What is a 'Pointless Club'?

Wonder Pigeon

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The description of a club as 'pointless' really seems to have accelerated over the last few years. Norwich are pointless for getting relegated, Spurs are pointless for not winning trophies, Dortmund are pointless for being German.

I get slagging off other teams' misfortune, that's football, but banter in the social media age has just pickled into this weirdly miserable mindset. Every league except the PL is a farmer's league, and every club in the PL that doesn't win trophies is pointless, and almost all the trophies are Mickey Mouse, the race to out banter everyone else just leads fans into this mindset that football is a shit game that's not worth watching.

What is the 'point' of a football club to you, and what is the point of watching a sport where only about six clubs worldwide have a point themselves?

In before "pointless thread".
 
Good OP.

I don't go on things like Twitter and hadn't really noticed the 'pointless' club thing increasing all that much elsewhere.

But, yeah, I see / hear the dismissive 'farmers league' and 'Mickey Mouse' trophy descriptions a lot and really disagree with that kind of terminology and dismissive attitude.
 
Every team in Scotland apart from Celtic and Rangers are kind of pointless. They're like non-speaking extras in a show that's been going of for decades, that keeps telling the same story, but inexplicably gets hundreds of thousands watching it every week.
 
No clubs are pointless, if we're being remotely serious.

Other than maybe MK Dons to be fair, franchises can feck off.
 
Wonder Pigeon said:
The description of a club as 'pointless' really seems to have accelerated over the last few years. Norwich are pointless for getting relegated, Spurs are pointless for not winning trophies, Dortmund are pointless for being German.

I get slagging off other teams' misfortune, that's football, but banter in the social media age has just pickled into this weirdly miserable mindset. Every league except the PL is a farmer's league, and every club in the PL that doesn't win trophies is pointless, and almost all the trophies are Mickey Mouse, the race to out banter everyone else just leads fans into this mindset that football is a shit game that's not worth watching.

What is the 'point' of a football club to you, and what is the point of watching a sport where only about six clubs worldwide have a point themselves?

In before "pointless thread".
Click to expand...
Yes. Very irritating, but that's how language is used in the age of social media where every possible expression instantly becomes a meme. I think 'pointless' is mostly used just to mean 'they'll never win anything', but of course that's not what the word actually means.

Also, obviously, it's the kind of word you see used only by fans of top clubs. A truly snobbish idea of people that aren't used to supporting and enjoying a club without any particular expectation of noteable success and prizes. That's all the more grating since football's setup is extremely capitalistic these days, with success breeding success simply through the crazy money it brings.

I'll stop there. Thanks for prompting this little rant.
 
Definition of a “Pointless Club” -

  • A pointless club is a clu……..Tottenham Hotspur.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Every team in Scotland apart from Celtic and Rangers are kind of pointless. They're like non-speaking extras in a show that's been going of for decades, that keeps telling the same story, but inexplicably gets hundreds of thousands watching it every week.
Click to expand...

Rangers and Celtic are like the main characters from Friends. The rest of the teams are like the extras in the coffee shop.
 
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Mr Pigeon said:
Every team in Scotland apart from Celtic and Rangers are kind of pointless. They're like non-speaking extras in a show that's been going of for decades, that keeps telling the same story, but inexplicably gets hundreds of thousands watching it every week.
Click to expand...


Incredible to think Sir Alex was the last manager to win a Scottish League title with a non Old Firm team.

Jock Stein was still alive the last time someone outside the those two won it :wenger:
 
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Salford_Red83 said:
Rangers and Celtic are like the main characters from Friends. The rest of the teams are like the extras in the coffee shop.
Click to expand...

Good analogy. And just like Friends barely anyone watches the SPL anymore compared to the 90's.
 
Crystal Palace.

What's the point in them? They never fight relegation. They never fight for Europe. They don't do anything in the cups. They just exist.

And there's a lot more teams just like that in England.
 
Pink Moon said:
Crystal Palace.

What's the point in them? They never fight relegation. They never fight for Europe. They don't do anything in the cups. They just exist.

And there's a lot more teams just like that in England.
Click to expand...

If football started ten years ago, sure.
 
Pink Moon said:
Crystal Palace.

What's the point in them? They never fight relegation. They never fight for Europe. They don't do anything in the cups. They just exist.

And there's a lot more teams just like that in England.
Click to expand...

Palace were promoted and relegated loads in the 1990s and 2000s. Only in last decade have they floated in premier league mid table but won't last forever as we've seen with likes of Stoke, Charlton and Bolton.

They were in the FA cup SF just last season aswell.
 
