the other side of the River Trent.
*** Notts County have changed divisions within the English League more times than any other league club, most recently getting relegated back to League Two during the 2014-15 season.
*** Most recently the club shocked the football world by hiring former England Manager Sven-Göran Eriksson as Director of Football as well as signing England defender Sol Campbell having seemingly been [[ItSeemedLikeaGoodIdeaattheTime taken over by a group of wealthy investors from the Middle East]]; [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie however, this turned out to be a fraud on a large scale and the club was sold to current owner Ray Trew for a nominal fee in late 2009. Police fraud investigations continue into these affairs.]] However, [[BigDamnHeroes Trew]] has thankfully since been able to bring spiralling debt under control, avoid administration, attain promotion and relative stability, as well as some notable cup runs.
*** Alas, in 2017 Trew sold the club to Alan Hardy, under whose eventful stewardship they were relegated from League Two in 2019, becoming a non-league side for the first time since they were founded over 150 years ago.
*** While competing in the National League (the fifth tier of English football), they had an incredible 2022/23 season, getting a record 107 points... [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter only to not get automatically promoted, as Wrexham had gotten ''111'' points]]. They still [[EarnYourHappyEnding got their happy ending]] by winning the promotion playoffs to snag the second promotion spot to League Two.

** Formerly owned by tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed, who commissioned a 7.5-ft statue of Music/MichaelJackson which stood at Craven Cottage until 2013, when Al-Fayed sold the club and the new owners had it removed [[note]]Jackson, a friend of Al-Fayed, did in fact attend one Fulham match, in 1999 (he also had links with Exeter City through another friend, [[SpoonBending Uri Geller]])[[/note]].

** Universally known as "Wolves" in the same way that everyone calls Tottenham Hotspur "Spurs". 'Old Gold' (not yellow, not amber) shirts, back shorts. Home games at Molineux. Founded in 1877, Wolves were one of the twelve founder members of the Football League. They had a successful spell in the 1950s, during which they won the League three times under the management of Stan Cullis and the captaincy of Billy Wright (who captained England a record 90 times [[note]] and if you thought David Beckham was the first England football captain to marry a pop star and thus become a celebrity off the pitch, think again — Billy was married to one of the Andrews Sisters [[/note]]. At that time, they were one of the first British clubs to install floodlights at their ground, and were dubbed "Champions of the World" due to their success at beating top foreign sides, although these were friendlies as official European competition was not established at the time.

** Universally known as "Wolves" in the same way that everyone calls Tottenham Hotspur "Spurs". 'Old Gold' (not yellow, not amber) shirts, back shorts. Home games at Molineux. Founded in 1877, Wolves were one of the twelve founder members of the Football League. They had a successful spell in the 1950s, during which they won the League three times under Stan Cullis. At that time, they were one of the first British clubs to install floodlights at their ground, and were dubbed "Champions of the World" due to their success at beating top foreign sides, although these were friendlies as official European competition was not established at the time.

** Famous Burnley fans include [[UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}} England cricketer]] James Anderson (who's from Burnley), [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIII King Charles]] (apparently due to several of his charities operating in the area [[note]]the fact that Burnley wore the Royal coat-of-arms on their shirts in the late nineteenth century is probably coincidental[[/note]]) and Alistair Campbell, a key figure in the [[UsefulNotes/TonyBlair Blair government]] who has described Burnley being in the Premier League as an even greater achievement than the electoral landslide he helped Blair win in 1997.

