by Tony Attwood
Reddit has presented a “satisfaction-o-meter”, which has also appeared in the Athletic and the New York Times. It is a way of measuring the feelings of fans relating to their club at the end of the season.
And as you ponder it you might find it a little disconcerting that it is not quite possible to work out the percentage of everything for each club – but still we can have a bash.
We can see for example that 95.2% of Crystal Palace’s respondents were very satisfied with their season, but we have to guess the percentage that were dissatisfied – it was probably 1% or 2%. A set of grumpy old people who felt they didn’t finish high enough up the league and the FA Cup was not enough compensation. (Or maybe they were the people who couldn’t get a ticket for the final).
Interestingly 52.9% of Tottenham fans were very satisfied and another 37.9% satisfied with their season – I guess on the basis that they won something and are in the Champions League next season. The number very dissatisfied looks to be around 9%.
And so what of Arsenal? 53.9% were satisfied. 37.1% were dissatisfied. The figures for very satisfied and very dissatisfied are not shown in the chart but looking at the graphic I’d get it was 5% very satisfied and 4% very dissatisfied.
Of course what we don’t know is how many of these voters actually went to matches, how many saw the club on TV, and of course how much influence what the commentators on TV said, had on the voting. But overall in the satisfaction table Arsenal were 12th Liverpool were fourth and Tottenham were ninth.
Which of course suggests different people are looking for different things. Winning a trophy obviously boosts satisfaction ratings, and of course winning the League is the most important. And yet even then some people (such as some Liverpool fans) are not satisfied.
Of course past achievements also affects expectation. So only 1.6% of Manchester City’s supporters who voted were very satisfied with their season, while 15.7% were very dissatisfied, which combined with other results suggests to me that there indeed some people who not only revel in triumph and success but then demand it all the time.
Likewise to be very dissatisfied with Arsenal’s position of second despite the highest rate of injuries within the league seems to me to be a bit churlish. Of course, it could be argued that Arsenal needed extra high-quality reserves, but as I have tried to suggest before, reserves only come to a club and only stay at a club if they play. Yes they would have been satisfied last season (except the backup goal-keeper of course) but in previous seasons they would have been rather fed up. And this is because they would know that while they are not playing for Arsenal they could have been actually playing in the first team of any one of a number of other clubs.
Howver, rather amazingly, 10.5% of Southampton supporters were satisfied with their season, despite coming bottom with just a couple of wins all season. But then maybe they have a greater understanding of the outcome of the yoyo effect of going up and down between the leagues.
In fact, below Arsenal on the satisfaction rankings were Chelsea, Wolverhampton, Ipswich, Manchester City, Southampton, Manchester United, Leicester and at the foot of the table, West Ham. In the latter case a whopping great 97.6% of the voters were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, which doesn’t bode well for the club.
From all this I think we can gain a couple of insights. First, a cup win, indeed any type except the Diddly-euro Cup that Chelsea won, can really boost the delight of fans. Second, a league title does not guarantee satisfaction for everyone.
Tottenham’s satisfaction level is interesting however because it does show how much spectator expectation can be lowered. They were 52.9% very satisfied with the season in which the club finished 17th in the league out of 20. And in a season in which they conceded almost double the number of goals Arsenal did, (34 by Arsenal 65 by Tottenham). That cup win meant everything to them because it was their first trophy since winning the league cup 17 years ago.
And this might be a sign that clubs are now taking into account. No matter how bad a club does in the league, the fans will feel very happy if they win a cup of almost any type. Thus Palace likewise have a lot of very happy supporters after coming 12th in the League but winning the FA Cup.
Which raises the question: should managers focus on winning a cup and forget about the league, as it seems Tottenham did last season? And if so, should clubs who fancy a chance of getting the title, forget the cups completely?
Because football is about winning silverware. ‘Always finishes second’ is the worst possible place to be. Better to win the Europa and come 14th than win nothing for 5 years
Don’t think so. And, by the way, which North London club do you support?
And who is it that says football is all about winning silverware?
Well, it’s the media. If the media did anything close to meaningful football journalism instead of concentrating on constantly feeding the hype, I expect most people would have a different view of what football is all about.