Sack him, save our season

[maddogslater]

Some fans, I'm still not quite there

[Boomerangpie]

Too right, we could have ended up like Luton or Bournemouth with grounds still stuck in the 20th century with 10k odd capacities having made no impression on the upper tiers in the 21st century whatsoever.

That duo are the envy of dozens.

If only I could think of two clubs with grounds stuck in the 20th century with 10k odd capacities (or less) who hadn?t done a Luton or Bournemouth. But it?s so hard to think of any. Maybe one will spring to mind this time tomorrow evening

[jacobncfc]

Bournemouth being taken over by a Russian billionaire probably helped them.

Luton have been run fantastically, though. Up until the point they now aren?t anyway, and are going to go down to League One with one of the highest wage bills in the league.

[upthemaggies]

That duo are the envy of dozens.

If only I could think of two clubs with grounds stuck in the 20th century with 10k odd capacities (or less) who hadn?t done a Luton or Bournemouth. But it?s so hard to think of any. Maybe one will spring to mind this time tomorrow evening

Grimsby, a town club and not a city club, have played in the 2nd tier more recently than we have, they've also spent more seasons in the top two tiers post war than we have and have contested 7 finals in the last 20 years.
Not one of the many many club's I'd swap our post 1995 trajectory with (there'd be at least 50 of those), but then not an obvious club to look down on either.

[matt_magpie]

Magpie Circle - Stallard saying that fans aren't over-reacting after Saturday because the first half was *that* bad, fans having a go at the performance "absolutely justified". Also describing the January transfer window as "a horror show".

Mace on the coaches leaving, I think he said that we won't get any more out of the club on that issue other than "internal disciplinary investigation"

Stall always nails it for me, good point about the bench from him regarding Sat, only one player that had scored a goal on there, Gordon in the cup.

[Boomerangpie]

Grimsby, a town club and not a city club, have played in the 2nd tier more recently than we have, they've also spent more seasons in the top two tiers post war than we have and have contested 7 finals in the last 20 years.
Not one of the many many club's I'd swap our post 1995 trajectory with (there'd be at least 50 of those), but then not an obvious club to look down on either.

Why does it matter if they are a city club or town club like Luton and Bournemouth?
Yeah but have they played in the top division in your lifetime? Have they ever won the Anglo Italian cup at Wembley?

Are you going tomorrow night? Or have you been before? If you have then you know exactly what I am talking about and you are right not a club to swap our trajectory with. Whenever you last went it?s not changed, expect shrunk.

Light years behind due to neglect

[upthemaggies]

Bournemouth being taken over by a Russian billionaire probably helped them.

So having somebody prepared to pump serious money in can take you to the stars, whereas off the field improvements at the expense of improving things on the pitch can leave you falling further and further behind. That's basically been the story of Notts for the last 3 decades.

But hey, who would have wanted to watch Beckham, Bergkamp, Cantona etc. on a regular basis whilst occasionally having an obstruction blocking your view of the half way line when we've since had unobstructed views of Rushden, Dagenham, Dorking and Morecambe's finest.

[marky]

So having somebody prepared to pump serious money in can take you to the stars, whereas off the field improvements at the expense of improving things on the pitch can leave you falling further and further behind. That's basically been the story of Notts for the last 3 decades.

But hey, who would have wanted to watch Beckham, Bergkamp, Cantona etc. on a regular basis whilst occasionally having an obstruction blocking your view of the half way line when we've since had unobstructed views of Rushden, Dagenham, Dorking and Morecambe's finest.

It's embarrassing/sickening/humiliating how many clubs have left us behind and achieved so much more than Notts since 1995, heck it's bad enough since 2015 when we last played in League One.

[jackal2]

So having somebody prepared to pump serious money in can take you to the stars, whereas off the field improvements at the expense of improving things on the pitch can leave you falling further and further behind. That's basically been the story of Notts for the last 3 decades.

But hey, who would have wanted to watch Beckham, Bergkamp, Cantona etc. on a regular basis whilst occasionally having an obstruction blocking your view of the half way line when we've since had unobstructed views of Rushden, Dagenham, Dorking and Morecambe's finest.

It's not an either/or.

If you invest capital wisely in off-the-field facilities that will raise revenue for the club on an ongoing basis, then it gives you the opportunity to gradually increase the playing budget and sustain it, whereas boosting the playing budget artificially will only work for as long as the rich owner doing it is prepared to pay. The aim of our current owners is to create an infrastructure that gradually reduces the club's dependency on generous benefactors (or indeed crooks, in the case of at least one previous owner).

That said, the current owners have also invested money directly into the playing budget to get the ball rolling and take us this far, which has it's own returns in terms of success and attendances, so I think they're using both approaches, albeit they aren't spending silly money. I can't see the current owners going on a sh*t or bust spending splurge to win promotion, as did some of our previous owners (who failed).

[jackal2]

It's embarrassing/sickening/humiliating how many clubs have left us behind and achieved so much more than Notts since 1995, heck it's bad enough since 2015 when we last played in League One.

It is, but I'm afraid several previous owners bear the responsibility for that gradual decline, basically having tried to build a big house on sand. The current owners are far more pragmatic, meaning progress upwards is also gradual, but it should be more sustainable because they're putting the foundations in place to raise the revenue (Nest, Padel, corporate hospitality etc) as well as working on the bits above ground.