League 2 General Chat Thread

[Robshep]

Not just the veganism, but also the environmental issues. Not sure what will happen when Dale ceases to be involved with the club, which will of course happen eventually...guess it depends who takes over.

Greta Thunberg?

 

[Greenacres]

Greta Thunberg?

Did you watch a Question of Sport last night...Ryan Sidebottom gave her as an answer on the picture board, completely derailed his team as everyone just started laughing.

 

[denzel ecfc]

At least we will have a whole Summer to get a new pitch sorted.
And half a new team...

 

[chipmunx]

At least we will have a whole Summer to get a new pitch sorted.
And half a new team...

we dug up our pitch last Monday or Tuesday ready for a new one going down

 

[Bone Idle]

League Two Team of the Month 2020/21

Players from Salford City, Bradford City, Newport County, Harrogate Town, Carlisle United, Port Vale, Cambridge United, Tranmere Rovers and Forest Green all feature as WhoScored.com run through their 2020/21 Sky Bet League Two Team of the Season...

www.skysports.com

According to the so called efl experts at sky this is the L2 team of the season

 

[Boz]

I think it’s an improvement on the other one though still some strange inclusions and omissions.

 

[Bottega Don]

That team is pretty good except for the obvious omission of Mullin and Bradford having two players in it

 

[denzel ecfc]

That team is pretty good except for the obvious omission of Mullin and Bradford having two players in it

And Doyle not being in it.
At least we have a team of average players I guess

 

[loz]

That team is pretty good except for the obvious omission of Mullin and Bradford having two players in it

Can't see how any Bradford Player would make tos. It's done on statistics obviously. According to statistics, we regularly had 60% possession in games. Pity we didn't leave our own half more often.

 

[Si Robin]

A Cheltenham fan pointed out yesterday that Will Boyle's rating was 7.24, so 0.07 higher than Mickey Demetriou.

I can't say I either know or care about it to be honest.

 

[Chris FGR]

Sports Direct - renowned for their ethics/treatment of employees. Seems ironic for them to run an initiative like this.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1397509964499931137

 

[Conker]

Sports Direct - renowned for their ethics/treatment of employees. Seems ironic for them to run an initiative like this.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1397509964499931137

It’s mad when you see the shift change at their HQ in Shirebrook, loads of Eastern Europeans on mopeds with 4 people on them smoking baccy in high vis, I’ll be suprised if they still don’t get treated like shit by Sports Direct.

 

[Devon_Lad]

Interesting thread. We lost £495k in 19/20 but a healthy bank account - And this is before any of the Ollie Watkins money

https://twitter.com/x/status/1397665216326995974

 

[Indian Dan]

Which is why the vast majority of clubs in the lower 2 leagues will never really get anywhere. Crewe are a typical example of a cyclical club. Great crop of youngsters every few years, get promoted from L2 to L1, sell them, stumble back to L2 and repeat. It’s when the saleable players dry up and the club are still losing money that they get into trouble.

 

[Devon_Lad]

Which is why the vast majority of clubs in the lower 2 leagues will never really get anywhere. Crewe are a typical example of a cyclical club. Great crop of youngsters every few years, get promoted from L2 to L1, sell them, stumble back to L2 and repeat. It’s when the saleable players dry up and the club are still losing money that they get into trouble.

And repeat? We must be missing this part. Need to get promoted for us to follow that cycle.

Now our academy is well known most our youngsters get poached before we get anything out of them or a good wedge as they're too young. Need that sorting out somehow, new rules or something

 

[Indian Dan]

Well, yes. But if you want to get up to L1 I’d think you should have done so by now. Obviously, I have no idea how much of your cash reserves will be spent on your squad but you can’t go on producing decent youngsters and not achieving it. When the well runs dry - as it will - those operating losses will bite. This isn’t a jibe at your club particularly, but it applies to most every club in some way.

When we missed out on getting to the Championship a few years ago the players that got us there got sold and the rot set in. Saying that, not every club has a thieving bastard as an owner.

 

[shoddycollins]

We seem to be in the midst of a productive crop of youngsters at the moment with the likes of Branthwaite, McCarron and Galloway being snapped up by Premier League teams and Charters and Dixon coming through while the youth team did very well last season. See where it gets us, no surprise though that it's coincided with the return of Eric Kinder.

 

[Chris FGR]

We've had our player of the year awards.

Supporters player of the year - Jamille Matt
Players player - Jamille Matt
Young player - Udoka Godwin-Malife
Goal of the season - Aaron Collins v Oldham (A)

Jamma also won PFA Community Champion.

 

[Gassy]

And repeat? We must be missing this part. Need to get promoted for us to follow that cycle.

Now our academy is well known most our youngsters get poached before we get anything out of them or a good wedge as they're too young. Need that sorting out somehow, new rules or something

It doesn't get any easier I'm afraid. Unless you get to the Championship or have really high level facilities, this is just how it is. We recently just lost another 2 starlets to Villa who were extremely highly rated.

I cant remember what the FA did exactly, but they changed the rules a few years ago to screw lower league clubs istm.

I think we did get £200k for Kyrie Pierre who went to Villa at the age of 15, which is fantastic on paper - but give it a couple of years and we'd have received a few mill I'm sure.

 

[Super_horns]

If he gets in the England squad which is likely you'll probably hear people say Jayden Sancho came from Man City which it true but he actually started out with us until aged 15.

 

[Luke Imp]

It doesn't get any easier I'm afraid. Unless you get to the Championship or have really high level facilities, this is just how it is. We recently just lost another 2 starlets to Villa who were extremely highly rated.

I cant remember what the FA did exactly, but they changed the rules a few years ago to screw lower league clubs istm.

