Much like Monday Night Football…

Being able to watch the Champions League games at lunchtime on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday was a lot of fun for cube field workers. And those teams were Arsenal, United and Chelsea for the working age population of people brought up on soccer as kids in the 1970s and 1980s.

If you lived in New York, the British expats would be watching games at the bars in the afternoon on Saturday, probably just an hour or two before the NFL or college football. So that was a lot of fun. I don’t think the Spanish or Italian league had quite the same pull as a going out to the bars experience (though my dad’s best friend was a Kaiserslautern fan, and a kid on my soccer teams was from a family of Juventus fans).

At its height, the Guardiola - Mourinho battles at Barcelona and Madrid were must see TV. My favorite was the 5-0 or 5-1 shellacking with all the cules chanting ole with every pass. But at that time, no other fixture in La Liga burned quite so bright. Athletico didn’t become fun until just after that. The Premier league had three or four fun managers simultaneously throughout Ferguson, Toad, Wenger, Mourinho followed by Klopp and Guardiola.

But I don’t think you should pick any of those teams. Watch the documentaries on Prime about Leeds, Sunderland, Wrexham, QPR…there are lots of fun teams. Watch Green Street Hooligans and fall for West Ham or Milwall. Watch Fever Pitch and fall for Arsenal if you must. Personally, I think Aston Villa is the bees knees. Newcastle and Bolton have a Detroit Lions feel (probably Bolton moreso) and if you want to follow a long rebuild, Portsmouth.