What company do we keep?

Group A: Wimbledon, Tranmere, Bristol Rovers, Luton: all went straight up again after promotion from the National League. Even Lincoln did it after a while.

Group B: York, Aldershot, Darlington, Torquay, Barnet were all relegated to non-League, won promotion back to the League before being relegated again to the National League.  You could add others like Kidderminster.

I suppose that there’s a third group who get promoted and more or less stick around the bottom division, quite safely. Exeter and Cheltenham for instance.

No disrespect to the clubs in a Group B, but really it’s not being over-ambitious to say we should be in Group A. The fact we look like joining Group B is a massive failure by the person running the club. No excuses.

With Fenty we are in group B

With new board. Group A  

It might take a year in the pub league to sort our club out.

But

We will be back bigger and stronger.

Quoted from grimsby pete

With Fenty we are in group B

With new board. Group A  

It might take a year in the pub league to sort our club out.

But

We will be back bigger and stronger.

If we take the attitude that it's a pub league, it will almost certainly take longer. I trust that the owners will not take that attitude.

if the new owner put someone who actually knows what the hell they are doing in running a football club, we will be ok. I am sure they are not going to cough up £2.5 million to see us rot in the NL.

I'm usually optimistic as you know. Their are an awful lot of ex league teams in that league now so I'm not sure of a bounce back. A return yes but I don't know when.

Quoted from DB

I'm usually optimistic as you know. Their are an awful lot of ex league teams in that league now so I'm not sure of a bounce back. A return yes but I don't know when.

Notts County are knocking on the door as you would expect but the biggest surprise for me is Chesterfield.
Lucky not to get relegated again last season and only mid-table this season.
Anyone that thinks a swift return is a given (assuming we get relegated) are living in cloud cuckoo land.

  After 6 long years in the conference/national league we should know by now that it's a very competitive league with some well financed teams as well as some traditional league teams all vying for 2 precious promotion spots. There are no excuses for a club like Grimsby not being in the mix for promotion, but there should be absolutely no assumption of bouncing straight back. That will take some serious investment, shrewd squad building, good fortune in avoiding long term injuries to key players, and a lot of hard work from everyone involved. The National League is far from a pub league. Surely we all know that.

This time, we MIGHT have a few big advantages coming down.

Firstly, time. Our season is scheduled to end in the second weekend of May. The National League isn't until the end of May with the play off final in the 3rd week of June. We have a chance to have a proper pre-season and gives us a massive head start on recruitment. If you can lay claim to being the fittest side in the league, you are off to a good start.

And secondly finances, whilst I don't think we'll be the sugar daddy's of the league. With many National League teams suffering, we may just be facing some very depleted sides who are using the season to essentially recover from the past 12 or so months. We will at least have the reassurance of a parachute payment to fall back on.

This is of course all a massive IF.

With Fenty definitely group B. With the new owners I’ve no idea as it’s new but I would certainly hope for group A. What a state of affairs.......

You add Stockport who dropped to NL North for a few seasons.  On the up now.  

Did I miss a memo? Where we relegated at the weekend?

Maybe I misunderstood that there's virtually a quarter of the season still to play.

Didn't Exeter go straight up again the season after they got back in the league?

Quoted from Youngy

This time, we MIGHT have a few big advantages coming down.

Firstly, time. Our season is scheduled to end in the second weekend of May. The National League isn't until the end of May with the play off final in the 3rd week of June. We have a chance to have a proper pre-season and gives us a massive head start on recruitment. If you can lay claim to being the fittest side in the league, you are off to a good start.

And secondly finances, whilst I don't think we'll be the sugar daddy's of the league. With many National League teams suffering, we may just be facing some very depleted sides who are using the season to essentially recover from the past 12 or so months. We will at least have the reassurance of a parachute payment to fall back on.

This is of course all a massive IF.

and it's possible that Dembele will go for mega bucks in the summer, plus we might get something for Pollock and Grist

What is a “proper pre-season”?  I hope that it is completely opposite to the non-existent pre-season we had before this season.

Both Fleetwood and Crawley spent about £2 million on their squads and walked away with the NL.  Luton, after their cup exploits the previous season had over a million to spend and won the division. (Lincoln too had a lucrative cup run to fund them did they not?)

Plenty of teams have won the NL with smaller budgets, but it can be a very hit and miss, and if relying on the play offs, as we well know, can be a lengthy wait.

If you really want to escape at the first time of asking, you have to splash the cash to maximise your chances.

We are going down this season because we did not invest properly either in the summer or in January. Footballers have short careers and need to maximise their earnings. Offer then a decent contract and they will come. If the 'money is not a problem' statement by the board was really sincere we would be half way up the table by now.

You need quality players. They don't come cheap, but they will come if you pay them a decent wage. We could have done what Bradford have.  Instead we are going down.

The other thing to consider is that Holloway would undoubtedly have had plenty of contacts with players at L1 and Championship level. If we had been prepared to pay well no doubt we could have attracted some decent players instead of the rag bag he ended up signing.  Again, it comes down to not being willing to invest in the playing squad.

I really believe the new owners will be willing to invest in the players  we need, not only to take us out of the NL, but out of L2 too.  

it's called real investment not the fan's digging in their pocket to start operation promotion again at the first glimmer of hope

Quoted from RonMariner

Both Fleetwood and Crawley spent about £2 million on their squads and walked away with the NL.  Luton, after their cup exploits the previous season had over a million to spend and won the division. (Lincoln too had a lucrative cup run to fund them did they not?)

Plenty of teams have won the NL with smaller budgets, but it can be a very hit and miss, and if relying on the play offs, as we well know, can be a lengthy wait.

