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fishboyUTM |
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I'd be happy with mid table in league one. I grew up watching us play the majority of our football in the second tier, but as others have alluded, the way the game is now that seems an unlikely target. League one would be fine and respectable.
But I have no faith at all in the directors at the club to deliver anything but relegation from the football league again.
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TheRonRaffertyFanClub |
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You only achieve that with time though. Growing up, my first real memories are from after 1998 so, 2006 aside, the Conference years made a refreshing change in the sense that we won more than we lost and the hope from August lasted much longer.
My favourite games growing up were the big Championship games (Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth etc) so I would love us to return to that level. Without hundreds of millions I we couldn't sustain ourselves at that level but we can certainly aspire to sustain ourselves as a League One club with the occasional Championship spell.
Andy Holt said it right the other day when he said League One survival means Accrington are guaranteed league football for 2 seasons. Essentially promotion to League One would give us more of a safety net.
I agree with all that apart from the first sentence! Steve Clarke achieved two seasons of great success, knowing beforehand that he had effectively no transfer budget in ............ two seasons! Starting from scratch. Alan Buckley took Town to promotion on a shoestring from the old Div 4 to Div 2 in three seasons starting from a base of having only 5 or 6 signed players. It can be done if the right manager has the right ideas and right personality to do it. I think there is a lot of bullcrap talked about budgets. Yes money can help you win pots but if that is all that gets you there and you get used to it and once it is taken away you slide back like Crawley for example. And of course there is luck.
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| “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty." |
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Bigdog |
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With a new stadium and new owners a realistic ambition would be to engage the public of NE Lincs enough to average around 8k home fans in much improved facilities, top half of League One pushing for play offs. A dream would be for the club to operate like Brentford and comfortably cope with the challenge of the Championship on low gates plus large away followings by developing talent and actively sourcing unpolished diamonds from the lower leagues before selling them on...
Problem is.. I just can't see us ever getting to a starting point where we can all begin to dream. The sorry place we've found ourselves in "due to ITV Digital and football fortune not shining on us" has a feeling of permanance rather than being a passage in time or a blip in our history, it's gone on too long to be anything else..
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chaos33 |
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Any notion that we might one day return to the championship is utterly crazy. We will never be able to do it financially. It’s premier league 2. To be competitive at the top of L2 would be great. I think we could aspire to establish ourselves in L1 but even that would be huge in the modern game.
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MuddyWaters |
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In a nutshell, I'd want us to be aspirational not fearful.
We were lucky to support a club that always seemed to over-achieve but we have become a club for whom league survival is an achievement. I hear the stuff about ITV Digital, tax debts etc. but only 5 years before that we won twice at Wembley. The lack of ambition and drive from the boardroom is quite frightening and now, only 12 months on from a ST launch proclaiming the 'Jolley revolution' we find that nothing has really changed and we're struggling to hold on to players who finished 17th in League 2.
In short, we need a change - either in mentality or in personnel - but then most of us know that already.
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OllieGTFC |
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If I have this right, I believe when Jolley was appointed as manager Philip Day said we hope to be in the championship in 5 years time so to me Jolley has 3 and half years left to do so, very unlikely with the lack of investment
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| We're on our way back, we’ll was now on our way back to non league 👍🏻 |
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Bigdog |
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Any notion that we might one day return to the championship is utterly crazy. We will never be able to do it financially. It’s premier league 2. To be competitive at the top of L2 would be great. I think we could aspire to establish ourselves in L1 but even that would be huge in the modern game.
In our present guise, yes, utterly crazy, but that wasn't the question posed by the OP. It was answering a question based upon the dreams of having new owners and a new stadium. Rotherham, Brentford, Wigan, Preston, Luton, Bournemouth, Millwall have all got to the Championship with gates not beyond what we could achieve with a new stadium and progressive ownership. Doncaster, Peterborough, Burton, Oxford and Fleetwood have all flirted with League One play-offs this season, but I agree the Championship is only Charlton, Coventry, Sunderland and Portsmouth short of being a Premier League Two as it stands with only a couple of places left for smaller clubs to have an admirable go at it every season. Back to stark reality, I just can't see us ever getting out of the division we're in with our set up, well not upwards anyway. I think the years of sterility have got to us all. This town used to be known as a footballing town. I know people say that we can't look back at the gates we got in the 70s and 80s and the decades before that too, but it wasn't like the streets of NE Lincs were paved with gold then either. This area has always been a bit impoverished, it was just that Project GTFC was believed in and signed up to from time to time. When was the last time we could say that? The past two decades have beaten hope and aspiration out of us all when it comes to our football club and now we have a couple of generations of fans that haven't experienced better times or could even dream of what they felt like..
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KingstonMariner |
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I'm inclined to agree with Bigdog. We could be a solid Third Division outfit that might flirt with the Second.
Back in the early 80s we were getting crowds of 7000. There's no reason why we can't get to that level with the right approach and engagement.
I'd like the Trust to be running the club (obviously that requires an influx of new blood on the Trust board) and not under some 'sugar daddy'. I think in the long run that's the sustainable model. A greater sense of ownership would bring a greater connection with the population in NEL at large. The club could become a great source of local pride again.
Towns like Grimsby need to mobilise as much of the local population as possible in order to thrive. The population of GY is falling (and even though Cleethorpes has increased net pop for NEL has gone down slightly) and has got poorer over the last decade. The club needs to get better at capturing the interest of more people in order to survive and thrive.
It would also help when the club needs some support from the local authority because: (1) it'd be more of a public asset and not the property of one or two rich individuals; (2) with more people actively engaged with the club, electoral arithmetic would help persuade recalcitrant councillors.
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| Through the door there came familiar laughter, I saw your face and heard you call my name. Oh my friend we're older but no wiser, For in our hearts the dreams are still the same. |
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WOZOFGRIMSBY |
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What the club need to do, imho, is grow the fan base of the club instead of 'sticking with what we've got'. But, to do this there's got to be a product there that can be marketed. We need innovation and foresight, not the blinkered approach that seems to be the go to.
A ground that holds 9000 (?) is full once a season at best and an away end that rarely gets towards 50% capacity show you that there is certainly a lot of room for improvement. So, why not look at the match day ticket prices (and season tickets) to get ar5es on seats? I know the argument is there for playing budgets etc but, at the moment at least, this somewhat vast divide between the top echelons and the fans needs to be bridged, and someone has to swallow their pride!
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rancido |
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With a new stadium and new owners a realistic ambition would be to engage the public of NE Lincs enough to average around 8k home fans in much improved facilities, top half of League One pushing for play offs. A dream would be for the club to operate like Brentford and comfortably cope with the challenge of the Championship on low gates plus large away followings by developing talent and actively sourcing unpolished diamonds from the lower leagues before selling them on...
Problem is.. I just can't see us ever getting to a starting point where we can all begin to dream. The sorry place we've found ourselves in "due to ITV Digital and football fortune not shining on us" has a feeling of permanance rather than being a passage in time or a blip in our history, it's gone on too long to be anything else..
I basically agree but each comparison with another club's achievements has to be taken in the context of their location and accessability. Brentford , being part of the largest city in England, has a lot more available " rough diamonds " in a close proximity. The prospect of a day out in London for an away match is certainly more appealing than an away day in Grimsby/Cleethorpes.
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| The Future is Black & White. "The commonest thing on this planet is not water , as some people believe, but stupidity ". Frank Zappa |
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