I’m impressed by the contributions on this thread: I like the civilised tone and, indeed, the analyses, albeit there is more analysis than solutions
I wonder how we would do if you were in charge, making the decisions.
Thinking of a relatively successful Johnny -come-lately club (which, admittedly, might have peaked), would going vegan be the answer?
(Er, don’t take that seriously).
20 or so years ago I used to describe Rotherham, Stockport, Tranmere, Bournemouth, Bury and Brentford as our sister clubs. Similar size clubs grounds, history’s fanbases and all in the shadows of bigger nearby clubs who plunder their potential support. Since then 2 have played and play now in the Premier League , 2 have had spells in non-league and one has gone bust Be interesting to see where we all sit in another 20 years
The stadium is just off the town centre and much closer to the train station than Millmoor was so after some pain of playing at Don Valley they did very well with the location. Said before but a ground built at Town Wharf would breathe new life into the Town Centre but that site has gone now and realistically other sites would be just as far outside the centre as Bescot is (and with much poorer transport links).
15k so just about the right size for them and they get 10-12k crowds pretty regularly. They know their place and a yo yo club between championship and division one really isn’t that bad, you either get a promotion campaign one year or excitement of relegation battle against lots of fallen top level teams the next.
I miss those days.
It’ll never catch on.
Stockport will be a Rotherham ,(it is great to see them back), Bury will struggle to rise all the way back in similar way Chester and Darlington have got stuck in the Pyramid.
Tranmere are the interesting case and it’s surprising that they haven’t done better under there relatively new Indonesian ownership group.
One you missed that needs to be added to group of similar clubs is Oldham , will they now come bouncing back and be the Luton in 10 years time
That’s a fascinating graph. A tale of almost constant improvement, although I do note that they spent 4 years in L2 after joining the EFL.
In terms of comparisons, I suppose it depends how far back you go in choosing teams that are the same as us. Before Bill Moore, we were constantly applying for re-election and were lucky not to drop out of the league. So, Hartlepool, Darlington, Workington, Southport etc. formed our peer group. Then we had a few glory years and outsiders looked at us in the way we are now looking at Rotherham.
Later, when we were back in the 3rd division, it was the likes of Torquay, Stockport, Bury and others who were the teams at our level. My point here is that, by being selective it can look as if we have done much worse than our equivalents, whereas a different choice can show that we have not done so badly as to drop out of the league.
For me, the main point is that, since I developed my addiction to the boys in red, our “proper” position is in the upper half of the third tier but we have spent far too long recently below that, which is what needs fixing and then we might hope to do better from the new base.
Don’t forget that Luton, Oldham and Notts County were all in the top tier in living memory. Football is a rollercoaster, which, in some ways, is how we want it.
Something I posted on here ages ago is that Bury had won the F A Cup twice before either Man City or Man Utd got their grubby hands on the trophy. I don’t know enough to be able to say why after that Bury went one way and the two mossives went the other.
Also, the first season after The Great War saw Bradford Park Avenue finish above Man Utd.
I don’t know what any of this proves, I just find it interesting.
I reckon the maximum wage had something to do with the change, the European tournaments plus the influence of television. Players often stayed at one club because there was no incentive to move so there was a more even playing field.
There have always been transfers but perhaps less 1-2 year journeymen as there are these days? Kinsella is the only member of our current squad who possibly might make it to a testimonial (made his debut in the 2014/15 season so still a couple of years to go) and he’s the exception rather than the norm these days as being a one-club player.