If you really want to escape at the first time of asking, you have to splash the cash to maximise your chances.

We are going down this season because we did not invest properly either in the summer or in January. Footballers have short careers and need to maximise their earnings. Offer then a decent contract and they will come. If the 'money is not a problem' statement by the board was really sincere we would be half way up the table by now.

You need quality players. They don't come cheap, but they will come if you pay them a decent wage. We could have done what Bradford have.  Instead we are going down.

Looking at the lack of quality and the first signing, Hab's, hadn't played for 18 months money was a problem. The board don't lie in print, they just stretched the truth from BP as far as they could spin it. As you rightly say with PROPER investment in players we wouldn't be looking at relegation.

Quoted from RonMariner

Both Fleetwood and Crawley spent about £2 million on their squads and walked away with the NL.  Luton, after their cup exploits the previous season had over a million to spend and won the division. (Lincoln too had a lucrative cup run to fund them did they not?)

Plenty of teams have won the NL with smaller budgets, but it can be a very hit and miss, and if relying on the play offs, as we well know, can be a lengthy wait.

If you really want to escape at the first time of asking, you have to splash the cash to maximise your chances.

We are going down this season because we did not invest properly either in the summer or in January. Footballers have short careers and need to maximise their earnings. Offer then a decent contract and they will come. If the 'money is not a problem' statement by the board was really sincere we would be half way up the table by now.

You need quality players. They don't come cheap, but they will come if you pay them a decent wage. We could have done what Bradford have.  Instead we are going down.

That is the definitive answer to all our problems.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Did I miss a memo? Where we relegated at the weekend?

Maybe I misunderstood that there's virtually a quarter of the season still to play.

My original post was about which type of club we will be. Those that do well after being promoted from the NL or those that end up back down there again. More an invitation to speculate where we'll be/comment about how we've been disastrously run.

"Group A: Wimbledon, Tranmere, Bristol Rovers, Luton: all went straight up again after promotion from the National League. Even Lincoln did it after a while.

Group B: York, Aldershot, Darlington, Torquay, Barnet were all relegated to non-League, won promotion back to the League before being relegated again to the National League.  You could add others like Kidderminster.

I suppose that there’s a third group who get promoted and more or less stick around the bottom division, quite safely. Exeter and Cheltenham for instance.

No disrespect to the clubs in a Group B, but really it’s not being over-ambitious to say we should be in Group A. The fact we look like joining Group B is a massive failure by the person running the club. No excuses."

Quoted from KingstonMariner

My original post was about which type of club we will be. Those that do well after being promoted from the NL or those that end up back down there again. More an invitation to speculate where we'll be/comment about how we've been disastrously run.

"Group A: Wimbledon, Tranmere, Bristol Rovers, Luton: all went straight up again after promotion from the National League. Even Lincoln did it after a while.

Group B: York, Aldershot, Darlington, Torquay, Barnet were all relegated to non-League, won promotion back to the League before being relegated again to the National League.  You could add others like Kidderminster.

I suppose that there’s a third group who get promoted and more or less stick around the bottom division, quite safely. Exeter and Cheltenham for instance.


No disrespect to the clubs in a Group B, but really it’s not being over-ambitious to say we should be in Group A. The fact we look like joining Group B is a massive failure by the person running the club. No excuses."

I hope you're not overlooking us having always had a competitive budget KM.... could you imagine how far adrift we'd be if that wasn't so  

Don’t forget Wrexham now with big movie star ambitious owners. Just hope our new owners have pockets deep enough to compete.

Quoted from RonMariner

Both Fleetwood and Crawley spent about £2 million on their squads and walked away with the NL.  Luton, after their cup exploits the previous season had over a million to spend and won the division. (Lincoln too had a lucrative cup run to fund them did they not?)

Plenty of teams have won the NL with smaller budgets, but it can be a very hit and miss, and if relying on the play offs, as we well know, can be a lengthy wait.

If you really want to escape at the first time of asking, you have to splash the cash to maximise your chances.

We are going down this season because we did not invest properly either in the summer or in January. Footballers have short careers and need to maximise their earnings. Offer then a decent contract and they will come. If the 'money is not a problem' statement by the board was really sincere we would be half way up the table by now.

You need quality players. They don't come cheap, but they will come if you pay them a decent wage. We could have done what Bradford have.  Instead we are going down.

Look at Stockport, just signed Madden, who was scoring 15+ in league 1...

Would like to think with ambitious owners, we would be able to sign good pro's, rather than wasting 2 years like we did last time!

2011 - 11th, 16 points off play-offs
2012 - 11th, 11 points off play-offs

We then made the play-offs every season after

Quoted from Jarmo.Is.God

Look at Stockport, just signed Madden, who was scoring 15+ in league 1...

Would like to think with ambitious owners, we would be able to sign good pro's, rather than wasting 2 years like we did last time!
r

Nail on the head there. Of course we can attract good players if we are prepared to pay them well.

Look at Scunthorpe. Hardly the most glamorous club in the land but they had the likes of Sharp, Keogh, and many other good players at the club and made it to the Championship twice.

Pay them and they will come!

Quoted from RonMariner

Nail on the head there. Of course we can attract good players if we are prepared to pay them well.

Look at Scunthorpe. Hardly the most glamorous club in the land but they had the likes of Sharp, Keogh, and many other good players at the club and made it to the Championship twice.

Pay them and they will come!

All this has been debated before and pessimists argued who would want to come to our club for money. This just proves the point that footballers, like almost every other employed person, are totally motivated by money.