Yeah, please don’t take my comments as any measure of endorsement for the current owners. They’re definitely not. I was fearful of them at the time, and I’m more fearful now. Poor man’s Red Bull, and zero affinity with the town. If I take the current owners out of the equation though, I still think we’re left with a Club that can’t consistently compete in the Championship. There just isn’t a level playing field any more. If that wasn’t the case, I’m sure Patrick would have found a buyer much sooner.
I agree to a certain extent regarding competing in the Championship. We're hampering ourselves with the stupid policy the owners are persuing. Luton seem to managing very nicely on what's probably a lower budget than ours.
There are at least 13 clubs we can compete with. several others if it wasn’t for parachute payments. And breaking efl rules Middlesbrough Coventry Millwall Blackpool Preston Bristol city Luton Swansea Birmingham Hull Cardiff Reading Peterborough
By compete though, do you mean financially or in terms of what you see on the pitch? I reckon 7 of those were comfortably out of our league, financially speaking. Completely agree part of that is unfair spending, but it’s a factor nonetheless.
Even Luton though, you could look wider than pure first team squad budget. Look at their plans for Newlands. They have major strategic investment lined up, as a London outlier. We have a court battle between the owners and a Mexican standoff with the council.
I'll take that if we can also go back to playing with wingers. And a bloody big centre forward. And a tough tackling centre mid, partnered with a creative, but hard-working set piece geezer. And can we go back to 442 please? Joking aside, though, I'd be perfectly happy with a sustainable, honestly run, community-focused L2 club. Operating like that, might it even be achievable in L1?
Middlesbrough and bristol city both have much bigger fan bases and rich owners. Coventry and brum possibly cardiff have decent size fan bases but have been poorly run. Agree with the rest the only difference been they dont run the club with a view to make money on every player. When we started finding young players it was because we were sick of old ones rocking up for one last paycheck and taking the piss. Now its our aim to sell every player on for a profit and make money its abit silly really. You could have also said blackburn who initially sold less season tickets than us or huddersfield who arent that mucb and of a similar size really.
You say financially speaking. but I reckon those clubs have taken stock of the madness of trying to buy their way to the premier league. Especially the last couple of yrs. Apart from flirting with the premier on occasion over the last 30 yrs. None of those I would say are much, if at all, above our station. They are all has beens in my view. One or two may seem more attractive to investors. But they are where they are due to differing reasons. Poor recruitment. Lack of resources. Compared to yo yo clubs. The only reason we don't compete in my view is that the present owners (also wealthy) Stubbornly refuse to change tack on recruitment and tactics.
Same question though really. Depends what you mean by ‘above our station’. If you’re looking purely at quality of play on the pitch when we’ve played them, fair enough, over the years we’ve competed. I’m talking about financial clout, year in year out. I’m talking about our status as a Club to players and investors. Our ability to attract and retain Championship quality players. On those measures I think we’re clinging on by our fingertips.
I agree with a lot of what you say. But re bigger fan bases. That may well be the case. But imo the amount of revenue from gate receipts for example is of small significance. Compared to other sources of income. Bristol are massively In debt. How much longer will the owner throw his own money at it. We also have rich owners. They chose not to spend any those riches.
Out of all those clubs I would say Coventry are closest to us currently. No assests to speak of, wages are comparable,
Do you not think financial clout is on the wane. Look at the clubs who throw money at trying to get to the premier. Apart from yo yo clubs wba and norwich who seem to still operate prudently. (Using parachute payments and tying players to contracts that allow for failure) Not getting massively into debt. The others apart from fulham who lived on parachute payments and overspent. Are cutting their cloths trying to alter the errors of their ways. This lot is of course just my opinion Marc. It probably goes against what most think. We competed admirably last season. Without throwing money at it.
I’d love to think it was, but I’m not so sure. Not to the extent that it needs to, anyway. Personally think we’re in that Champ/L1 yo-yo status. Rotherham/Wigan/Wycombe/Peterborough territory
Whilst a lot of clubs are started to reign it in, others will look at that (probably forest at minute) and pounce on what they think is an opportunity to go for it. And spend like ****. It needs cart blanche change in the game, right from the top with regulatory powers. We as a club have been waiting for years and years for all these clubs to go bust so we can reap the rewards. Just never going to happen. One or 2 clubs getting in bother each season isn't going to change it. Now if sky suddenly lost all rights or pull the plug..... It's going to take a massive failure for loads of clubs at the same time for owt to change. Covid could have been it. But the league bowed to pressure to change the 3 year ongoing results so that some clubs can find other creative ways to bend even more. Football is *****