June 5, 201312 yr Author Mourinho is a check book manager. Chelsea have tremendous youth facilities, yet how many players have come up through their ranks in the past 10 years and made a dent in the first team? We're completely clutching at straws here. He's spent a lot of money where ever he has gone. His major problem though is his tactics are not "cool" anymore. Most teams are trying to emulate tiki-taka, death by football or the high intensity pressing. The Mourinho and Benitez sides were set up to be defensively solid and to hit on the counter attack with space. Mourinho tends to move on because he burns bridges. He fell out with Abramhovic the first time, there's nothing to say the same won't happen again this time. At Inter be spent well, well, well over budget. It brought them the Champions League, but also a load of debt. Look at them now, they're nothing like they were a few years ago. At Real Madrid he spent a lot of money. He won them the league again, but the fans hated his tactics. He was fighting a losing war by the last six months, the only reason he wasn't sacked was because Real Madrid didn't want to pay off his massive contract. In other news Martinez has been appointed Everton manager. Good appointment, but they don't have the players to play his style of football yet. They'll have to be very pragmatic next season, otherwise I expect them to be 8th/9th.
June 15, 201312 yr The problem with the Conference is there's no financial regulations like the football league. Mansfield were bankrolled by a millionaire, Forest Green are very similar and Newport have a Lottery winner investor. It's a hard league to get out of, I suspect Luton will suffer for a few more years yet. Their team is laughably average. Barnet and Aldershot have the benefit of being non-league teams so perhaps they might fare better than a lot of the league teams that go down. York were lucky to escape relegation. It was the same with Wimbledon last year. Both were too sentimental to the players that got them promoted. Once the league teams figure your style out you're screwed. League 2 is basically just a better version of the Conference these days. All big, physical target man teams do well. Interesting to see someone elses take on my team Mansfield. Crawley and Stevenage were both bankrolled as well, but dont have the fanbase behind them if the rich owners pull out. Our owner is trying to make us sustainable as well, by reinstating the youth team, and buying younger players. He is building an indoor training facility at the ground and an outdoor training facility on the edge of Mansfield. You have to remember that we used to have an owner, Haslam, who basically screwed all the money out of the club for himself, and left us in the shit. So to have someone who cares and will spend money on the club is novel to us. And at the end of the day, it happens in so many clubs up and down the country, so why not at a lower level, if it is sustainable? At the end of the day you mention Forest Green, they get crowds around 1000, there is no interest, whereas the buzz in Mansfield is amazing. We are just glad to be back, and some Stags fans are talking of promotion again, I'll be happy with 60 points as I saw how York struggled, saying that, we are a more direct physical team, so maybe league 2 will suit us?
June 15, 201312 yr Newport County join Mansfield in League 2 and disappointment for Wrexham. How many attempts are they going to have? They have been in and around the promotion mix for the last few seasons now. Bradford vs Northampton Town for the League 2 final at Wembley. We were relegated with Wrexham 5 seasons ago, so it would have been nice if they could have come back up with us as well, nice to see Newport County back in as well though, not sure how they will fare though?
June 15, 201312 yr Author Interesting to see someone elses take on my team Mansfield. Crawley and Stevenage were both bankrolled as well, but dont have the fanbase behind them if the rich owners pull out. Our owner is trying to make us sustainable as well, by reinstating the youth team, and buying younger players. He is building an indoor training facility at the ground and an outdoor training facility on the edge of Mansfield. You have to remember that we used to have an owner, Haslam, who basically screwed all the money out of the club for himself, and left us in the shit. So to have someone who cares and will spend money on the club is novel to us. And at the end of the day, it happens in so many clubs up and down the country, so why not at a lower level, if it is sustainable? At the end of the day you mention Forest Green, they get crowds around 1000, there is no interest, whereas the buzz in Mansfield is amazing. We are just glad to be back, and some Stags fans are talking of promotion again, I'll be happy with 60 points as I saw how York struggled, saying that, we are a more direct physical team, so maybe league 2 will suit us? Oh as a York fan I know what it's like to have owners screw your club over! I don't believe Radford has as much money as he says he has personally, but making the club sustainable is what is best. Think you'll be mid-table next season, League 2 is much more physical than the Conference and with better players. You're more suited to the set-up than both York and Wimbledon were. Although you've made similar mistakes to what both our clubs made, and being sentimental and bringing a lot of the players up with you. After 10 games they'll all be found out and targeted, it's what happened with York. Would say you might need to make the step-up and lose Cox at some point. We'd languished in non-league so long that we had a non-league set-up in the league. Thankfully we've massively stepped up now. The Conference is not sustainable though, that's why I'm against teams being bankrolled. Look at the league clubs that come down, even with the parachue payments, the gap between the two leagues is so big that it's not sustainable at all. Clubs gamble and are badly run gambling to either stay in the league or, go up to the league.
