From positive to negative....

Quoted from 1600

So you're writing us off for promotion then ?


Do we even care if we're back in the Football League ?


Correct me if I'm wrong, but your whole argument seems to be there's no point in promotion because we MIGHT be paying higher wages ? Sorry but who is forcing us to pay these higher wages ? The fans ?

If Scott and Hurst are good enough to take us up, then they're arguably good enough to survive relegation from League 2 even with a young squad of players on lower L2 wages.

And even if they don't we'll still be £500K a year better off for the year whilst we're there - it's a no brainer in my view.

Are you seriously suggesting promotion is a bad thing ?

Quoted from 1600

What am I twisting exactly ?

Quoted from CarlitoBrigante

I hardly ever post on here, but I have a look at the other posts all the time.  I love this site as some cracking bits of info are leaked.  I very rarely feel the need to post, but I am certainly one of those, the minority it seems today, who feels the Connell deal is a kick in the teeth.

I have been confident of our chances so far this pre-season, but now I feel completely deflated.  I also feel a little bit stupid; I went in the club shop a few weeks ago, and some guy was buying a new Town shirt.  He was asked if he wanted a name and number, and he asked "which number will Connell be this season?".  The woman in the club shop said "well, it hasn't been decided if he's staying yet".  Why not?  He was under contract and we'd had no official approach for him from a FL club, so we were told.  With hindsight, all the fans who said Hearn was signed as a replacement for Connell were absolutely spot-on.  The club obviously knew Alan was leaving, and Career Underdogs deserves some credit for saying this many weeks ago, he clearly got it right.

The thing that gets me is, I've turned from an optimist into a pessimist within the space of reading the news of Connell's departure.  I can understand why Fenty has kept quiet and rebuffed Luton, this all makes sense, but letting Connell go does not.  How do you replace 29 goals?  You can't.  I think Swindon have got a bargain at 150K.  We couldn't replace Alan like-for-like if we spent every penny we've got for him.

This has all made me feel, for the first time, that maybe we'll struggle this season.  OK, maybe the managers were just assessing the whole squad at the tail end of last season, and maybe that's why it took them so long to win a game, but maybe they're actually out of their depth at BSP level?  Maybe all the BSN players are glorified Sunday Leaguers?  Maybe our arrogance in thinking that Lincoln will fall into the same trap we did last season is well off the mark?  Why do we assume they'll go the same way we did, and struggle?  It's not a given.

Every year a minnow (Crawley; Rich?  Yes. A minnow? Still yes) gets replaced with a big club; Stockport, at least as big as us.  And what do we do?  We try to replicate every small club in the BSP by recruiting "grafters" and "athletes".  You can bet your a#se that Southport and Kettering have plenty of them, too.  What set us apart from all the average BSP teams?  Connell.  The one bit of class we had.

There is this myth that you need to fight your way out of this league, but I'm beginning to think the truth is that you can assimilate yourself into a typical, brusing BSP team and just fall in line with all the other dross.  We might currently be doing that, who knows, really?  We haven't got a Scooby Doo whether Hearn, Pearson or Church can step up.  We don't know if Disley is in the BSP because he's no good anymore.  We don't know if Spencer is the biggest donkey we've had since Iffy Onoura!!!!!

I'm going to support this team, no question, but all of a sudden I'm not so sure we're playoff certainties, as has regularly been predicated on here (and by me to people I know, also).

The 150K (which we don't even know if this is true, probably nearer 100K is more like the correct figure) is merely a drop in the ocean when looking at the club's overall debt.  Every penny needs pumping into the squad via transfer fees for in-demand players, but this won't happen.  And Fenty will never let us find this out, due to the "undisclosed" nature of the fee.  We get 100K every year for 5 years due to the Bennett deal, and how much of this did Fenty splash to keep us in the league?  Nothing.  And don't tell me that we spent a fortune on loans to keep us up, they saved a fortune by taking on Woods (we all knew it was a stubborn mistake) and the likes of Devitt, basically a school kid, were probably on peanuts.

Basically, unless Fenty and his cronies are willing to do a Jack Walker and buy our way out of this league, we're here to stay.  We can complain about Crawley over spending, but they've done what we simply cannot do as things stand; get promoted.

The curse with this club still remains, and he's stearing the ship this season too.  God help us!

Fenty; prove me wrong, please!

Worried, of Grimsby.........







Rant over, I promise!

Quoted from 1600

So you're writing us off for promotion then ?


Do we even care if we're back in the Football League ?


Correct me if I'm wrong, but your whole argument seems to be there's no point in promotion because we MIGHT be paying higher wages ? Sorry but who is forcing us to pay these higher wages ? The fans ?

If Scott and Hurst are good enough to take us up, then they're arguably good enough to survive relegation from League 2 even with a young squad of players on lower L2 wages.

And even if they don't we'll still be £500K a year better off for the year whilst we're there - it's a no brainer in my view.

Are you seriously suggesting promotion is a bad thing ?

Quoted from TWAreaTownSupporter

Esp with the vote of confidence type statement beforehand.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

If Connell had stayed and if Connell had made a decent partnership with Hearn and if the club had got promoted and if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle.

Quoted from marinette

I've just been reading some of these threads back and it's quite funny to see the derision that Career Underdogs received for predicting that Connell would go to Swindon for a six-figure sum.  Who would have thought?

I'm sure I never used to be this cynical, but how very coincidental that a rumour about Connell going to Swindon for a six-figure sum started circulating in June.  And now we are told that the club shop have been dubious about selling people shirts with his name on?   Ooh, and then just one day before the deadline for discounted season tickets (by which time most people would have bought their STs if they were going to) ... only then do things kick into action and the Connell deal is announced by the club.

Well it doesn't really bother me, because I think I'd have bought my ST anyway, but I'm curious to know whether some people might not have splashed out on STs if they had known Connell was definitely leaving?

I think it's very good business to get a six-figure sum for Connell when, after all, Woodsy signed him on a free, but the timing of it, when people have bought season tickets, makes me ever so slightly suspicious.

Quoted from 1600

Just sounds like you're implying all that would take some sort of miracle.

Can't all of the above be boiled down to "Connell makes a decent partnership with Hearn and we get promoted" ?

My point was, presuming you think promotion is such a big ask had Connell stayed, then where do you think we are we now ?