The Location Issue

I work in Hull and had an interesting conversation with a work colleague today.

Basically I mentioned the frustrating transfer window Town were having. His immediate response? Location. Now, before we get defensive thinking it’s a dig at GY/Clee, he went on to explain that he believes they have the same issue attracting players, as Hull is so isolated and there is nothing to do in the area that young footballers would enjoy. Sound familiar?

My colleague went on to tell me about a conversation he had with Ray Palour at a sportsman’s dinner. He asked him if he enjoyed playing for Hull, and his response was basically yes, but the big downside is there is nothing to do in the area.

Ultimately, money talks and the majority of players will chase ££££, but I just thought it was an interesting insight.

Quoted from PaceyMariner

I work in Hull and had an interesting conversation with a work colleague today.

Basically I mentioned the frustrating transfer window Town were having. His immediate response? Location. Now, before we get defensive thinking it’s a dig at GY/Clee, he went on to explain that he believes they have the same issue attracting players, as Hull is so isolated and there is nothing to do in the area that young footballers would enjoy. Sound familiar?

My colleague went on to tell me about a conversation he had with Ray Palour at a sportsman’s dinner. He asked him if he enjoyed playing for Hull, and his response was basically yes, but the big downside is there is nothing to do in the area.

Ultimately, money talks and the majority of players will chase ££££, but I just thought it was an interesting insight.

I think that is why Hull have so many foreign players in their squad, most of them don’t know where Hull is and are just attracted by the Turkish owner and the wages they are earning.

But both we and Hull have signed thousands of players over the years...

Location is an issue, always has and always will be. We can't control where we are and we can't contend with the fact we're surrounded by the sea, the river and the Wolds.

So we need to do something!

I get it totally. I am not slagging Grimsby off at all but if I was offered the same amount of money to play for Exeter/torquay/plymouth or Grimsby/scunny/hull ... I'd be 100% signing for the South west teams.  

Been said a million times, including discussed to death in the last week or so, but one solution would be to move the training ground to the other end of the M180. The owners are diametrically opposed to the idea though, so any further chat on that front is píssing in the wind.

Nothing to do with location .
It's all about money I'm afraid.
Take Wrexham as an example , excrement hole ,but the £££££££ soon gets them what they want .
JS would rather spend money on fancy titles ie chief exec .
The playing side is run on a shoe string.

Agree totally with responses, been discussed all week, need to find a solution as we can’t relocate etc

Just thought it was an interesting insight to hear a fan from the local(ish) area, of another club, voice the same opinion.

Quoted from PaceyMariner

I work in Hull and had an interesting conversation with a work colleague today.

Basically I mentioned the frustrating transfer window Town were having. His immediate response? Location. Now, before we get defensive thinking it’s a dig at GY/Clee, he went on to explain that he believes they have the same issue attracting players, as Hull is so isolated and there is nothing to do in the area that young footballers would enjoy. Sound familiar?

My colleague went on to tell me about a conversation he had with Ray Palour at a sportsman’s dinner. He asked him if he enjoyed playing for Hull, and his response was basically yes, but the big downside is there is nothing to do in the area.

Ultimately, money talks and the majority of players will chase ££££, but I just thought it was an interesting insight.

It is an interesting topic for sure.

For some players it will be an issue, as they are human like the rest of us, but every single football club in the land is an issue for some players. It might be too far, it might be too expensive, it might be they don't like the manager, it might be the club has a terrible reputation and so on.

Most worries about location can be assuaged with £££'s as you say; Ray Parlour might think there was nothing to do, but plenty of players have had no problem with Hull, Grimsby or our location in general. Scunthorpe were able to attract some great players when they were on the up.

You only have to look at where our present squad came from, all over the UK, to see that location per se is not a big issue. What might be an issue is that players who are in demand can attract big money, and if we cannot match or exceed it then they wont come to Grimsby to play.

Then there is the small matter of whether any particular player is given a choice of a more subdued location like Grimsby, or some dazzling metropolitan epicentre. It might be a choice of Grimsby or Hartlepool.

It might be an issue for some, and not a lot you can do about that.

Quoted from Wemble1998

Nothing to do with location .
It's all about money I'm afraid.
Take Wrexham as an example , excrement hole ,but the £££££££ soon gets them what they want .
JS would rather spend money on fancy titles ie chief exec .
The playing side is run on a shoe string.

Slight difference is Wrexham isn’t that too far away from two major cities, Liverpool and Manchester. I agree that ultimately, money does talk though.

It can't be that bad a location for  all   prospective signings

If you look back over the years there's been a fair few players who have signed for us and then they've settled in the area ( Disley & McKeown spring to mind of late )

If you're a young single lad playing for Town maybe they don't think there's that much in the area, but like everything in life, it's what you make of it

Where we are is no worse than Barrow or Hartlepool for example - maybe we just need to give the area a bit of a harder sell to get players committed to N E Lincs

UTM