2nd And On A Shoestring

[cheshire_red]

LINK: http://www.brentfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pag...~799887,00.html?

[Bristol Boy]

And the same can probably be said for Colchester who are also up there.

My understanding is that Swansea have made a huge gamble on expenditure to achieve promotion which they are by no means certain to achieve.

Bristol City have shown exactly HOW NOT to get promoted from the Third Division.

Spending under DW topped £2m on transfers alone and our "Big Club" image has never done us any favours.

I sometimes wonder if having a Wealthy Benefactor actually does a club some harm because it leads to profligacy & waste.

About 70 players have come and gone under BT & GJ and we're not finished yet.God knows what the total would be if we included DW's four seasons that ultimately resulted in failure.

I've made the point before but clubs that spent nothing in comparison sailed past us........OK, some like Rotherham, Wimbledon, Gillingham & Walsall have returned.......then again, so did we and far more quickly that most of them.

I know we'e not Man Utd but we could be Charlton, Burnley or even PNE.

All in all it's a sad tale of what might have been if not for poor managerial decisions and poor Boards.

[Guest Harry Dolman]

For me the blame really lies at the feet of the managers (I know that the Board appoint them, so in turn they take some blame too).

The fact is for pretty much as long as we have been in this division we have been the "big spenders" & have had one of the higest salary bills. Where has it got us ??? An LDV Trophy & 2 seasons in the PO's.

Brentford & Colchester are proving, much like Luton, Plymouth & Crewe before them that you don't need to spen big to get out of this league.

In the summer when large proportions of the forum/wider fan base are baying for signings we should remember that in the close season before they got promoted Luton made very few changes to their squad. They did bring in Underwood - a full back from the freshly relegated R&D (can you imagine the posts of protests if the sum of our transfer activity was a full back from, say MK Dons ???). Out of nowhere & with pretty much the same bunch of players that had only achieved mediocrity the season before, Luton stormed the league. Plymouth did much the same the season before.

When you think about it.......... in the last 25 years, how many good starts to a season have we had ??? Each summer we have a mass turnaround of personnel & it takes time for the players to gel (even when we got promoted under Jordan & then Ward we started relatviely slowly).

For me its time for a "mend & make do" approach.

[mozo]

I'm sorry to say it but he fact that small clubs can succeed is a good sign that football is still not completely ruined by money.

If the size of a club were to ensure success we'd see Real Madrid, Chelseas and Man Utd in the Champions League semi-finals, thankfully it ain't going to happen.

If all clubs found their rightful place (base on club size/wealth etc) in the league tables how boring would football be?

I have far more respect for Colchester and Brentford than other teams that have beat us to promotion like Stoke, Cardiff, Sheff. Wed, Wigan etc. They're trying to do it the hard way so good on 'em.

Our club have consistently made fundamental errors of judgement at all levels hence where we stand. It's annoying, but there you go.

[CodeRed]

Some good points on this thread

especially regarding Preston who were in the 4th Div not so long ago - yet have managed to climb to a championship play off position, redevelop 3/4 of their ground in an interesting way, without spending much money on players (can't think of a single "big" signing).........and all on crowds of about 12,000.

We really have had the (reasonably) stable finances through SL's backing and certainly the fans have played their part......................but unfortunately too many poor decisions have meant we are standing still at best at the moment.

The other point about the annual all change in the squad is very relevent - how many times do you see a club who finishes the league strongly, go all the way next time - including of course the clubs coming up from League 2 who always seem to maintain the momentum (except Yeovil!).

Unfortunately I don't see the squad shaping up for a promotion challenge next year either , clearly we are improving slowly under GJ but we're still short in too many positions now.........and as already stated if we do bring in 4 or 5 players in the summer then it's 2 months of the season before they are all integrated and we're playing catch up again