According To Soccer Fans Manchester United Is Evil
A few years back, we wrote about a tool called Brand Tags, which asked people to fill in the first word that came to mind when they saw a given brand's logo. Then, Brand Tags presented the findings to show what people thought of various brands.
Percolate, the social content company behind Brand Tags, has now launched a project called Footy Tags, which asks soccer fans around the world to plug in the first thing that comes to mind when presented with the logo of one of the English Premier League's 20 teams. The resulting word clouds present a humorous and insightful look at how fans feel about the league's brands.
Here are five things we learned from them:
1. Manchester United is evil, but at least they're good.
Defending champions Manchester United were defined by two things: their success and how much people hate them. Though many people tagged the team as "evil," even more labeled them "champions." Winning five EPL championships in seven years will do that to you.
2. People still can't get past Manchester City and Chelsea's money.
Fans were less kind to the only other teams to win an EPL title in the past seven years, Manchester City and Chelsea. Those teams were defined primarily by their foreign owners, whose cash infusions have propelled them to new heights. Despite winning the Champions League tournament contested between the top teams in Europe just two seasons ago, Chelsea was tagged most for "money" and "Abramovich," the Russian oligarch who purchased the team in 2003. Likewise, Manchester City's 2012 EPL title was overlooked in favor of the "money," "new money," and "oil money" of the Abu Dhabi royal family.
3. Americans dig the EPL, but they only care about America.
Pretty much every EPL squad with an American on it was closely identified with that player. This was true for mainstays like Everton's Tim Howard, newcomers like Sunderland's Jozy Altidore, and even players who aren't in England anymore. It's been two years since Clint Dempsey played for Fulham, but he was tagged more often than any other player.
4. Crystal Palace is in for a rough year.
Fans were perhaps most cruel to newly promoted Crystal Palace, which was frequently associated with "who?" "nothing," and "relegation." The Eagles are currently in 18th place with one win and three losses.
5. Liverpool is history.
Once the dominant powerhouse in English soccer, Liverpool FC hasn't won a league championship since 1990 and failed to crack the league's top four since 2009. As a result, the team's word cloud was filled with words like "history" and "tradition," but the names associated with those famous wins appear to have been lost in the sands of time. We found former LFC heroes Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish, but their names were tiny.
Check out all of the word clouds at FootyTags.com to see what else you can find.