Wonder Pigeon said:
The description of a club as 'pointless' really seems to have accelerated over the last few years. Norwich are pointless for getting relegated, Spurs are pointless for not winning trophies, Dortmund are pointless for being German.

I get slagging off other teams' misfortune, that's football, but banter in the social media age has just pickled into this weirdly miserable mindset. Every league except the PL is a farmer's league, and every club in the PL that doesn't win trophies is pointless, and almost all the trophies are Mickey Mouse, the race to out banter everyone else just leads fans into this mindset that football is a shit game that's not worth watching.

What is the 'point' of a football club to you, and what is the point of watching a sport where only about six clubs worldwide have a point themselves?

In before "pointless thread".
Click to expand...
We already have a Man City thread.
 
Clubs who just spend season after season after season sitting between 13th - 17th in the premier league before finally being relegated, then spend 3 or 4 years up in the top 10 of the Championship before being promoted, then spending season after season after etc etc.
The most obvious utterly pointless club in existence is West Brom. They do nothing, ever. They never play good football. They never challenge for a cup or a place in the top 8 or top 10. They never have any "special" player you like the look of. They just exist and bore the life out of everyone.
Crystal Palace are up there too but at least they've made a cup final and have a player like Zaha. If West Brom ceased to exist tomorrow no one would care, and most probably wouldn't even notice.
 
They all have a point if we get back to the core of what football is. Or was. They're there to serve their communities. Provide entertainment to them, provide a distraction from the daily trudge. It's not about relegation or winning trophies when you look at the footballing pyramid and what drives fans to turn up because the majority of them will be mediocre more often than they're doing something exhilarating or even terrible.

However at the top level it's obvious you have a new breed of social media age fan where it's all about trophies and immediate success. It's only going to become more and more like that. Commercialised, overhyped, ridiculous money - sport takes on a different form when it becomes like that. So you kind of have the old and the new.
 
dazjoe said:
Clubs who just spend season after season after season sitting between 13th - 17th in the premier league before finally being relegated, then spend 3 or 4 years up in the top 10 of the Championship before being promoted, then spending season after season after etc etc.
The most obvious utterly pointless club in existence is West Brom. They do nothing, ever. They never play good football. They never challenge for a cup or a place in the top 8 or top 10. They never have any "special" player you like the look of. They just exist and bore the life out of everyone.
Crystal Palace are up there too but at least they've made a cup final and have a player like Zaha. If West Brom ceased to exist tomorrow no one would care, and most probably wouldn't even notice.
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Blame the parachute payments for that. There's basically no consequence for relegation due to how it gets rewarded.

You will have to win the FA Cup for half a decade consecutively to match the rewards for finishing 20th.
 
City are a pointless club - that exist due to external funds and cheat their way to the top. The others mentioned are all legitimate.
 
Pink Moon said:
Crystal Palace.

What's the point in them? They never fight relegation. They never fight for Europe. They don't do anything in the cups. They just exist.

And there's a lot more teams just like that in England.
Click to expand...
Such a weird outlook. You think they aren’t in the top 6 by choice? They’ve done extremely well to get promoted all their years back and then maintain their standing as a good premier league side. Got some really good players on their books too - many added in the past 3-4 years. Their manager could also be a promising one.

This thread reeks of snobbishness.
 
Tell each of their supporters they’re pointless, it will change your mind.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
Such a weird outlook. You think they aren’t in the top 6 by choice? They’ve done extremely well to get promoted all their years back and then maintain their standing as a good premier league side. Got some really good players on their books too - many added in the past 3-4 years. Their manager could also be a promising one.

This thread reeks of snobbishness.
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I don't disagree with any of that.

Despite all of that though, they'll still finish 12th. And they'll finish there next season too.

Typing this made me go look at the table and they actually are 12th. Amazing :lol:
 
Redbull clubs sound horrible to me but I have no idea how much local support they have in their respective cities.
 
I think City against Leipzig may have been the most pointless knock-out tie in Champions League history.
 
HTG said:
I think City against Leipzig may have been the most pointless knock-out tie in Champions League history.
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Yeah I usually celebrate every heavy Leipzig defeat but couldn't really bring myself to it when the ones doing it are also just someones personal bitches.
 
Abizzz said:
Yeah I usually celebrate every heavy Leipzig defeat but couldn't really bring myself to it when the ones doing it are also just someones personal bitches.
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And it’s just inconsequential. There’s no one you could poke fun at for the loss. No one to do the poking. It just happened and the world moved on before it was even over. Completely pointless. A football game played in a void.
 
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