That's what I thought. I appreciate Southern League Premier is only one level below where we are heading, but Bideford are currently a further level below that in Division 1 South and West.
I've got no problems with us training in Bristol if it opens up the possibility of more players being interested in us, but hope very much we don't go part time under Osborne's ownership. I suspect we are screwed in terms of positivity for the long-term until he has gone, barring soundbites that lead to nothing of substance. And at that point, it will be a question of how screwed we are by his and GI's loans and whether there is any coming back from it.
I think we can bounce back from going down to Southern League Premier if we suffer a double relegation because of our comparative income from the gate alone. And it would be way higher than our competitors, whatever your prediction as to the drop-off of support. We wouldn't require a benevolent, malevolent or loan issuing owner at that level, in my opinion. Possibly we might do the same from Conference South? Whether we will or not will depend on building on that income, channelling it into the team and better decision-making than we currently see.
I see TUFC increasing it's debt to a disinterested property developing owner through loans as things are and look to be heading. Some may even feel as time goes on that maybe we should have that new shiny ground he sporadically pops up and talks about, so we can all move on. And that could bugger us up even in the Southern League in the aftermath of Osborne's and GI's loans with just housing around the proposed site of said new shiny stadium as per the 'death of a thousand cuts' examples we have read about elsewhere. We'd need Plainmoor for a 'new' unburdened club at that point if (big if) it was still available for us to ever dream again of that holy grail of Football League status.
