The Only Hope

[countygump]

I said when we in the play-off final last season, that this opportunity might well be our best chance of getting back to the FL for some time. Hope I'm wrong .That's why the way we capitulated was so disappointing.

[Davy500]

Playoffs never looked at-risk to me under Ardley, but at the same time promotion seemed unlikely, based on numbers. Unless Roberts came back 100% and we hammered the season home. But we now know that was very unlikely to happen.

Anyone expecting things to magically get better with a new manager was ignoring... basically all of football history. Things might get better but it almost never happens right way. You almost always pay a cost in team coherence and weird results immediately after changing managers.

Changing managers when we did made promotion much less likely, and that's the expected outcome. I don't see any cause for panic just yet. We won't have even a vague idea of IB's long term impact until about a third of the way through next season. For now I hope he continues experimenting with tactics and giving the up-and-comers game time.

I must admit the timing of sacking Ardley was very strange, as many are aware i am no big fan of Ardley, but having stuck with him for so long, he should have been given to the end of the season . Then replacing him with a poor manager, with no experience in the National league or League 2

Quite often a new manager does make an impact, more often than not, its just in Burchnall, and Ardley, we have 2 managers out of the worst 3 or 4 for starts in Notts whole history

[LaxtonLad]

Perhaps we should apply to enter this Super League?

[durhampie]

I feel the same about next season too.

2 or 3 of the best/better teams will still be in the NL with us (assuming we don't go up), if that's Stockport and/or Wrexham they will be very well backed financially.

Assuming Grimsby and Southend come down, and you could argue they are comparable sized clubs to Notts, they will have the £0.5m payments, Notts will have none.

Therefore it's not unrealistic to expect that Notts will be competing with 3 or 4 other clubs for the better available players.

None of us know the financial clout or willingness to spend of our owners, but it could be a number of years before (hoping it's a when not an IF) Notts return to L2. I actually enjoyed the first season in the NL, different away days, different teams, different playing styles, being one of the biggest 2 or 3 clubs in this league.

All that initial feeling is quickly ebbing away....

We wont be competing with any of the clubs in this league for players, because the ones we will sign no one will have ever heard of them..

[AllNottsAreWe]

We wont be competing with any of the clubs in this league for players, because the ones we will sign no one will have ever heard of them..

You mean "ones for the future" ?

I wouldn't be at all surprised.

[AllNottsAreWe]

Teams coming down from L2 are often in a big mess hence the relegation, Yeovil and ourselves were for example. From what I've read Grimsby and Southend both have major off field issues too.

This view is backed up by the stats, as how many newly relegated teams with the advantage of the parachute payment go back up either in year one or year two in the NL? It's a surprisingly small percentage for perceived big clubs with a financial advantage.

Well I hope those stats continue Laddo.

[upthemaggies]

Feel sorry for Grimsby Town fans. Imagine getting out of this hell hole at the 6th attempt only to drop back into it five years later.

They did have a very good result Saturday, still a slim chance they could get out of trouble, but gate/rivalry wise it would be better for us if they come down rather than Colchester or Barrow (assuming we're not going up).

[optipez]

This wood rot started long before the birch.

This season was a right off long ago. Barring one decent run of wins (which was never convincing) we’ve never really threatened to be anything more than a top half of the table team.

A clear out, a higher tempo and more physical approach and the players to achieve it is required for next season.

I have absolutely no confidence that is what we will get. But we shouldn’t throw the birch under a bus quite yet.

It wasn't a right off, we were fourth top with games in hand having taken 8 pts from 12. We weren't playing great but we were in a good position.
Seems to be a lot of revisionism going on atm.

[maddogslater]

That's because we didn't expect Ardley to be replaced by someone worse, Chesterfield were near the bottom when they got the right manager in, look at them now.

[laddo]

I may have not been confident of promotion this season but I was very confident of obtaining a play off place. That was part of the reason why I hoped NA would be given the full season knowing full well that no promotion meant he was gone#noexcuses

Chesterfield's new manager has done superb for them clearly, albeit from a very low starting point, but for every example of a positive managerial change outside of Meadow Lane there is an example where the change didn't make things better or worse.