Been reading up and trying to get ready for start of Premier League season. Still haven't developed a rooting interest in a team yet. Well, except Blackpool. Tangerines! But fondness for a plucky underdog, while always fun, doesn't provide much entertainment value later in the season. Chelsea is loaded with players I like from the World Cup but for reasons I haven't quite been able to unpack, I have a somewhat irrational dislike of Chelsea. Rooting for Man U or Man City seems too much like rooting for the Cowboys or Yankees. I get why people from there with traditional attachments do it and that's fine for them. But for an outsider it feels too much like front-running or bandwagon-jumping. Maybe Arsenal. Do I have to bring my own house bricks? Probably I'll watch a few matches and see if anyone clicks. With my luck it'll be West Bromwich or Wigan. Maybe I'm a sucker for lovable losers. Hell, it took years of living here and watching ex-Durham Bulls move on to Tampa for me to shake off the chains of Bawlmer O's fandom and start rooting for the Rays.