June 15, 201312 yr Oh as a York fan I know what it's like to have owners screw your club over! I don't believe Radford has as much money as he says he has personally, but making the club sustainable is what is best. Think you'll be mid-table next season, League 2 is much more physical than the Conference and with better players. You're more suited to the set-up than both York and Wimbledon were. Although you've made similar mistakes to what both our clubs made, and being sentimental and bringing a lot of the players up with you. After 10 games they'll all be found out and targeted, it's what happened with York. Would say you might need to make the step-up and lose Cox at some point. We'd languished in non-league so long that we had a non-league set-up in the league. Thankfully we've massively stepped up now. The Conference is not sustainable though, that's why I'm against teams being bankrolled. Look at the league clubs that come down, even with the parachue payments, the gap between the two leagues is so big that it's not sustainable at all. Clubs gamble and are badly run gambling to either stay in the league or, go up to the league. The number of clubs promoted from the Conference who have gone straight back down remains at zero so it is hard to justify your claim that there is a massive gap. Of course some of the teams promoted recently have benefitted from having large amounts of money thrown at them but there are still exceptions.
June 15, 201312 yr Author The number of clubs promoted from the Conference who have gone straight back down remains at zero so it is hard to justify your claim that there is a massive gap. Of course some of the teams promoted recently have benefitted from having large amounts of money thrown at them but there are still exceptions. Because most of the clubs that have gone up have been bankrolled (Fleetwood, Crawley, Stevenage, Mansfield, Newport) or ex-league clubs with core fanbases of 2,000+ (York, Oxford, Torquay, Exeter, Carlisle). Only exceptions to the rules have been AFC Wimbledon and Yeovil. The likes of Dagenham, Hereford, Burton, Barnet, Accrington, Morecambe, Aldershot have also gone up in recent times. All these clubs, Burton aside will be back (or already back) in non-league within the next five years. The gap between the top 8 clubs in the Conference and the bottom 7/8 in League 2 isn't that big, but after that it's a massive jump. The clubs are better run professionally, have proper scouting networks, video analysis, more experienced players. In the Conference it's hard for clubs to do this because the money isn't there. But for your club to become sustainable and to become a proper League club again it needs to happen, hence why all the non-league teams that got promoted are gradually stalling/getting relegated. Just look at the clubs that have gone down recently. Darlington, Chester and Halifax all went completely bust. Stockport relegated again. "Massive club" Luton struggling.
June 23, 201312 yr Author Feel slightly sorry for Newcastle. They're an absolute train wreck at the moment. I honestly feel the appointment of Kinnear was the give strength to Mike Ashley. I don't see Pardew lasting out until Christmas, especially if Newcastle have a poor start.
June 23, 201312 yr Gus Poyet has been sacked from Brighton. Most dramatic thing on live football coverage since Adebayor's wife gave birth.
June 23, 201312 yr Author Gus Poyet has been sacked from Brighton. Most dramatic thing on live football coverage since Adebayor's wife gave birth. He knew it was coming though judging by his reaction. Still, a bit twatish not to inform him first. That said I bet the BBC are loving it!
June 23, 201312 yr Feel slightly sorry for Newcastle. They're an absolute train wreck at the moment. I honestly feel the appointment of Kinnear was the give strength to Mike Ashley. I don't see Pardew lasting out until Christmas, especially if Newcastle have a poor start. Gus Poyet has been sacked from Brighton. Most dramatic thing on live football coverage since Adebayor's wife gave birth. So maybe the new Brighton manager could be...
July 17, 201311 yr The FA Cup will be back on the BBC (and BT Sport) from the 2014/15 season so we only have to put up with ITV for one more year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23339424
July 18, 201311 yr The FA Cup will be back on the BBC (and BT Sport) from the 2014/15 season so we only have to put up with ITV for one more year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23339424 Fantastic news, I hope 'Match of The Day Live' will be back as part of the FA Cup. Although it's a shame that the FA Cup final kick-off will be 5:15pm instead of the traditional 3:00pm. Hope the BBC will show the main matches. Other news: FIFA and UEFA has lost an appeal against a European ruling that the World Cup and European Championship should be shown free-to-air in the UK.
July 29, 201311 yr R.I.P Christian Benitez He has died at the age of 27 due to a cardiac arrest. R.I.P 1986-2013 :(
July 29, 201311 yr Tragic news. R.I.P. New season starts this weekend. Hoping Carlisle have made the defence disciplined, think we conceded a lot of goals at home last season.
July 30, 201311 yr Was glad to get last season out of the way. Awful football, (for the most part) awful results, just glad to see the back of it. Looking forward to the coming season, feeling quietly confident of a decent campaign given how fit/sharp we've looked during pre-season. We're still missing full-backs, a central midfielder and a striker despite all of the incomings.
August 2, 201311 yr Sheffield United vs Notts County tonight though. Two prime contenders for promotion in my opinion, think County will need to hold their nerve with the manager this season. They weren't that far off when they got rid of Curle.
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