I think we did get £200k for Kyrie Pierre who went to Villa at the age of 15, which is fantastic on paper - but give it a couple of years and we'd have received a few mill I'm sure.

I think you mean the PL with EPPP.

 

[Robshep]

And repeat? We must be missing this part. Need to get promoted for us to follow that cycle.

Now our academy is well known most our youngsters get poached before we get anything out of them or a good wedge as they're too young. Need that sorting out somehow, new rules or something

Capitalism bites tory on arse and he complains.
Shut up. You reap what you sow.

 

[Devon_Lad]

When the well runs dry - as it will

Why will it? We have the best academy locally and seem to be getting most of the talent coming our way and have 2 more youngsters potentially being picked up by Prem clubs. My worry isn't about the talent running dry, we will keep producing - It's the fact that they get poached so young we don't even see them properly on the pitch now (Jay Stansfield, Ben Chrisene - Soon to be Sonny Cox & Harry Lee). If we can get better rules about compensating clubs when a prem side snaps them up when they're 15/16 then we should be fine. It won't happen though.

 

[Indian Dan]

Well, that’s my point really. These young players should be helping you progress as a club but, in essence, all they are doing is helping you stand still. Again, using Crewe as an example, they have been using this model for years and they just yo yo between the bottom 2 leagues. Sure, there’s always a chance a ‘small’ club can do a Wycombe for a season but that’s about the limit. Then there’s the historical small club that gets an artificial financial leg up - Bournemouth, for example - who sustain it for a few years then return, usually broken, to their natural place in the scheme of things.

Saying that, most fans of lower league clubs just want to watch their team and don’t have the ‘entitlement’ attitude that the fans of bigger clubs have that may have fallen on hard times - Sunderland, for example. I’m amazed that, at the moment anyway, all clubs have survived Covid. If next season isn’t back to normal with full crowds I reckon that will soon change.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Which is why the vast majority of clubs in the lower 2 leagues will never really get anywhere. Crewe are a typical example of a cyclical club. Great crop of youngsters every few years, get promoted from L2 to L1, sell them, stumble back to L2 and repeat. It’s when the saleable players dry up and the club are still losing money that they get into trouble.

With all due respect that "cycle" you speak of has only happened once in modern times.

Horrendous mismanagement of a seven figure transfer budget at L1 level in 2008 coupled with a pair of inept managers saw us get relegated to L2 with a Top 6 L1 budget. We've never spent as much as that again. Before then, we had 15 solid years in the middle two tiers.

The fact we're now free of our shite former owner means trying to obtain Championship football will be a realistic prospect for us in the mid to long term as the club continues to modernise and maximise revenue having spent 15 years being hamstrung. The player trading model will continue, as it should for any club at this level. But this will lead to us investing more in the squad rather than putting millions in the owners back pocket like in the past. I dont expect us to stay 8 seasons out of 9 in the second tier like we once did. But it's now a genuine aim for the club to get back there whereas a few years ago under Hassall we had no chance at all.

Without our player trading model, we'd have ended up like Halifax Town or Chester. The player trading model based on Academy players saved us from non league in the 80s and, in an era before mass foreign investment, took us to the top half of the Championship. It's probably kept Exeter miles away from non league in modern times too and the same applies to Rochdale.

First and foremost I want a club to support. I dont want boardroom drama like a lot of clubs have. I don't want administration. I accept PL football will never happen in Crewe. So taking the rough with the smooth and selling to survive is something I accept. And if we go down, we go down. But I'd rather accept that than worry about my club going bust in the Courts like our friends up at Macclesfield did for years.

I just find it strange some fans of third and fourth tier clubs can't accept their clubs are selling clubs. Player trading is crucial even more so now thanks to Brexit and the Pandemic. Instead of scouring the Continent, Championship clubs will now recruit from this level to cut costs accordingly. So a key way of raising revenue for our clubs just became a lot easier!

 

[denzel ecfc]

Well, that’s my point really. These young players should be helping you progress as a club but, in essence, all they are doing is helping you stand still. Again, using Crewe as an example, they have been using this model for years and they just yo yo between the bottom 2 leagues. Sure, there’s always a chance a ‘small’ club can do a Wycombe for a season but that’s about the limit. Then there’s the historical small club that gets an artificial financial leg up - Bournemouth, for example - who sustain it for a few years then return, usually broken, to their natural place in the scheme of things.

Saying that, most fans of lower league clubs just want to watch their team and don’t have the ‘entitlement’ attitude that the fans of bigger clubs have that may have fallen on hard times - Sunderland, for example. I’m amazed that, at the moment anyway, all clubs have survived Covid. If next season isn’t back to normal with full crowds I reckon that will soon change.

I'm resigned to perennially being a league two/ league one club. That will do me.
Wycombe had one season in the championship, and there were short stays for Yeovil, Burton, Colchester. It was never going to be sustained.
I'm happy with the way things are. I just hope we never ever get relegated to the conference again

 

[Indian Dan]

Pretty much what most lower league fans want. We’ve got our problems at the moment which, hopefully, is close to being sorted.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Oh well, at least we wont have the Ryan Reynolds show next season

 

[Casey]

Eastleigh blew their chance which means I'm a Billy Idol fan for the play offs now. Mind you, as they are nicknamed "The Ravens" I'm not sure we will be signing White Wedding when Bromley get promoted.

Casey

 

[E10rifle]

Eastleigh blew their chance which means I'm a Billy Idol fan for the play offs now. Mind you, as they are nicknamed "The Ravens" I'm not sure we will be signing White Wedding when Bromley get promoted.

Casey

Fuck Bromley coming up. Dreadful little club with a dreadful little fanbase and a dreadful little ground in a complete shithole of a suburb. Absolute nobbers.