** AKA "The Hornets". Yellow shirts, black shorts (although they've sometimes gone in for red shorts instead [[note]] if you ''really'' want to get Watford fans [[FlameWar arguing among each other]], express an opinion either way [[/note]]). Home games at Vicarage Road. Hertfordshire club [[note]] ''not'' London, although some people do get this mixed up as Watford is located within the M25 [[/note]] which has had its fair share of ups and downs but has never actually won anything significant. Its most famous fan (by some considerable distance) is Music/EltonJohn, who supported Watford as a child and invested heavily in the club from the mid-1970s onwards, becoming chairman and appointing a promising young manager called Graham Taylor. As a result, for a time during the 1980s Watford rose to the top of English football with a [[MundaneSolution simple, yet effective long ball strategy]]. They finished second in the League in 1983 and reached the FA Cup final for the first time a year later (they lost to Everton). Off the pitch, Elton and GT worked hard to promote Watford as a family-friendly club ... several years before anyone else thought of encouraging families to go to football matches. While Taylor's unsuccessful spell managing the England national team from 1990-93 made him generally unpopular with most English football fans, he remains a revered figure at Watford to this day. He managed the club again from 1996-2000, taking them into the Premier League, and later served as chairman.

** League Champions 19 times (once since the creation of the Premier League, in 2020), FA Cup winners seven times (most recently 2006), League Cup winners eight times (most recently 2012), European Cup (AKA Champions League) winners six times (most recently 2019), UEFA Cup winners three times, Club World Champions once (in 2019).

*** Germany, although this is somewhat one-sided, with Germany [[UnknownRival not really caring about it]] (as far as they're concerned, their main rivalry is with the Netherlands). Since beating West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, England have come to see Germany as something of a [[HopelessBossFight bogey team]] - getting knocked out by them at the 1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cups [[note]] the second group stage in 1982 doesn't really count; it was 0-0, with the Germans winning the group by virtue of beating Spain[[/note]] and at Euro 96 [[note]] granted, England ''did'' beat Germany in Euro 2000, but that was a group match and neither side managed to progress to the knock-out phase of the tournament[[/note]]. England finally returned the favour in the delayed Euro 2020, sending Germany packing in the second round.
*** The oldest is of course the rivalry with northern neighbours Scotland, although some English fans can be dismissive of this due to the perceived gulf between the two sides (ironically, this is very much the same attitude taken by German fans to their supposed rivalry with England). Indeed, many England fans look on the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland teams as kid brothers and wish them well - which winds up Scotland fans no end. The fact that they rarely play each other -- the annual England-Scotland fixture hasn't happened since 1989 -- doesn't help, although they ''were'' drawn in the same group for Euro 2020, which actually took place in 2021. The result, a 0-0 draw, was regarded as unsatisfactory by English fans and wildly celebrated by the Scots (albeit tinged with mild regret because Scotland had looked more like winning), which speaks volumes for the expectations of both sides.

** Previously thought of as the team that would break the "Big Four" [[note]] defined at the time as Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United[[/note]] thanks to strong league and cup runs in the middle 00s (culminating in Champions League qualification in 2005), but have since dropped to mid-table, with financial hardship preventing major squad investment. Still widely considered a 'dark horse' side and one likely to cause upsetting score lines for the bigger teams, in the latter half of the 2010s they re-emerged as a team to be reckoned with, first with extremely talented youngsters Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley, ably supported by winger Gerard Deulofeu, in 2015-16. However, this team was undermined by defensive frailty, as brutally exposed by local arch rivals Liverpool. Despite having their most in-form striker injured in a brutal tackle by an Everton centre-back who was immediately sent off [[note]] He compounded his crime by beating the club badge as he walked off, trying to imply that he'd done it for the club and the fans, and earned himself a well deserved DopeSlap from his assistant coach in the process.[[/note]], [[HumiliationConga they sauntered to a 4-0 win, one so comfortable that Liverpool spent the last quarter of the match practically camped outside the Everton box, trying to get fan favourite defensive midfielder/centre back Lucas Leiva to score, apparently just for the hell of it.]] [[CherryTapping Lucas had played regularly for Liverpool for nine years. In that time, he had scored a grand total of six goals, the last of which had been scored]] ''six years ago.'' This was a tactic so ridiculous that Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp was caught on tv ''laughing.'' This unsurprisingly led to the sacking of Everton manager [[NiceGuy Roberto Martínez]].

