I have seen so many silly top 10s on the Internet regarding this topic, including one made with AI, and some of them are absolutely ridiculous, putting even PSG or City over teams like Milan and Inter for example.
There are nine clubs that are sacred for the sport and should not ever be left out of any historic top 10, regardless of the order in which you put them and those are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, AC Milan, Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan and Ajax. And no other team in Europe(and frankly, the world), is bigger than any of them.
After those 9, put whatever club you want, put a Portuguese one, or Arsenal, or Chelsea, or whatever. But those 9 are non negotiable and leaving them out honestly makes any top 10 look either ignorant or made by a really young person.
Edit: And I mean big as in overall trophies, status, prestige, players, ballon d ors, history, fans, etc. Not just followers on social media and revenue.
No lies detected
Arsenal fall into a weird spot where they are ahead of clubs like Chelsea, Forest, City in terms of long term domestic history and domestic cultural relevance, but simply fall short on the European stage behind clubs like Inter and Benfica who many in the UK would see as less relevant, let alone City and Chelsea.
Arsenal are tied to a revolution in the professional game through Wenger in England, and I think even one, or two CL victories would immediately plant them amongst those European giants.
As it is, they just fall short
Substantially most top 10 (if not every single one of them), have these 9 in a different order. I do not see the problem in regular top 10s that the OP is so reactive to.
It’ll be interesting to see if people will remove Ajax from this list in 20 years. A great history and the melting pot for most great Dutch players. Now, they’re a smaller European giant that is unlikely to have any impact on the CL and who probably won’t hold on to any Dutch starlets past their 18th birthday.
This entire post has been created to make Arsenal and City fans feel bad - the two clubs that are currently doing quite well in the premier league as well as the champions league.
The OP perhaps has never heard the phrase - STOP LIVING IN THE PAST GLORIES.
The last spot should go to Benfica 2 UCL wins and 5 runners up. 38 league titles and 29 runners up. Dortmund is also in the conversation but I think Benfica is ahead
I don’t agree, but I have no compelling argument to make which contradicts this.