Most exciting teams that never won anything

[B20]

Keegan's Newcastle was something else, especially given how squad rotation wasn't really a thing yet.

I remember thinking at the time that a attacking suite of Shearer, Les Ferdinand, Asprilla, Beardsley and Ginola was impossibly stacked.

Yes, it was top heavy. Players like Barton, Albert, Lee, Gillespie and Batty were good players but no more than that. And of those five top attacking players, 2 of them were often warming the bench.

Alongside Vialli, Gullit, Bergkamp, Juninho and Zola, they were the quintessence of the footballing revolution that hit the premier league in the late 90s for me. It drove me up the wall that all these lesser teams were signing fantastically exciting players from abroad, whilst we were signing Leonhardsen and Riedle during those times.

Still, on their day Newcastle were as exciting to watch as anyone.

 

[Vidyoyo]

Poch's Spurs

 

[luke511]

Liverpool 13/14

 

[thisisnottaken1]

Us under Ole?

I was referring more to the 19-20 and 20-21 seasons. Obviously not the best shout.

 

[Scandi Red]

Manchester City 2008 - now

 

[Steve Bruce]

Us under Ole?

We weren't what I'd class as exciting

 

[DWelbz19]

Us under Ole?

Covid era Ole was a fun side.

 

[Mainoonited]

League Cup finalist Arsenal - in fact all post Henry Arsenal sides.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Rodgers' Liverpool, it was extremely exciting to watch Gerrard slip and the Palace collapse.

 

[diarm]

The Dutch side between 96 and the early 2000's was bloody brilliant to watch, without ever actually winning anything.

 

[Skills]

Us under Ole?

Barely broke 70 PL goals

 

[elmo]

Us under Ole?

It was exciting, for opposing fans.

 

[DJ Jeff]

League Cup finalist Arsenal - in fact all post Henry Arsenal sides.

Arsenal 2016 choked an extremely winnable league. 2008 Arsenal was a bad choke too.

 

[RaddyRed]

Celtic under Tommy Burns in the 90s was an exciting team that didn't manage to win the league (the did win the SC tho)

Di Canio
Collins
Cadete
Van Hooijdonk
McStay
Attacking wing backs.

There were also some quality Inter Milan teams from years back that never seemed to win anything, despite having quality players

 

[Lay]

Sarri's Napoli were a fun team to watch

 

[djembatheking]

Brazil 1982

 

[Stobzilla]

Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao side were very exciting to watch.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

2016-2019 Spurs surely?

Son and Kane should be laden with medals.

 

[luke511]

They never had a chance of winning anything but Blackburn's 2005-06 season had some fun players. Bellamy, Pedersen, Tugay, Bentley, Reid, Friedel etc.

 

[Cloud7]

Spurs when they had still Bale just before he left, and (I think) Poch had Bale playing something of a free role, that team was very exciting as it always felt like Bale was going to do something good.

The late stage arsenal team around 2010/2011 or so that had Fabregas, Song, RVP, Nasri etc. was quite fun to watch on their day.

Netherlands in euro 2008

 

[Irwin99]

Spice boys era Liverpool. Some good players, good football (showed that a 3-5-2 doesn't need to be defensive necessarily) but ultimately won nothing, thanks in part to Cantona and Roy Keane's brilliance in the FA cup final

 

[Remember the geese]

West Ham - The Di Canio years. Also, some might say Brighton in recent years.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Covid era Ole was a fun side.

It was, and one of the only times I can remember post-Fergie where pundits spoke positively about us too. We were pretty great on the counter attack. We didn't lose a game between football restarting after covid and the end of that season, which pulled us from 6th to 3rd.

Following season was fun too. We seemed to take advantage no crowds at away games better than anyone else. We didn't lose a single behind-closed-doors away game in the league.

Really should have won the Europa League though. Just a tragic penalty shootout.

 

[Guapa]

Brazil 1982

Seconded

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Us under Ole?

I was referring more to the 19-20 and 20-21 seasons. Obviously not the best shout.

