Question Would a couple of seasons in League 2 be the end of the world ?

[BrettieAngell]

this sort of thing does my head in .... looking orward to forcing our way onto the play offs - six points fromthe next two games for a start

the play-offs ain't gonna happen!

 

[Sean 2]

the play-offs ain't gonna happen!

It might do,you don't know that!
We might make a couple of great signings by Tuesday,win at Borient,win at home then beat Leeds away! It's not impossible and we are a good side with 11 men on the pitch,just ask Chelsea! We have goalscorers kicking around the club and i believe a couple of strong defenders would bring us rewards.

 

[BrettieAngell]

It might do,you don't know that!
We might make a couple of great signings by Tuesday,win at Borient,win at home then beat Leeds away! It's not impossible and we are a good side with 11 men on the pitch,just ask Chelsea! We have goalscorers kicking around the club and i believe a couple of strong defenders would bring us rewards.

Yeah but I don't think its gonna happen!

 

[Sean 2]

Yeah but I don't think its gonna happen!

You've only got to go as far back as last season to see that Tilly can turn us into "world beaters" during the Jan window.I can see the fans getting right behind a push for it with this memory in mind.
It's only a defeat away with 10 men,we had no chance!

 

[BrettieAngell]

You've only got to go as far back as last season to see that Tilly can turn us into "world beaters" during the Jan window.I can see the fans getting right behind a push for it with this memory in mind.
It's only a defeat away with 10 men,we had no chance!

I'm well aware of what happened last season, I just don't see the same thing happening this year.

As I said another thread yesterday's game was always gonna be difficult, and for the record I think we will be Ok this season.

 

[GBJ]

Quite a few of us on here have seen a fair bit of League 2 footie and supported the Blues though thick and an awful lot of thin.

So if the unmentionable happened would the club really fall off a cliff ?

It seems to me that with the current financial crisis threatening to take its toll, survival is the key and if that means hanging on to the pennies and weathering the storm, I for one would rather see us do that and have a club to follow, than face oblivion.

Lets face it, the salaries we offer are not attracting in the cream of this level's crop. Even with decent gates we struggle to make ends meet.

Judging by the progress of players we have let go , e.g Charlie Mac, Lewis Hunt , Matty Harrold etc, it is reasonable to assume that the nucleus of this squad would do very well at the level below . PLUS, we have some very promising youngsters working their way through to establish themselves at first team level. Blooding them in League 1 is likely to be more difficult than them finding their feet in the League below.

If this club is to survive, it will depend, not only on the new stadium, but also on the success we have in developing our own stars.

Personally, I would like to see us have a big clear out this season of a number of under-performing and, I suspect, relatively well paid, players.

In return we would hope to secure the services of a couple more experienced professionals who could guide a very young squad.If descent into League 2 helps us to acheive this it might not be such a bad thing .

And as for Tilly ? Well funnily enough, although I hold some doubts about his ability to take us back to the Championship and keep us there, he would be exactly the right man for this particular job.

If we droppped down, re-organised, developed the youngsters into an exciting up and coming unit and then got promoted back into League 1 the season after next, hopefully the momentum would be there to see us pushing for the Championship again at the point when the new stadium comes on stream .

And as for support, people generally are happier following a successful side at the top of the league than watching a stuggling side at the foot of the table.

So maybe it won't all be doom and gloom after all ?

firstly, this post has to be a wind up? seriously? not that bad? it would be a killer for us. How many of our current squad would we hold onto? barney? clarke? christophe? laurent? freedman? no. simple.

secondly, our attendances will drop majorly. we would be back to the days of 3500 average, probably never exceeding 6000. Then what would RM do with the ticket prices? can't keep them at the current price. but then we would already be losing money with lower crowds so can't raise them.

thirdly, "developing our own stars"? what like what we did with kightly? glad we developed him well. then players such as...
freddy - proved to be a quality goal scorer. sold.
gower - quality winger. can influence and change a game. sold
bailey - great maestro in the centre. sold.
hooper - looked like he'd never make conference level. sold (oops)

the point is, we either sell all our decent players, or don't utilise their talents properly.

fouthly - "the salaries we offer". as much as i like the guy, freedman has got to be on about £3000-£4000 (sound like my dad i know) and is not setting this league alight. he's great to have around the youngsters but he's not scoring. everyone seems to slate revs for not scoring but he's only 1 goal behind dougie and 2 behind barny.

and lastly, as for these people who are happy following teams at the top of the table...
these are called "gloryhunters" or even better known as "man utd fans"

 

[CC51DAS]

You've only got to go as far back as last season to see that Tilly can turn us into "world beaters" during the Jan window.I can see the fans getting right behind a push for it with this memory in mind.
It's only a defeat away with 10 men,we had no chance!

Last year we were only 4 points behind the play-off places at moreorless the same stage of the season.

 

[CC51DAS]

Last year we were only 4 points behind the play-off places at moreorless the same stage of the season.

Had a chance to check this now. Last year after our 24th match ( 0-1 home defeat by Boristol Rovers ) we were on 33 points , 4 points behind 6th placed Walsall. After our 25th match ( 1-1 draw with Yeovil ) we had 34 points and were 6 points behing 6th placed Leeds.

As we all know, we are currently 14 points behind 6th placed Scunthorpe, albeit with a game in hand.

 

[shrimpfan]

800 pound for 2 seasons in the 2nd div...dont fink so.

 

[bertiebigbanana]

Colchester have the 7th richest man in english football supporting them.

Stockport are having the kind of season that we had when we came up from league 2 last probably still paying League 2 wages like we did.

Scunthorpe are just down from the Championship and like us last season are still flying. Lets see what happens if they dont go back up this year.

Hartlepool are only 2 points above us having played one game more than us and have played 13 out of 25 home games, we've only played 11 out of 24 soon to be 25 games.

Oldham have always been a good league one side, the kind of team that if honest i'd like us to become, always in the top half looking for promotion with the occasional season in the Championship.

Also as i see it these clubs are not still paying for shoddy management dating back to the 90's leaving them with huge debts and no stadium ??? Remember, since Ron took over out debts have reduced from £8million to around £2million, not too shabby !BUT, how do we know that these clubs are not chasing the dream and not spending large amounts of money that may come back to haunt them.

Forgive me if im wrong but was'nt/is'nt a large proportion of the debt to company/s owned by ron martin?

 

[Manchester Shrimper]

CC51DAS, I see where you're coming from regarding consolidation but I don't see how the drop to League 2 would help us.

From what you're saying, you, like I and most people on the board, would like to see Southend established as a Championship team in the medium-term. We couldn't establish ourselves in the Championship in 2006/07 and I can't see us doing it if we manage to get a run together and win the play-offs. Yes, we need to look at a long-term plan and building a squad to achieve this but why would it help to drop a division to do this? Why not just do it in League One? Surely that'd make more sense as the squad would have to make a jump up one division rather than two.

Surely, we can build on the current spine of players we have as we don't have any more key players that are clearly Championship-quality like Gower and Eastwood who will leave if we don't go up. Why not develop our own talent in League One? If we don't lose any key players surely there'll be a natural evolution- as we make new signings and the young talent breaks into the first team, the under-performers will be replaced.

 

[Csboy]

If we went down and cameback as Champions in 1 season then it would be fine. I could take that and I am sure we would be much stronger the next season in League one. gates would be higher than they are this season as well.