The Search is Over.

Of course you, my terrific tens of readers, have been patiently waiting for an update to my thoughts on supportership of an English Premier League team from December and today you shall not be disappointed... except that to begin to understand my pain, you must watch this entire 4:04 video, which will feel more like 19 minutes of unanesthetized dental horrors:

The lyrics are insignificant. What is important is the utterly painful sounds and visuals this cubic-zirconia of an 80s musical gem offers. 


Now that you've endured it, you must know watching that pales in comparison to the utter calamity and torture of watching a passenger train named Wigan Athletic wrecking down the side of a mountain... over the course of six years. Six years of mental anguish. Six loooong years. Six very looooong years of constant 'what-ifs', 'why-nots', and head-shaking. To be fair, there were some interspersed highlights, albeit counted on less than one-hand's worth, of which nearly all revolved around a final-week reprieve from the sporting gallows.


No matter the outcome of Wigan this season, I have now officially severed all emotional and sentimental ties to this club and after some deliberation have settled on a new club.  Here are the finalists:

Sunderland - a considerably-skilled squad with great kits, decent financial backing, great fans, and storied rivalry with local opposition Newcastle. The addition of one of my favored managers in Martin O'Neill was certainly a boost to the club and my consideration. Ellis Short, an American with Irish heritage, is the current majority owner after being a partner within the previous owners' consortium. The Black Cats appear to be on the upswing although have dallied up and down with the Premiership as recently as the mid-2000s

Everton - a storied and historic club whose 108 years in the top flight of English football is second to none. Coupled with steady manager in David Moyes, the English-owned outfit has maintained an upper-half level. Over it's history Everton has won the top flight 9 times, FA Cup 5, and League Cup twice. They have American keeper Tim Howard, have loaned-in American Landon Donovan, and maintain an historic and friendly rivalry, The Merseyside Derby, with 'The Reds' of Liverpool. The 'Blues' or 'Toffees' enjoy modest, yet continual success in the top flight, and dalliances with European football, often in the shadow of cross-river rivals Liverpool.  

Aston Villa - owned by American Randy Lerner, I have some admiration for a club who hails from what I call the 'Chicago' of England - Birmingham. It is the second largest metro area outside of London with historic recognition for manufacturing and production.  Blue-collar all the way, their storied Second-City Derby with rivals Birmingham City reminds one of the Cubs-White Sox divide. They also have one with nearby West Bromwich Albion which recalls the historic Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers rivalry. Aside from football, Aston Villa has done incredible things within its community (such as donating 300 days of hospice care and the front shirt sponsorship space to Acorns Children's Hospice. They also champion local farming and food systems and provide considerable support to local employment and training services).


Certainly not an easy choice for me but I finally have settled comfortably on one of these clubs...

"And the winner is"...

EVERTON F.C.

Another reason I considered Everton, which I didn't state earlier, was that when I went about first selecting a club in 2006, I was down to Wigan and Everton. 'Smaller Upstart' vs. 'Establishment'. While I respected both views and with little separating the two then, I then made my final selection (rather embarrassingly now) on the style of the Home shirt.


With some years of experience now behind me, I can see what drew me to Everton originally is what I like about them today. Granted, their kits aren't the most nattily designed, but do have a continuity which I like.  You may soon see me in something of a solid Royal Blue with the Everton badge, so henceforth, you may consider me a 'Toffee' or a 'Blue' and a fan of "The People's Club".


I extend by thanks to all of you who conscientiously offered suggestions and gave well-reasoned input. It was not in vain and did help me determine what was most important in the evaluations of teams. Nil Satis Nisi Optimum is the motto and 'Nothing but the Best' is what I intend to give them and also look to receive.


As Survivor sang, " the search is over, you were with me all the while". It is my sincere desire to not be at this point again someday, so now, as an Evertonian, I must be true. 


True Blue.

Dr. Changeteam (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Find a New EPL Team)

The torture for me is over... finally. 

EPL Table - Dec 5, 2012

With little mystery left as to the fate of Wigan Athletic's EPL status (despite not having even passed the mid-season/ December break yet), I can therefore begin the process of determining what may be next for me as a fan of English Premier League Football. 


It is with some regret (but more relief) that I must remove myself from the scattered hundreds of fans worldwide who support Wigan Athletic, for there is certainly no logical way this team will survive the top shelf of English Football beyond this season.


Since I have decided that personal sanity and mental well-being is more important than any loyalty to my very first EPL team, I am finding this bit of freedom in looking for a new team quite welcome. This is not an indictment of loyalty (more the opposite actually - maintaining loyalty to self-preservation), nor is it band-wagon-off-jumping as I see it more as self-preservation than fleeing a disaster. Think of it as losing that first love. Years from now, there will be clarity and a realization that it just wasn't meant to be, but you will always look back with fondness and wistful sentiment at those early days.