Nah really only the lockdown 19-20 side was fun to watch. The next year was far more disjointed.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Rodgers' Liverpool, it was extremely exciting to watch Gerrard slip and the Palace collapse.

Was the first team I thought of, that final Suarez season was absurd.

 

[Yagami]

Teams that tend to play two (or more) attacking midfielders usually make for the most entertaining teams for me personally. Mainly because said players gravitate towards the ball, so when you have multiple attacking midfielders on the pitch together they all play close together which makes for nice link up play. That's why a lot of my picks would be an Arsenal team because I loved the Wenger set out his teams.

06-08 Arsenal. Rosicky and Hleb coming inside to combine with Fabregas, and the likes of Henry/RvP/Adebayor up top who'd also come deep to link up.

09-11 Arsenal. After Hleb moved to Barca and Rosicky started struggling with injuries, Nasri came in and Fabregas moved further forwards, and those two alongside RvP were fun to watch. The midfield base of Song and Wilshere was good, too.

15/16 Arsenal. Cazorla in central midfield (before his hiatus) and Alexis, Ozil and Ramsey linking up further forwards was good stuff.

Japan in the 2010s. Kagawa and Honda!



Malaga 12/13. Isco was obviously the standout, but I also loved Joaquin, Portillo, Saviola, Santa Cruz, too. I also liked Buonanotte but he barely played.

Las Palmas 16/17. Jonathan Viera, Halilovic, Jesé and Prince Boateng. Unfortunately, they didn't play that much together but I loved it when they did.

Roger Schmidt's Salzburg. They pressed like lunatics. Made Pep's Barca look lazy by comparison

 

[Oranges038]

Allardyce's Bolton team with Okocha etc, they were a good side to watch.

 

[Canucantona20]

Rodgers Liverpool and Poch Spurs

 

[Red Star One]

Leverkusen side of early 2000s was really exciting and never won a thing, I was thinking about them lately as it seems that the current season might mark the first Bundesliga win in the club history - they've finished second a record five times!

01/02 season was really unlucky for them and they are arguably "the biggest losers in history", as they finished second in the league, worse than BVB by just one point, and lost both the Champions League and the DFL-Ligapokal finals. The side featured Ballack in his peak (17 goals in the league only, 24 all comps that season), 20 yo Berbatov, Lucio at center back, Ze Roberto in the midfield, Oliver Neuville leading the line.

 

[Blood Mage]

Jardim's Monaco were incredible. It was sad to see them get dismantled so swiftly.

 

[duffer]

England 96.

 

[Pep Guard Yolo]

Belgium of the last 10 years.

 

[Rasendori]

At International level there's perhaps a strong case for Netherlands 1974.

A core of Ajax players that a year prior dismantled a Bayern Munich side which had the likes of Breitner, Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier, Gerd Muller etc.

Many have been fervent admirers of how the Netherlands approach games from a tactical perspective. Widely considered to be one of the most entertaining sides ever.

It would be an understatement to say Netherlands manager at the time, Rinus Michels continues to have a galvanising influence on coaches.

 

[Reditus]

England 96.

really?

1 good game against the Dutch. And they didn’t even have to qualify so just friendlies before that

 

[MexicanCowboy]

Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao side were very exciting to watch.

It was really amazing to see how well they played with mostly average players. Javi Martínez and Fernando Llorente were their best players, not even world class themselves.

 

[noodlehair]

Always enjoyed watching the Chelsea of the Zola era, and before that Gullit.

They probably did win the odd cup here and there but were always on the periphery at best of challenging for the league.


Tottenham have had various spells of being entertaining, but sometimes it would be for things like losing an FA cup game despite being 3-0 up at home at half time and the other team's captain being sent off.


Jay Jay Okocha FC was another. Somehow Allardyce went from that to being known as the world's most negative manager.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

It was exciting, for opposing fans.

 

[Reditus]

Spurs is mid 90,s Ossie Ardilles played a load of forwards

Klinsmann, Dumitrescu, Anderton, Sheringham and Barmby

in fairness they were still shit but fun games to watch

 

[Idxomer]

Jardim's Monaco were incredible. It was sad to see them get dismantled so swiftly.

They won the league.