Crawley, Fleetwood, and now...

[Gullscorer]

...a EuroMillions winner has joined the board of Newport County, so presumably they will be the next non-league club to have the financial clout to spend their way to back-to-back promotions. Well, good luck to them. I remember the old Newport County back in Div. 3 and Div. 4 days, playing the Gulls in what were regarded almost as local derbies.

But it's not only Newport. Apparently, Forest Green Rovers are more than financially sound, and have the ability to fund a serious promotion effort.

Against clubs like these, what chance does poor old Luton Town have..??

[ferrarilover]

BOOOOORING.*

*Not the thread, the football.

The point of divisions is to clump together similar clubs. By doing as rich clubs do, it's akin to entering Lewis Hamilton and his F1 team into the Jensen Kids Cup Series. It takes away the sport, it takes away the fun for everyone else and it takes away the challenge of it all from the beneficiary club. If there's no challenge, no pitting of one clubs mettle against another, then what is the point for the rich club and its fans? If you want to watch a business grow, then you might as well go and sit in the main reception of your local accountants office, or at your nearest independent coffee shop, just in case it becomes the next Starbucks. Watching a team which is a million miles better than everyone else destroy some non league minnows (and some ex league "big boys") simply because your team cost 100 times as much as the opposition can, surely, be utterly devoid of any actual pleasure for the supporters. It's like watching the heavyweight champion enter the ring against some 12 year old flyweight amateur. If there's no real competition because of an inequity brought about by massive and unearned financial clout, then what sense of achievement can there be when the inevitable victory is confirmed?

When TUFC win games, it's a special thing, because, even against the lesser lights of the division, we are never really particular favourites. Sure, the bookies might have us at 3/1 to beat the likes of Barnet at home, but if we do manage to win the match, it's a meaningful thing, because we know that we have worked harder, trained more effectively and really earned the three points. Doing it the Cheaty way or the Man City way, that is lost, and what is left is meaningless gloating down the pub because you were able to sign a single player for more money than the opposition have ever seen in their existence.

When the scales are that unbalanced, the whole thing becomes a pointless farce, a precession of wealth over effort and that is when sport ends, and mere business begins, and that, ultimately, is when football as we know it begins to die.

Matt.

[Scott Brehaut]

Matt,

Quality post - any other month this would have had my vote for poster of the month (or member of the month, whatever it is - I'm on my phone and can't be arsed to check).

[ferrarilover]

That's awfully good of you Scott. I believe the option is open to you to defer your vote to next month, should you so choose.

Matt.

[SuperNickyWroe]

well thats one way to look at it
what if i had won £148M on the euromillions and sunk £50M into the gulls?
would that make us big time charlies or would all the fans love it?
im sure you all know the answer..

[Kernowgull]

Yeah, agreed. Aren't we in the healthy position we're in now because of a lottery win? And didnt a mystery donator buy us Billy Bodin?

Not quite the same evidently, but there is nothing in our reactions to these incidents that we would turn down substatial investment

[Gullscorer]

Good post by Matt and I sympathise with his sentiments. Time was when all were level playing fields, from the pitches (excepting Yeovil's and a few other non-leaguers) to the club finances (apart from the likes of Man. U.), certainly within any particular division.

However, times change, and these days, from foreign billionaire owners of Premiere League clubs to the more affluent local funders with big ambitions for non-league clubs, the football world is what it is, and we have to live with it, and hope for the day when another Gulls fanatic becomes a big lottery winner (hopefully me)..!!

[Scott Brehaut]

well thats one way to look at it
what if i had won £148M on the euromillions and sunk £50M into the gulls?
would that make us big time charlies or would all the fans love it?
im sure you all know the answer..

If you won £148M on the Euromillions and only sunk £50M into the Gulls, I would call you a tight Northern b*****d

[Gullscorer]

If you won £148M on the Euromillions and only sunk £50M into the Gulls, I would call you a tight Northern b*****d

[AustrianAndyGull]

[SuperNickyWroe]

If you won £148M on the Euromillions and only sunk £50M into the Gulls, I would call you a tight Northern b*****d

sod off froggy

id would also lend £50M to bixie to pay off his gambling debts!

[ferrarilover]

The day we have so much money that there are blank cheques flying around will be the day that I stop taking any interest at all in the club.

Matt.

[SuperNickyWroe]

The day we have so much money that there are blank cheques flying around will be the day that I stop taking any interest at all in the club.

Matt.

look forward to it matt.
lets hope i win a big jackpot.

[Dave]

Every time a thread like this comes up, I have to have my say, I know where some are coming from, however still think a big point is missed every time, there has been no level playing field in football since the day the premiership was invented, and its beyond me why some just can't see it.

All the money goes into the premiership, and less and less filters down through the leagues , as it once did, and its caused a massive knock effect, one season in the premiership is worth a reported £90 million pounds, the very reason why many Championship clubs are now a ticking time bomb, spending way above their means trying to get there, as they know one season plus parachute payments puts their club at a different level, Blackpool are living proof.

Years ago a well run league 1 club with a good coaching set up, and a good youth system could make the jump to the top flight, as many did, thanks to the birth of the premiership now utterly impossible, unless you have a rich mans windfall, never bothers me now, if a club comes into money good luck to them.

Its already been said, where does anyone think our club would be today without the Bristow family and the money they have invested in Torquay, we are now seen as a top end league 2 club, make no mistake about it, we would have struggled to stay in the conference with out that money let alone got promotion back to the league.

We would not have had Bristows bench either, we would now have a canvass and tent pole stand that many other clubs have, doubt we would have the gulls nest or no10's, nor would we be in a postion to level the training ground, nor would we have the coaching set up we now have, all things that ave made possible for our club to challenge for promotion to league 1.

[ferrarilover]

It's not that I mind the cavernous gaps between the Premier League and everyone else, that's not the sort of level playing field I am talking about. I mean within divisions. All clubs in L2 get about 3000 fans/week. They all charge about £18 to get in. They all raise about the same through sponsorship. They all charge about £3 for a programme and £1.50 for a cup of tea. Thus, they all have about the same amount of money. Some will, of course, get 6000/week and charge £2.50 for a cup of tea and will have a slightly more expensive squad who all earn slightly more than the average. The inverse will also apply. However, in this scenario, unless a club comes into some cash either by the luck of the FA Cup draw, or by nurturing talent through the ranks, they all have pretty much equal squads, so it is a battle of talent to see who will finish where.
Even if you are lucky enough to sell Vardy for £1,000,000 (which is obscene, but we'll roll with it), that still means, for a normal L2 club, a couple of key signings, some improvements to the ground and some renegotiated contracts, with a few quid in the bank for a rainy day and possibly a new bathroom at home for the Chairman. What it doesn't mean is:

Manager: "I've no real talent for this managing lark, and I know we only get 500 fans a week through the door at £5 each, but there's this bloke I want to sign for £25,000,000 and pay him £100,000/week just because money is no object to us."

Needlessly rich Chairman: "Yeah, **** it, I've got nothing better to do with my money, sign him up."

THAT is where I get so fed up with these clubs who don't do things properly.

Matt.