Are we like Morcambe? Yeovil? Macclesfield?

Quoted from fishboyUTM

My question is, after reading some comments on social media about our standing in the football world, are we now a similar club to the likes of Morcambe, Yeovil or Macclesfield?

Looking at the different clubs crowd potential I would suggest we are a bigger club than those mentioned.

Populations....
Morecambe  34,768
Yeovil  45,000
Macclesfield  52,044
Grimsby and Cleethorpes  127,350

Quoted from promotion plaice

Looking at the different clubs crowd potential I would suggest we are a bigger club than those mentioned.

Populations....
Morecambe  34,768
Yeovil  45,000
Macclesfield  52,044
Grimsby and Cleethorpes  127,350

I'd agree, I posed the question as I find I'm often questioned for demanding more of our club. Especially the younger generation who seem to think fighting relegation from the league is normal and surviving as a league club is a great success to be celebrated. I find that very sad and degrading for a club such as ours.

Populations....
Morecambe  34,768
Yeovil  45,000
Macclesfield  52,044
Grimsby and Cleethorpes  127,350


Grimsby & Cleethorpes is 159,616 including Immingham as it's a unitary local authority.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Someone may correct me on this but I think the first time the club had truly consolidated ownership in one place was in the Ramsden days. Prior to that the shareholdings may have been big or small but they were not in the hands of one person even in the days of FA Would and Arthur Drewery.

Oddly enough, the reason Bill Shankly gave for leaving the club in the mid-50s was lack of ambition by the board and unwillingness to give him the money for good players. Nothing new there then.

…...and he left mid-season to manage Workington who finished below us at the end of the season.

Quoted from rancido

[/b]

…...and he left mid-season to manage Workington who finished below us at the end of the season.

Exactly! Similar to Hurst - he would have rather gone to struggling Shrewsbury rather than stay with a newly promoted Mariners.

And yes, I would blame Fenty for Shankley leaving if I could...

Lack of ambition has obviously hampered us for donkey's years.

Quoted from promotion plaice

Looking at the different clubs crowd potential I would suggest we should be a bigger club than those mentioned.

Populations....
Morecambe  34,768
Yeovil  45,000
Macclesfield  52,044
Grimsby and Cleethorpes  127,350

But in practice we're not.

Morecambe's acheivement is brilliant when you consider how out on a limb they are and it not being particularly prosperous AND, like us, half of it's 'catchment area' is in the sea.

Yeovil obeviously has 360 degrees of catchment area on land, so the pop nearby is bigger than 45k but not by much as it's largely rural. Bit more prosperous than NE Lincs though.

Macclesfield probably benefits by access to a bigger pool of players, but crowd potential limited by proximity to the big clubs of Greater Mancland.

Our last 7 season in the League Two have produced finishes of:

15th
16th
22nd (saved by points deductions for other sides)
23rd (relegated)
14th
18th
17th (position with four games to go).

Within that you've got a six-season spell in the Conference which produced a highest finish of 3rd.

Whichever way you look at it, we're not a big club.  Not even at this level.  League table is all that counts, on that basis we're really not that different from the sides listed.  Bringing in the local populations and then the attendances just highlights how badly run GTFC is, especially in the last 15 years.  Gloss it over if you wish but it's a failing club.

The odd season here and there we may overachieve or underachieve.  Over a sustained period of time the club has spectacularly underachieved.  Managers, players, support staff have all come and gone in that period.  One common denominator has stayed put throughout...

I think the discussion is about the size of the club and not what we have (not) achieved.

Just because we have languished in the lower (non) league does not mean we are not bigger than those mentioned.
It just means we have been very poorly run.  UTM  

If Manure got relegated they would still be the same size club.  Just not realising their potential.  

Quoted from Civvy at last

I think the discussion is about the size of the club and not what we have (not) achieved.

Just because we have languished in the lower (non) league does not mean we are not bigger than those mentioned.
It just means we have been very poorly run.  UTM  

If Manure got relegated they would still be the same size club.  Just not realising their potential.  

If Manure were relegated and then relegated a couple of more times and only had one ste back-up would they stay as big a club as they are?

Leeds used to be considered one of the biggest in the country. It's got the potential to be but it's way off the pace now. 27 years since they won the League.

West Brom used to be big beasts, but again only having the odd season in the top flight in the past 25 years, they're not.

We're a lower league version of West Brom.

Not just Morecambe, Yeovil and Macclesfield we should be comparing ourselves to I'd say

There are the likes of Crawley, Stevenage, FGR who have all only got recent league history, but it's what we are up against

I guess somewhere along the line, we'll all stop looking back and maybe start looking forward to a hopefully brighter future, but it will need some kind of strategic planning to move us onwards and upwards

Just treading water, season after season, will mean others move past us and to most of the footballing community, we will be seen as some half-@rsed out-on-a-limb club who way back when had a bit of footballing fortune