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Punching above our weight
- Thread starter Rixen63
- Start date
We are easily the same size if not bigger in statute than other clubs in the EFL who are in the same or higher divisions and it shouldn't be fashionable for us to think for one moment Division 2 is our rightful home. It's the 4th tier, a tier we never entered in over 100 years of our history until being sucked in against all statistics, in the1990s. Transport and communication has improved vastly over the decades to make the geographical influence less, certainly not more, of an issue than then. We survived before in the 2nd or 3rd tiers spending a lot of time in both. We are therefore at the very least a Div 1 or Championship club..tbh there IS no argument which can contradict this. History tells us who we are. We are definitely under-achieving... certainly not over - achieving as this defeatist claim suggests. It's more a state of mind this one. We need drive and charisma out there.. not feeble excuses...then and only then can we fulfil our vast potential. Our fan base is enormous, that's your size of club.
gariboldi":2sb0teal said:
The size of your fan base & your historical status means nothing in the modern era as to where you can get to. 20 years ago the leagues were much more representative of a club's 'size', today, its more uneven and mixed, you have clubs such as Bournemouth doing better than the likes of Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday, clubs like Fleetwood doing better than the likes of Coventry or Portsmouth.
In the modern era, gate receipts aren't a marker for how much a club can spend, clubs get money from all sorts of sources nowawadays, corporate sources mainly, as well as sugar daddy owners of course, and that's the reason traditionally smaller clubs can outmuscle traditionally big clubs.
Martin":170ablp1 said:
The developement is his business. Did anyone demand Dan McCauley ignore Rotolok or Stapleton ignore making money as an accountant? We have to stop lumping the two together as for whatever reason he doesn't have billions that he can drop into the club and treat as a plaything. At the moment, we have no idea what JB and the board will allow the new manager in January and there really is no option but the players we have in front of us with no loans regardless of how much of an emergency we find ourselves in.
An awful lot of boll--ks is talked about big clubs. We have never ever been a "big" club. What exactly is a big club - I can sort pf accept that the top 6 or so premier clubs can be refferred to as big. But a club who has never been beyond the Championship or old league 1 as big - I do not think so. Although it makes me sad the truth is we have always been kicking around the basement of league football. Many good reasons why and unless Mr Saudi Arabia or Mr Bejing turn upmwe always willo
I dont accept were puncing above our weight, ive never seen headlines about other league one teams paying large transfer fees or massive wages,apart from the ones in free fall from championship and above. I feel that our location really puts players off. Sigh for a team in the midlands and you are home with family saturday night. Play for argyle spend days and days away each season.
To be honest there's always been some smaller Clubs making it big. Always a fairytale in motion. That's what has always made football great viewing. Luton were in the old 1st Division for a long long time in the 70s and 80s as were. Swindon, Leyton Orient, even Carlisle for a while, Wimbledon were making it big in the 80s at Plough Lane, a cow shed of a ground. , and there were of course others that temporarily fell from grace like Man Utd being relegated to Division 2 in the 70s.. I see no great difference between then and now in terms of sizes of clubs or where they operate. That imbalance is not so new, clubs moved around the leagues just as much. Swansea climbed from 4th to 1st in successive seasons in the 80s. It's a question of how long for?? The fact is we are not used to being and setting up home in the bottom division historically and shouldn't accept it now. We are arguably a larger club than Bournemouth so we should be seeking to emulate their success story. Why not? If you don't have a dream it's end of. At the very least we should be squaring up to the likes of Bristol City without feeling at all humbled. A good match in terms of club size and stature. I don't get it. We ARE desperately underachieving. Believe it! We have spent far too long wallowing in self pity after our period in administration. Brighton got on with it, look at them now. In the 70s we were playing Chelsea, Southampton, Fulham, etc, in the 00s WBA, Crystal Palace, Sunderland, often obtaining good results snd scoring goals. To say we are way off operating at optimum is understatement of the century. In fact the three centuries involved.. I say let's get back to having pride in the shirt instead of being sickeningly consensual and passive to the negatives about our prospects. .
A big part of the problem for argyle is that the years that we were slip sliding down the league from the championship were also the years that the huge tv money was being pumped into the premiership and championship. The gulf these days between the top clubs in the championship and league one is much greater now than it was when we really were punching above our weight in the top half of the championship.
Another reason making the gulf between leagues increase these days is I believe down to lower quality players in the lower leagues due to the big clubs hoovering up the young talent. Check the size of the youth squads in the prem. Those players would used to have been contracted at smaller clubs thus now the lower league clubs are finding it increasingly difficult to sign/keep good players.
A viable example of this point would be the fact that the conference is now quickly catching up quality wise with league 2.
Another reason making the gulf between leagues increase these days is I believe down to lower quality players in the lower leagues due to the big clubs hoovering up the young talent. Check the size of the youth squads in the prem. Those players would used to have been contracted at smaller clubs thus now the lower league clubs are finding it increasingly difficult to sign/keep good players.
A viable example of this point would be the fact that the conference is now quickly catching up quality wise with league 2.
- Feb 24, 2007
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These ‘punching above our weight’ and ‘difference between teams is like day and night’ quotes just goes to show how out of touch he is on the man management front. All he’s done is create a atmosphere between players allowing them to squabble beteeen themselves trying to figure out whose not good enough in the team.
Adams achieved absolutely nothing constructive saying these things. All he’s done is try and take the pressure off himself by basically admitting the players aren’t good enough and it’s all there fault.
Unbelievable and now he’s created a massive confidence issue that just won’t heal.
For that reason, he’s out.
Mentally broken and the quicker he leaves the sooner someone else can start the repair
Adams achieved absolutely nothing constructive saying these things. All he’s done is try and take the pressure off himself by basically admitting the players aren’t good enough and it’s all there fault.
Unbelievable and now he’s created a massive confidence issue that just won’t heal.
For that reason, he’s out.
Mentally broken and the quicker he leaves the sooner someone else can start the repair
All I know is we are "that" team at the moment. The Basket Case team. We came in to the season grossly under prepared for the huge step up in class. Obviously underestimated by the Manager. But that said as regards Adams' future here.?.. we must study the options before pressing the buttons. I can't see who's an ideal replacement. We don't want to do the ex evergreen player routine, no offence to Paul Wotton, but we've tried that with Kevin Hodges and others, it doesn't work. And more importantly can you imagine this board paying the substantial compensation involved in sacking him and getting an equally well salaried replacement in. When the only prospect for the newly assigned is waiting until January to get some quality players in and impending relegation. No one will want the job in the first place, except an evergreen Argyle. This is far from as easy as sack Adams.....
Martin":3bn79hmj said:
Well said.
James Brent gets such a free ride on these boards. He's building HHP for business interests separate to that of the club, and some fans adore him for it.
Look at the state of the freebies and cast offs DA has had to sign. I saw Jamille Matt playing for Grimsby yesterday and caught myself thinking 'cor, wouldn't it have been good if we could have afforded him?' And he's playing for a midtable side in the division below on lower gates! The reality is we couldn't match Matt's wages, Reuben's wages etc. and have to rely on a non-league striker who will play for next to nothing. Our goalscorer is a teenager off the bench because we can't afford anything else.
It's a shambles and NOT all DA's fault. Where has the money gone!?