I'm originally from New Orleans, so being a Saints fan makes it enjoy the struggle. So when I was shopping for an EPL team, I was torn between Arsenal and West Ham.
Back in the early 90's, we had ISFA mailing lists for teams. I posted a question "What do you think of Kasey Keller?"
The Arsenal fans were all "Stupid Yank, we don't need him", "He sucks!" "You suck, he sucks, blah blah blah". I wasn't asking if he should replace David Seaman, just their opinions.
I posted the same question on the West Ham list, and even though Keller played for their fiercest rivals, Millwall, they were much more respectable "Wish we had him", "Going to be a great keeper" "US will be proud of him", etc.
The strife was o'er, the battle was won. Since 1993 I have followed West Ham from abroad. I've only seen them play once, away to Southampton, but we won 3-2 in the 88th minute. I had to run to catch the train back to London so I could catch the Chunnel back to Brussels for my flight home. Awesome memories.
I also got to go behind the scenes at Upton Park, into the locker rooms, on the pitch, and at one time, their CEO and I would exchange emails (he was quite interested in the US soccer scene, and very friendly).