What Division do we 'belong' in?

[GEZMAN]

There's been lots of references across different threads to what our ?natural? position in the EFL should be, so apologies for starting a new one, but I?m intrigued by the idea of Notts fans thinking we should even have a ?natural? position. This is my 63rd season watching Notts, & in all of those years 2/3 of them have been spent in either L1 or L2 (or whatever the old style equivalent was). In that time we spent as much time in the top division as we did in the National League. So for me, based on my 63 years our ?average? status is somewhere between L1 & L2. We're a L2 club for a reason, we fell into the NL for a reason, ie we've been a poor club, poorly managed at both club & team level for the best part of that time. Some fans come across as ?entitled?, ie entitled to expect more, but on what basis?

[the_anticlough]

Whatever it might be, we have to realise how times have changed since we reached the top tier or mixed it up at the top end of Tier2.

For example, check out the number of 20,000+ gates and 10,000+ gates at L1 yesterday.

So many clubs have got their acts together over the last few decades - clubs that were our size or smaller pre-Premier League

- Bournemouth, Brentford, Fulham, Burnley, Millwall, Hull, Swansea and the list goes on

Things change but the obvious answer to the question is L1

[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.

[Glad2BeAPie]

The infrastructure is Championship standard sadly the squad is League 2. Unless there's changes in the summer

[Bohinen]

Historically, we belong in the second tier, but I understand younger fans will not recognise this as our natural level. Under our current manager, 1) League 2 is the best we can hope for, and 2) with our current owners, probably League 1 is their ceiling, but see point 1.

Close, but we just scrape in

https://alltimeleaguetable.co.uk/

[1955pie]

The infrastructure is Championship standard sadly the squad is League 2. Unless there's changes in the summer

The squad is definitely League 2. Major improvements required next season whichever division we are in.
League 1 is probably where we would appropriately fit in based on club infrastructure and support.
We are not entitled to anything or belong anywhere.

[Jampie]

At present, we belong in L2. If we win the playoffs, which seems unlikely at this juncture, we will belong in L1.

[Elite_Pie]

The European Super League.

When it happens.

[macse15]

There's been lots of references across different threads to what our ?natural? position in the EFL should be, so apologies for starting a new one, but I?m intrigued by the idea of Notts fans thinking we should even have a ?natural? position. This is my 63rd season watching Notts, & in all of those years 2/3 of them have been spent in either L1 or L2 (or whatever the old style equivalent was). In that time we spent as much time in the top division as we did in the National League. So for me, based on my 63 years our ?average? status is somewhere between L1 & L2. We're a L2 club for a reason, we fell into the NL for a reason, ie we've been a poor club, poorly managed at both club & team level for the best part of that time. Some fans come across as ?entitled?, ie entitled to expect more, but on what basis?

I agree. Unfortunately we have always had that reputation! We are where we are because we never made the most of any opportunity we had. My uncle(who was a Forest fan) since back in the 1920s told me about Notts ,Lawton and the wonderful effect they had on the city said ? county had the world at their feet then but only managed to trip over it?😨

[Old_pie]

I agree. Unfortunately we have always had that reputation! We are where we are because we never made the most of any opportunity we had. My uncle(who was a Forest fan) since back in the 1920s told me about Notts ,Lawton and the wonderful effect they had on the city said ? county had the world at their feet then but only managed to trip over it?😨

Lawton was a short term aberration and even then despite record gate receipts only rose from a 3rd tier to an average 2nd tier side, 3rd tier (North and South) being the lowest at the time.

Post war, and I think throughout our history, we come around 3/4 way down the list. We've never been higher that 3rd from top. We've dropped into any new lower division shortly after they've been introduced. We've been non-league for 4 seasons negating any positive affect of the 4 seasons in living memory in the top flight, and two of those seasons were pretty poor showings seeing us relegated. We are a pretty abject excuse for a football club and post war really have only been what the country might see as successful during the Sirrel years. The only thing going for us is that we are still going.