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Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue
It wasn't so long ago that Blackburn were thought of as a "big club."
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Blackburn were thought of a big club because, no offense to Blackburn, they had money poured into them, and they were thought of as "a big club" for about 2 years. Looking at the league finishes after Jack Walker bought the club:
Division 2, 91: 19th
Division 2, 92: Playoffs, promoted to the Premiership, the first time in the top division for 26 years
Premiership, 93: 4th
Premiership, 94: 2nd
Premiership, 95: 1st
Premiership, 96 7th
Premiership, 97: 13th
with relegation following 2 years later.
They were not throught of as a big club because of the fanbase (Blackburn isn't a large city, and they have large amounts of local competition from the other NW clubs, such as the Manchester pair in the top division), or because of a history in the top flight. They were thought of as a big club because they won the premiership after spending an enormous amount of money, and as soon as this was not the case they were no longer, as you say, a big club.
Big clubs are more about just winning things - Spurs haven't won anything in a while (League cup in 99, wooooo), but they're always going to be able to pick up, and keep, better players than Middlesbrough - and that, in the end, is what being a "big club" means. Having a large fan base can make you a big club, being rich or having a good location can. So can winning things, but it depends what you win: a cup victory doesn't mean diddly squat in the long term, and the league title is a harder club to break into now than ever before.
To say that there only exists, in terms of "big clubs" the so-called "big four" is to oversimplify the situation somewhat. They are the biggest clubs, but there still exist teams that they cannot buy players from, even players without ties to the clubs.