The OP's 10 Rules should be framed and put on the wall in the chairman's and manager's offices. They could be tweaked a bit here and there, but if we'd followed anything like that prescription we'd be in League 1 and not the Natonal League. I suggest there should be something in there about being more strategic (and I don't mean a five-year plan to get to the Championship). If you look at teams that have had successive or near-successive promotions, they've usually got a core of players who know they're not going to be cleared out or retiring after promotion is achieved. Likewise, as we've found, it's not good to be trying to motivate players against relegation when it's clear that they're going to be on their way in the summer anyway.