** Part of one of (arguably) the most famous rivalries in Football, with neighbours Liverpool. This has ranged everywhere from friendly competition to seemingly utter hatred over the hundred-plus years of the clubs existence. Currently seems to be the latter as of 2022, thanks to an utterly brutal tackle by keeper Jordan Pickford on star Liverpool centre-back Virgil Van Dijk in the 2020 Goodison derby putting the latter out for the season, for which Pickford - bafflingly - escaped punishment, despite VAR, on the grounds that Van Dijk was offside (ex-refs expressed bemusement, as the rules offer plenty of scope for punishing misdemeanours when the ball is out of play). Silky midfielder Thiago Alcantara was also badly injured (though the perpetrator, Richarlison, was justly sent off). Given that each derby tends to be played in the context of the last at each respective ground, the 2021 Goodison derby was both significantly more vicious than usual and humiliating for Everton, the general sense being that Liverpool were making a point. None of this is entirely surprising: the fixture has a reputation for brutality, officially having the most red cards in Premier League history. However relations between fans remain cordial -- a factor heavily influenced by the fact that many Liverpudlian families contain supporters of both clubs, with the rivalry being characterised as a family feud (in other words, it's vicious, it's personal, and woe betide anyone else who gets involved). Indeed, in one unusual case, the Gerrard family actually produced ''players'' for both clubs, with defender Anthony Gerrard coming through the Everton youth system and being overshadowed by his vastly more famous cousin Steven Gerrard, captain of Liverpool FC and widely regarded as perhaps the greatest midfielder of his age. While the two did eventually play each other, Anthony had by that point moved to Cardiff City. In 2021, when Liverpool legend Rafael Benitez became the first man since the 19th century to manage both teams, neither fanbase was entirely sure how to react when the two teams faced each other... until Liverpool started thumping Everton, when the Liverpool fans [[{{Troll}} started cheerfully singing Benitez' name.]]

** 2023-24 is somewhat engimatic so far. The departures of Captain Jordan Henderson, Vice-Captain James Milner (a veteran so experienced that his top-flight career is officially longer than the period between WWI and WWII), and fading defensive midfielder Fabinho, the former and latter to Saudi Arabia, while Milner went to Brighton, were somewhat unexpected - Milner was half-expected, despite hopes he'd continue as a player-coach and stabilising presence. The other two, not so much. This forced a rapid readjustment, with the smooth recruitment of two highly rated young midfielders in world-cup winner Alexis [=MacAllister=] from Brighton, Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig, and the comprehensive fumbling of deals for Moses Caicedo from Brighton and Romeo Lavia from Southampton. Both went to Chelsea. Given the reputation Liverpool have earned for smooth, seamless, and secretive business in the transfer market, this was met with bafflement and speculated that the Caicedo bid was partly to screw with Chelsea (given the final price was £115 million, this would make some degree of bizarre sense). Afterwards, the late arrivals of veteran Japan Captain Wataru Endo from VFB Stuttgart to plug the defensive midfield gap, and long admired and highly rated young midfielder Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern Munich, indicated business as usual. So far, it seems to be working out well, with three wins and a draw from the opening four matches, despite having players sent off in two of them - both wins, oddly enough, including against highly fancied Newcastle, with the observation that Liverpool seem to play ''better'' when down to ten men.
*** Liverpool are also known for their rich history in Europe, thriving on long odds - the more ridiculous, the better. For example: The 2005 Champions League final (3-0 down 54 minutes in, level at 3-3 on 60 minutes); the 2016 Europa League Quarter Final against Borussia Dortmund (3-1 down at 60 minutes, 4-3 up at 92 minutes); and the 2019 Champions League semi-final against Barcelona (3-0 down on aggregate, missing two star attackers. Level on aggregate on 60 minutes, after two goals in as many minutes, ahead on aggregate/4-0 up on the night on 79). They've previously been dubbed Europe's Comeback Kings (it actually trended on Twitter), and aren't shy of handing out thrashings either; in 2007, they broke the Champions League's goal scoring record against Beşiktaş (''8-0''), and in 2017/18, they stuffed two teams 7-0. Even European giants like Real Madrid, Manchester City, AS Roma, Barcelona, and Porto aren't immune. In Barca's case, it was ''another'' memorable comeback ('the Miracle on the Mersey'), destroying them 4-0 at Anfield with Salah and Firmino out through injuries to turn around a 3-0 loss in the first leg. [[note]]Considering Barça had both Lionel Messi and Luis 'Chomp' Suárez in the squad, many neutrals wrote Liverpool off after the first leg[[/note]]. In Porto's case, it's becoming something of a RunningGag: they draw Liverpool and promptly get absolutely stuffed at home. They have hosted Liverpool 3 times in 4 seasons. As of 2022, the aggregate score is 14-2, and just to toy with Porto further, in January 2022 they promptly signed Porto's star man Luis Diaz for less than half of his release clause. Diaz immediately fit into the Liverpool squad and was instrumental in helping them lift a cup double and make a run to the Champions League final. In their most recent games, they lost 7-1 on aggregate, this in a group round where Liverpool became the first English team to win all six matches - in a so-called 'Group of Death', no less (this included putting out what was essentially a reserve team away to old rivals AC Milan in the last match. Given Milan's European history and position as leaders of Serie A, this might be considered a mistake. [[CurbstompBattle It wasn't]]). In short, Liverpool are ''dangerous'' in Europe.

