What Division do we 'belong' in?

The answers you'll get to this question will always be swayed by who currently owns the club. If we'd had this thread at the time Munto took over or after Trew got us up, I'm pretty certain most would have said half a division to a full division higher than what they've said here. Probably similar or not far off after Hardy.Nolan kept us up and then started the following season so well. When we were last facing winding up orders, no doubt a fair few would have said we'd be lucky to ever get back into the Football League.

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Originally Posted by upthemaggies

The answers you'll get to this question will always be swayed by who currently owns the club. If we'd had this thread at the time Munto took over or after Trew got us up, I'm pretty certain most would have said half a division to a full division higher than what they've said here. Probably similar or not far off after Hardy.Nolan kept us up and then started the following season so well. When we were last facing winding up orders, no doubt a fair few would have said we'd be lucky to ever get back into the Football League.

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During the first three years of Ray Trew's reign I honestly thought it was only a matter of time before Notts got to the Championship, however he lost interest from about February 2013 before the plot totally after Notts were relegated to League Two.
It's now over 30 years since Notts last played in the second tier and frankly other than the play off final in the first year, we haven't even been close to getting there so we really can't say we belong there but in terms of similar sized clubs to Notts, only Bristol Rovers have been absent for longer.
We need to get to League One ASAP and then consolidate before deciding where we go and what we do next.
League One is a really tough league, the standard is miles better than when Notts last played in it and we would find it tough to do well.

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Originally Posted by upthemaggies

The answers you'll get to this question will always be swayed by who currently owns the club. If we'd had this thread at the time Munto took over or after Trew got us up, I'm pretty certain most would have said half a division to a full division higher than what they've said here. Probably similar or not far off after Hardy.Nolan kept us up and then started the following season so well. When we were last facing winding up orders, no doubt a fair few would have said we'd be lucky to ever get back into the Football League.

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It?s possibly different for people who can remember further back, but Ive been going for 25 years near enough now and I think my answer to this would always have been the same. In that time football crowds have risen across the board, but ours have always been League One kind of level relative to the time, as have our ground/facilities, no matter what league we?ve been in. It seems a very obvious ?natural level? for us.

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Originally Posted by marky

Until about 10 years ago I thought the Championship.
Now I think realistically it's League One as we've simply been out the second tier for 30 years and our current gates despite being truly fantastic would not be enough to compete at Championship level.
It certainly isn't the crap division we're in at the moment.

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The whole concept of gates and levels is mind boggling.

When will folk realise that gate sizes aren?t a prerequisite for success. But the squads assembled are and having management in place that aren?t idiots? Bournemouth are mixing comfortably in the Prem and their gates are L1 level? the reality is they are a well run club which has allowed them to build and build.

Notts don?t have the financial clout of a Wrexham but what we do have is a plan for sustained growth. I know some on here would rather X amount invested in the Nest or the pitch have been invested in players.. what the Nest gives us is another revenue source that could lead better players becoming affordable.

I don?t buy in to natural levels. Clubs deserve to be wherever they find themselves. Regardless of club size, stadium capacity or attendances.

I think those of us who've watched Notts right from the 1960's (& before maybe?) have lower expectations, because we've experienced Notts more as a lower league club & have seen all the ups & downs (more downs!) The foray into the top division with Jimmy Sirrel & then Neil Warnock, were the high points, but in reality were an upwards blip. Although I do wonder what might've been if we'd managed to stay in the top division as the Sky money started to pour in, rather than getting relegated the season before the Premier League all kicked off. My son started coming with me when the Munto thing started, & still comes with me, although his experience is of a club that briefly got into L1, then fell through L2 & into The NL, & back into the EFL. His expectation is more positive than mine, probably because he's experienced less crap than me!

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Originally Posted by Notts78

The whole concept of gates and levels is mind boggling.

When will folk realise that gate sizes aren?t a prerequisite for success. But the squads assembled are and having management in place that aren?t idiots? Bournemouth are mixing comfortably in the Prem and their gates are L1 level? the reality is they are a well run club which has allowed them to build and build.

Notts don?t have the financial clout of a Wrexham but what we do have is a plan for sustained growth. I know some on here would rather X amount invested in the Nest or the pitch have been invested in players.. what the Nest gives us is another revenue source that could lead better players becoming affordable.

I don?t buy in to natural levels. Clubs deserve to be wherever they find themselves. Regardless of club size, stadium capacity or attendances.

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Exactly it?s not the league you belong in but more the league you deserve to be in. We deserved to be in the NL, long list of terrible owners and flirting with it and if and when we do get to L1 it will be because we deserve to be there.

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Originally Posted by GEZMAN

I think those of us who've watched Notts right from the 1960's (& before maybe?) have lower expectations, because we've experienced Notts more as a lower league club & have seen all the ups & downs (more downs!) The foray into the top division with Jimmy Sirrel & then Neil Warnock, were the high points, but in reality were an upwards blip. Although I do wonder what might've been if we'd managed to stay in the top division as the Sky money started to pour in, rather than getting relegated the season before the Premier League all kicked off. My son started coming with me when the Munto thing started, & still comes with me, although his experience is of a club that briefly got into L1, then fell through L2 & into The NL, & back into the EFL. His expectation is more positive than mine, probably because he's experienced less crap than me!

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I would say those of us who have supported Notts from the 60s have higher expectations. Looking at continuous runs in any division, the longest since the 60s is 8 in tier 2, from 73/74 to 80/81, and at that time it felt our natural level to be there, and when we did leave, it was upwards, not downwards. There were another 8 years in tier 2 from 50/51 to 57/58, but the longest run in our history was in the top tier for 16 seasons from 1897/1898 to 1912/1913.

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Originally Posted by Bohinen

I would say those of us who have supported Notts from the 60s have higher expectations. Looking at continuous runs in any division, the longest since the 60s is 8 in tier 2, from 73/74 to 80/81, and at that time it felt our natural level to be there, and when we did leave, it was upwards, not downwards. There were another 8 years in tier 2 from 50/51 to 57/58,

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But the 60s, and before that (in living memory) were in lower divisions. Youngsters think we should be higher. We nearly folded in the mid-60s.

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but the longest run in our history was in the top tier for 16 seasons from 1897/1898 to 1912/1913.

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I don't remember that :D There weren't too many tiers then and we hardly set the top tier alight. We couldn't even manage to be in the top flight on the one occasion we won the FA Cup.

The 1960s was uniquely bad at the time and remained easily the all time low point until Admin and the Trust period of 2004-2009.
The 8 season 3rd Division South era (in which we never finished lower than 12th) would have been offset by Lawton, massive crowds (rising to the 15th highest average in the country) and the fact Fword had been circling the drain to join us in that division, which they did and we went back up before them.

The swift 21st century repeat nightmare under Trew-Hardy has changed perceptions. It's basically now half the fanbase endlessly expressing gratitude for whoever is simply keeping the club alive and the other half permanently peed off or frustrated about the lack of ambition. We need something to happen, maybe being thrown into the deep end of L1 after a lucky break in the play offs will set off a positive chain of events. I'm clutching at straws but you never know with football.

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Originally Posted by Bohinen

I would say those of us who have supported Notts from the 60s have higher expectations. Looking at continuous runs in any division, the longest since the 60s is 8 in tier 2, from 73/74 to 80/81, and at that time it felt our natural level to be there, and when we did leave, it was upwards, not downwards. There were another 8 years in tier 2 from 50/51 to 57/58, but the longest run in our history was in the top tier for 16 seasons from 1897/1898 to 1912/1913.

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Can't imagine too many of us still watching who were during 1897 :)