During the season, fans tend to observe, in as many complicated ways and with as much detail as we can come up with, only that a winning team is very good, and a losing team is hopeless. My mother or Prince Charles or probably a Martian could make the same observation, but their views would be discounted on the grounds of ignorance.
In the course of a football season, supporters of a team often simplify their assessments to extremes: they view winning teams as exceptional and losing teams as utterly deficient. This tendency to categorize teams based solely on their performance reflects a superficial understanding of the game's complexities.
Nick Hornby points out that even those with little knowledge, like his mother or a notable figure such as Prince Charles, could make similar observations. However, their opinions may be dismissed, highlighting a common bias toward deeper expertise in sports commentary, despite the validity of basic perceptions about team success and failure.