** Liverpool's fans[[note]]including Creator/JohnOliver, whom American media described as a “superfan”[[/note]], colloquially known as 'the Kop' or 'Kopites', after the Kop End, which itself is named after the hill on which the Battle of Spion Kop was fought in 1900, are some of the most famous in the footballing world and certainly among the most vocal, giving Anfield a reputation as one of the most atmospheric stadiums on the planet, famed for 'the Anfield Roar' - which, following the expansion of the Main Stand, taking the capacity to 54,000, has only got that much louder, being voted the joint loudest stadium in Europe along with Barcelona's Camp Nou (which is almost twice as large, holding 99,354). No matter how well or badly the club is doing, the sight and sound of the Kop in full voice is truly breathtaking. This makes Anfield an intimidating place to go, and when on a particularly strong streak (such as when they went undefeated in the Premier League between April 2017 and January 2021), it's referred to as 'Fortress Anfield'. Fans are also a fairly cosmopolitan bunch, with a fanbase estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. The club takes advantage of this with its summer tours to the US, Australia and South East Asia. More local support is drawn from North Wales, Ireland and Scotland, with a long tradition of club legends from those countries, such as all time top scorer Ian Rush (Welsh) and defenders Mark Lawrenson (Irish) and Alan Hansen (Scottish). There's also a certain fondness in Germany, partly because Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp is still beloved by fans of his former team, Borussia Dortmund, and also because of the Kopites' historic twinning with Borussia Mönchengladbach. Matchgoers in particular are pathologically loyal to the club; it takes ''a lot'' to make them stop singing for any length of time and if they have done so, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness it's a very bad sign.]] If they have started booing and you are the manager, you are likely to be fired soon afterwards.

*** Germany, although this is somewhat one-sided, with Germany [[UnknownRival not really caring about it]]. Since beating West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, England have come to see Germany as something of a [[HopelessBossFight bogey team]] - getting knocked out by them at the 1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cups [[note]] the second group stage in 1982 doesn't really count; it was 0-0, with the Germans winning the group by virtue of beating Spain[[/note]] and at Euro 96 [[note]] granted, England ''did'' beat Germany in Euro 2000, but that was a group match and neither side managed to progress to the knock-out phase of the tournament[[/note]]. England finally returned the favour in the delayed Euro 2020, sending Germany packing in the second round.

** A fun fact for those interested in the business of football (and sport more generally): Liverpool FC is presently the property of Fenway Sports Ventures. Yes, that's Fenway as in Fenway Park. In UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}. With the [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Red]] [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Sox]]. Same owners - who are incidentally, ticket price incident aside, actually very popular thanks to the stadium expansion, investment in the transfer market, visible involvement with the club and securing the services of Jürgen Klopp, with whom the fanbase has an ongoing passionate love affair. Securing the Champions League, then a first top division title in 30 years was just the icing on the cake...