An experiment by Year 6 pupils at a Teesside primary school has revealed how Premier League clubs treat their young fans.
When 10-year-old Owen Agar wrote a letter to his favourite football club, Arsenal, as part of an school English project, he was so pleased with the Gunners’ response that it got his class at Saltburn Primary Academy wondering whether the other top flight clubs would respond so well.
Using Owen’s letter as a template, the crafty kids, along with Year 6 teacher Rachel Wills, hatched a plan to write to each Premier League club asking five questions: “What is the best thing about your manager? Which team are your main rivals? What game has been your favourite recently? And “What games are you looking forward to?”
Mrs Wills said: “The children wrote to all 20 Barclays Premier League clubs with exactly the same letter as an experiment to see how well football clubs treat their young fans.
“We made a fictitious character - Sam Fisher-McCoy - who could be male or female.
“Of all 20 Premier League clubs we wrote to, only Liverpool, West Ham United, Burnley, Stoke City, Southampton, Arsenal and Everton replied.”
Once the replies were in, the children ranked the responses based on how personal and prompt they were.
Of all the teams contacted, Stoke and Arsenal came out top with their charming, personal and prompt replies.
The letter from Stoke City, signed by former Boro official Anthony Emmerson, begins: “It is always good to hear from our supporters.
“It’s also good to get letters from fans that live quite far away; Saltburn is a lovely place - with a lovely beach and pier!”
Arsenal’s response to Owen’s original letter was also a winner.
Owen said: “Arsenal were really good. They sent us quite a lot of information as well as some signed pictures of all the players.”
However the least personal response from those which did reply came from Liverpool FC in a letter that said: “Thank you for your recent letter to Liverpool Football Club.
“In an effort to improve and modernise our service to fans, we moved our supporter communications to an online system from the start of the 2013/14 Premier League season.
“If you would like to write to a Liverpool or contact the fan mail team, please use our online form on the LFC website.”
The letter ends, “You’ll never walk alone.”
Mrs Wills added: “Our class found out that generally, with the exception of Arsenal, the richer the club, the worse their replies.
“Out of all the clubs, Stoke and Burnley sent the most personal responses and we were impressed with them.”
Scarlett Vickers, 10, said: “Maybe the smaller teams value their fan base more.”
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