National League Title / Promotion race

The championship isn’t out of reach but it does require significant investment in key areas, and no, I don’t mean spaffing millions on a ground. More on increased wages, training facilities and bringing in additional sponsorship.

The problem our Welsh friend has is it’s GTFC, not Man Utd, and with the comes the fact that many a person ‘knows someone at the club’. Thing is, some of the folk that have worked at the club in the past have been as useless as the previous owner/chairman/de facto chairman/non chairman/non non chairman. They were arguably as complicit in the dreadful running of the club as he was. Not sure I’d take everything they say as gospel.

They’ve probably overheard the word ‘crowd funding’ but that’s it. There are grants and various funding streams to tap in to which I’ve no doubt they’re exploring, like any half sensible person would. Over the last 18 months the club has generated a significant amount of income from various means, income that wasn’t likely factored in to any budgeting etc. average gates have gone up well beyond anything we saw under Fenty, we shifted more ST than I’ve ever known (irrelevant whether they turn up or not) and we’re currently in the third round of the cup.

Back to the original debate, I expect Notts County to bottle it to be honest, that said, if, and it’s a big if, Wrexham don’t buy their way out in January, I’d fancy them to bottle it in the playoffs again. They’ve still got the idiot in charge and quite frankly, with the squad they’ve got, they should be playing much better football and be sat top of the tree.

The Championship is just an out of reach fantasy without huge and continuous investment,  in the team the facilities and the stadium.

Sustainable development can only take you so far, and if that model gets us into league 1 we will have done well.

Football is in such a different place to when we last competed against the bigger clubs. Nobody knows the future but it seems the current owners wish to put the club on a decent footing with decent facilities and have the club viewed in a better light which is all to be commended but I don't see them funding the colossal amounts needed above that.

If and when we ever get to league1 then things might look different again but I think the immediate future looks solid rather than spectacular.

There are ways to climb to League 1, and possibly the Championship without pumping in massive amounts of private wealth. I would rather we run the club ethically and sustainably, even if that means not being able to compete with a Wrexham or a Notts County in financial terms, if that means we have a club that isn't under threat from the plug being pulled. We have seen what has happened to Scunny with them spending well beyond their means and well beyond what their crowd numbers can support. Financially sound in League 2 is preferable to getting into debt to reach higher.

We need to get the recruitment right and develop young players into saleable assets. If we can unearth a gem or two from the football scrap heap and sell them on for a big profit, then that is the way to move up the leagues sustainably. There are signs that the club are thinking along the same lines with the recruitment recently of the guy whose name escapes me, and whose remit is to find suitable players.

There is also a definite reluctance on the part of PH to go out and spend big on a striker as some fans think should happen because we have sold a lot of season tickets. So a lot of it boils down to patience on the part of the fans. Slow and steady growth is fine by me, but others think differently.

I've waited almost 2 decades for us to get moving in the right direction. I can wait a little longer.

No idea if there's any substance in this story but....

https://therealefl.co.uk/2022/12/23/efl-could-hand-promotion-green-light-to-national-league-clubs/

Quoted from forza ivano

Where's ffs when you need him? You been out wining n dining with JSF again? You do talk some shiite pen. You REALLY think a hugely successful businessman like JS would seriously consider crowdfunding as a source of income?
Also just for your info 1)we are averaging 6k crowds this year , not 5k   2) scunny n wycombe with similar crowds managed to get to the championship, so its not the impossible ask that you make out.

Please don’t quote scunny as a model to follow Forza 😱

Quoted from promotion plaice

No idea if there's any substance in this story but....

https://therealefl.co.uk/2022/12/23/efl-could-hand-promotion-green-light-to-national-league-clubs/

I hope it happens but I highly doubt it will. Turkeys voting for Christmas, comes to mind.

I think it’s potentially time for the top 5 divisions to have a uniformed agreement on promotion/relegation. If all leagues became 3 up, 3 down… Surely, that makes sense?