Yeah I understand what you're getting at. Fiorentina - Atalanta being a good example. Fiorentina has a great history but they've been lower in the past 20 years but they've still been in top10 more often than not. Atalanta has surely a long way to go still.
Maybe the term "big club" needs to be specified more detailed here. So if looking at the big picture and all the clubs in England, Everton is surely a big club as they've been pretty consistently in top10 in EPL for the past 40 years.
You distinguish it by having 'big' clubs and 'top' clubs.
Top clubs in Italy:
Inter
Milan
Juvents
Big clubs in Italy:
Roma
Napoli
Fiorentina
Lazio
Torino
Then you have the list of pretenders and/or big clubs that lost their status:
Genoa (ancient version)
Pro Vercelli (also ancient version)
Bologna (30s and 60s version)
Cagliari (70s version)
Verona (80s version)
Sampdoria (90s version)
Parma (90s version)
Atalanta (late 2010s version, current situation)
The... size of a club is tied to several factors and the current league table has a very low weighting on it.
- Fanbase
- Trophy case
- Historic Competitiveness domestically
- Continental pedigree [success of European campaigns, big results against strong sides etc]
- Recent situation (enter recency bias among other factors)
- General attraction [to players, coaches, rivalries etc]
- General relevance (media attention, random interest by neutrals etc)
Top clubs in England:
Liverpool
Manchester United
Big clubs in England:
Arsenal
Manchester City
Chelsea
Everton
Newcastle
Aston Villa
Tottenham
Newcastle in England is more similar to the Fiorentina situation in Italy, it's just been more volatile for them.
Aston Villa and Everton are traditionally big clubs, but they're more similar to the Torino situation these days because they don't really compete, but they're almost always around. Genoa is similar, but I'd say they're just not at Torino's level because 100+ years have passed since they were a genuinely top side. Torino has been strong until the 70s for example. A more liberal list would have had both Genoa and Bologna as big clubs in Italy.
The list of course isn't fixed. If Chelsea and City keep doing their thing over the next 25-35 years, they'll also be considered top clubs. At the moment they're just taking advantage of a competitive gap at the top.
Leeds for example is not a big club. They had their moments in the 60s/70s and early 2000s, but that's about it. On the historical English football table they're barely top 20, slightly above Burnley. A Burnley side that was strong at some point in time, but generally not considered a "strong Premier League side" (ie last 30 years timeline). I don't think people assume that Leeds and Burnley carry the same weight [I also don't], yet it's 3 leagues won vs 2 leagues won, 1 Cup won vs 1 Cup won, but Leeds has the significant edge in Europe.
Which is also why the list of 'top' European clubs is quite small. Real Madrid, Bayern Munchen, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester United, Inter, Milan, Juventus, Ajax and Benfica. Everyone else is just making a name for himself in the 'today'. Chelsea is slowly breaking into this and will definitely belong in the top list if they keep it up over the next decade, while Benfica is slipping away. European football is completely ruined since FFP anyway so this doesn't really matter anymore...
Anyway, this is the defenders transfer thread