What Division do we 'belong' in?

[durhampie]

We have a National league coach, and that is where we will end up of we keep him...

[MancMagpie]

When I first joined this forum about 10 years ago or so (maybe more) I wrote a long introduction message and explained within that I thought Notts' 'average' or 'natural position was a mid table League 1 club, based on fan base, club size, history

My view on that hasn't really changed.

If we're below that we're not doing great and if we're above that we're over achieving.

However, Bournemouth regularly get a home gate similar to Notts and are am established Prem team with arguably 'less history' than Notts, so things are definitely not black and white.

[jackal2]

Taking all aspects into account I would say our 'par' is League One, but thanks to some very poor management (and probably some misfortune) by a succession of previous owners we've been down to the National League and we're steadily having to climb our way back.

Of course it's true that there are a few clubs broadly equivalent to Notts currently plying their trade in the Championship and even the Premier League, for example Brentford, but they have benefitted from owners who took a sensible approach and built their clubs sustainably, albeit still with pitfalls and setbacks along the way.

Our current owners have done well to stabilise the Notts ship and are gradually taking it forward, concentrating more on the quality of the infrastructure they are building rather than the timeframe, but I'm confident we will reach at least League One in due course. Maybe not this season if recent performances are anything to go by, because frankly we don't look ready yet, but whenever we do get the next promotion the aim must be to (at least) retain that League One status and possibly even better, in which case we would then be overperforming like we did in the Sirrel and Warnock years. Patience and realism is going to be the key.

[ForeignLegion]

All of the foundation member clubs should be in the Premier League by default, with no possibility of relegation for the oldest club, whoever that may be.

[slack_pie]

We belong exactly where we are. That's how football works.

But if we weren't run into the ground over a couple of decades this century, I'd say our "natural" place would be as a decent League One side, with the potential to spend a season or two in the Championship (where we'd ultimately get found out). A bit like Peterborough, Rotherham, and Barnsley have been in recent years.

Beyond that level, we'd need ridiculous investment. Virtually all clubs have super rich owners at that level, so we need to go to Wrexham levels of extreme spending to push on. Not sure the bros have those resources (who knows?) and even if they did, I'm not sure they're the type to spend big in relation to the level we're at. But again, who knows. Didn't they say something about looking for initial investment if we made it that far?

One thing I do know: we have a fan base, stadium, and history worthy of better than what we've become used to in recent years.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

For me our natural position is top half of league one. I base that purely on attendances currently and typically our past history as others have said. This season we are 2nd in league two for average attendances. Our average attendance of 10,550 would put us 8th in league one’s average attendances this season. The last time we finished that high in the pyramid was the Curle 11/12 season when we finished 7th. It’s 13 years since we’ve been that high in the pyramid. So some impatience and frustration in the fan base is understandable especially the older generations who lived through the Sirell and Warnock eras as we’ve been below that line in the sand.

We are still recovering though from the decline over the 7 years since the 11/12 season to crash into non league but also the 01-09 period. The brothers have in their six years of ownership taken us from the brink of extinction to knocking on the door of league one. It’s been a good steady recovery so far looking at the bigger picture. Whilst we have a chance this season to make the step up to league one it would not be the end of the world if we need another season in league two to continue to build on so that when we get to league one we can stay there and not come back down in the first season. We are close though and only four wins separated us from the league two champions. It’s at home where we will need to dig out those extra four wins next season if we remain at this level. That will be the key. Doncaster are a good example of building on where they finished last season to become title winners this season.

Saturdays attendance of 15,427 would have us sitting on a par with Millwall as the 22nd best average attendance in the championship 15,490. So the jump from league one to the championship is a bigger step all round.

The infrastructure is there for the club to get to the championship as the stadium capacity is capable of sustaining the club at that level. It’s good enough for league one and establishing ourselves as a top ten league one club is a reasonable target.

[Woodypie]

The one we are in. Simples.

[irish_pie]

With a few astute signings (4/5) we could be a mid to lower placed team in league 1, with our current squad we are where we deserve to be... very lucky to be where we are on current form

[northpie1862]

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.

The last few lines of that either mean you struggle with perspective considering where Notts are in the present moment / last 10 years, or you are genuinely better off not following Notts at all 😂

?Pretty abject excuse for a football club? jesus christ get a grip man

[jacobncfc]

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

It may have been when it was built, or even 10-15 years ago, but our infrastructure isnt close to Championship standard any more.

I think if you did a big list based on all of the stuff that goes into this we would come out somewhere in the middle of the third tier.