Unfortunately, and what does cause some considerable conflict at this point, is that much of what Wigan Athletic does as a professional sports organization, I have great respect for. By most all reports, owner Dave Whelan is generous, loyal, professional, and runs his local club in a proper manner. It is therefore sad to see such an honest, hard-working (albeit relatively small) club have to be relegated to a lower division because they cannot compete with the over-spending, hardware-seeking zealot owners from around the world who choose to 'smash-and-grab' their way into the top flight by spending beyond their means, often leaving their 'toy' with little choice but to be sold off to the next-in-line suck-errr... buyer.


I want the little club to triumph by being a well-run, financially-conservative club with an eye to longevity whose top-flight status is not a perennial question. Maybe that's too much to ask. Maybe FIFA's much-needed and more-equitable Financial Fair Play rules phasing in over the 2012, '13, and '14 seasons will come after the demise of Wigan's top-flight status. At any rate, it's become too much for me to shoulder anymore as a fan and I for my own good I need to change teams.  Top level stability is nothing but a predetermined security blanket in the American sports world to the delight of mega-buck owners with little impetus to defend their status and detriment to lovers of a more pure style of competition.


So in looking for a new team, and being faithful to my original tenets of club selection back in 2006 (in order of priority; EPL-level club, non-'Top-4' club, nice looking kits, English-owned, newer to the EPL), I am now a crossroads from which my future EPL fandom will set out. 


Option 1. Choose one of the three newly-promoted sides each season to cheer on with survival being the benchmark for success.
Option 2. Pick another club whose chances of survival are significantly greater and meets as many of my original tenets as possible.
Option 3. Get over my own limits, grab a big club, and bandwagon it like everybody else.


Here's where you, my beloved readers, come in: 

I am open to your input, so you therefore will help determine what my decision will be. 


Give me your selection of the three Options above in my comments section below. The most-popular suggestion will showdown with my personal favorite option to determine the system for selecting my next EPL club.

Addled w LLS - Lovable Losers Syndrome

My forward inertia, weakened by time and poor short-term memory, relents and backward I go, as if some addiction-addled junkie. Someone should really put me out of my misery or at least attempt an intervention.

"Hi, my name's DZ, and...  I'm a Wigan Athletic fan." **sobs openly**

Only while writing this do I realize the expected catharsis of openly stating my problem is instead serving to highlight and magnify it. My problem is... I'm a fan of demi-losers. 

I've somewhat proudly decided to not become one of the scads and kaboodles of dullard bandwagoneers who grab the brightest sports team to follow with blind attraction. Nope. Not me. I take time to consider many variables and settle on what seems right for me. Apparently, I'm a borderline loser, annual fodder for the lower tiers.

In a few short weeks I'm sure I'll be kicking myself for not having bailed on my first Barclays Premier League team selection (the details of which are too pithy to describe here) - Wigan Athletic. Certainly they will have already disappointed me by losing at least two of the first three matches of the season. All of which they should be winning. Those first three are all of the recently promoted clubs from the lower nPower Championship division of the English Football Association. 

You see, in the last 90 days of the previous season, my Wigan languished in the bottom three positions of the Barclays Premier League standings. Those lowest rungs, at the end of the season, are removed from the loftiest of the English Football Association ladder and sent down to what is the equivalent of the AAA in American baseball.  The whole of the club and ownership takes a knock, and generally includes an associated self-loathing by players, fans, towns they represent, everything. 'Relegation' it's called and is a wonderfully maddening and enticing system where the bottom three of 20 clubs go down (including less income, less TV money, less ability to spend on payroll, etc.) and the top three from the next lower division come up (promotion) to test their mettle. 

So as I stated, Wigan had been trod upon enough to be sitting near the foot of the table (standings) for most of the 2nd half of the season. Only by their near-miracle turnaround during May, did they scrape enough wins and draws to rise above and resuscitate their top-flight status.  Before that, in February, realizing the unlikelihood of their task ahead, I had vowed to dump them after the season as they were certainly going down. Good riddance to bad rubbish, and they OF COURSE, on the last week of the season, scratch their way out of the hole and here I am, fresh with optimism, at the dawn of a new season, again drawn back to being their fan.

For the record I would totally support relegation/promotion in our American sports system. No more guaranteed anything, just win baybee. My Kansas City Royals would have been relegated 15 years ago, the Colts of Indy during my college days would have been geldings, and basketball 76ers of Philly would be right about where they are now. Nowhereville. Even blithe Cubs fans, amiably content with mediocrity, really have no idea how ugly it could be.

But forgiveness reigns and the love for my near-losers will soon return and Wigan will be right back in my thoughts again. I'll likely peruse the various online shops for some new Wigan gear. Possibly begin developing a canned speech to recant my previous hardline stance of February. Look for all the positives and optimism that a new season brings and say a little prayer for better times to come.

So here's wishing and hoping for a better season and perhaps the grim reaper of English Football doesn't appear quite so closely next spring. I don't think I can handle another season of near-loserdom.  

Eh, now that I think about it, I said that last year also. 
And the year before that too.