Question Granty, ambition and finance

[Massimo Giovanni]

I see Grantie is settling in well at Stevenage and doing well for them; best wishes to him. I also note that they are 3rd in the table and have gates of the 3,000 only. How can they afford Grantie and how does he feel playing for a smaller team in front of such poor crowds? Borough can survive for a while on their past cup success but surely the only way for them is static or down?

 

[Medway Blue]

All of that will be elementary to him at the moment. He is being exposed to a higher standard of football and will be in the shop window to bigger clubs if he wants to move on. Plus I imagine the change of scene is doing him some good. They are being bankrolled by someone (or several people?) with some money in the back pocket and losses are being covered. Therefore they are punching above their weight. We can only dream of having such a Chairman.

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Colchester have been surviving in League One off crowds of 3/4000 for ages now, it can clearly be done.

 

[South Bank Hank]

Colchester have been surviving in League One off crowds of 3/4000 for ages now, it can clearly be done.

Same answer.

They are being bankrolled by someone (or several people?) with some money in the back pocket and losses are being covered. Therefore they are punching above their weight. We can only dream of having such a Chairman.

...but at least we have only five digits on each hand.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Please can we change the spelling of "Grantie" to "Granty" - which is a more accepted spelling? I keep thinking it says granite!

 

[tia]

I liked Granty was loyal too us in summer of 2010 and i hope he does well at Stevenage.They may well have a rich backer,when you look at clubs like Fleetwood ,Crawley etc they are smaller than say Bradford but have more money behind them

 

[Shrimpers are Magic]

I often look at league one attendances and wonder just how teams like Stevenage, Colchester and Orient manage to survive. For example, when Orient play someone like say Sheffield Utd, the crowd "swells" to around 6 or 7 thousand with over half being away fans. You can't rely on rich backers for ever, if the fans don't go then eventually things will go pear shaped. Remember Wimbledon anyone?
As for Grant, good luck to him. Done us proud and deserves success. Remember Stevenage were rumoured to be in for Eastwood.

 

[Jam_Man]

]I often look at league one attendances and wonder just how teams like Stevenage, Colchester and Orient manage to survive.[/B] For example, when Orient play someone like say Sheffield Utd, the crowd "swells" to around 6 or 7 thousand with over half being away fans. You can't rely on rich backers for ever, if the fans don't go then eventually things will go pear shaped. Remember Wimbledon anyone?
As for Grant, good luck to him. Done us proud and deserves success. Remember Stevenage were rumoured to be in for Eastwood.

As per the posts above, those clubs are bankrolled by their owners.

You might not be able to rely on them forever, but you deal with that when it happens and as long as you arent committing to long contracts then I dont see it as an issue.

Colchester for example are being run well, their chairman has supported them but is slowly reducing his investment, but they arent being stupid with contracts etc either.

 

[EastStandBlue]

Colchester have been surviving in League One off crowds of 3/4000 for ages now, it can clearly be done.

Colchester have been fairly notoriously bankrolled by Robbie Cowling for a number of years now. It's worth noting that during the year they stayed in the Championship and we went down, they had a substantially larger wage bill whilst still having smaller gates. I can't remember the exact figure, but I'm sure I read somewhere that the club's total wage bill was circa 170% of its turnover.

It's probably also worth noting that Cowling made a big song and dance last year about propping the club up, and looked to have taken the continued poor support of the club personally. He stated that the club would have to reduce its wage bill for this season in order to curb its losses. They might have signed Clinton Morrison, but they lost the likes of Odejayi and Gillespie, and I'd hasten to add that the reduced wage bill probably has a lot to do with the fact that they're rooted to the bottom of the table at the moment.

I liked Granty was loyal too us in summer of 2010 and i hope he does well at Stevenage.They may well have a rich backer,when you look at clubs like Fleetwood ,Crawley etc they are smaller than say Bradford but have more money behind them

Fleetwood may have money behind them, but they've taken a very different model to Crawley who pretty much embody the "boom then bust" model. Fleetwood have grown fairly organically, improving the stadium to boost revenue streams, and aren't stupid with contracts like Crawley have been. They got circa £1m for Vardy too, so it's not all someone elses money.

 

[undercovershrimper]

If the new financial fair play rules get applied to not only the Premier League but also football league clubs then clubs like orient col ewe and stevenage will no doubt drop back down to where they should be L2 or lower as bankrolling by rich backers wont be allowed anymore they will have to become proper run businesses living within their means could be v intresting should they rules be bought in

 

[EastStandBlue]

If the new financial fair play rules get applied to not only the Premier League but also football league clubs then clubs like orient col ewe and stevenage will no doubt drop back down to where they should be L2 or lower as bankrolling by rich backers wont be allowed anymore they will have to become proper run businesses living within their means could be v intresting should they rules be bought in

I wouldn't have thought it'll have much impact on the Football League. It appears the only sanctions that UEFA are prepared to hand out at the moment are a suspension from european competition and the withholding of prize money, neither of which are particularly applicable to clubs outside of the Premier League. Prize money for League's One and Two is basically enough to cover a week's wages.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Ambition for me would be better measured in trophies than wages.

Fair play to Grant.

I've a lot of time for him as besides being a good player he stuck by us when times were tough and he didn't give up.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

I see Grantie is settling in well at Stevenage and doing well for them; best wishes to him. I also note that they are 3rd in the table and have gates of the 3,000 only. How can they afford Grantie and how does he feel playing for a smaller team in front of such poor crowds? Borough can survive for a while on their past cup success but surely the only way for them is static or down?

Good point(s). I can only think that he (Grant) wanted to play in a higher division again ...... and when only 1 team came knocking he took that opportunity despite the negatives that you have put forward.

Another (so far unmentioned) factor might also be that he didn't like the style of football at Southend that we saw for quite a few games last season ..........

 

[Jam_Man]

Stevenage were very close to getting to the Play-off final last year.

They may be a small club but they had a real chance of promotion last year and are pushing hard again this year. Not a bad club to go to in my opinion if moving up the leagues is what you are after.

 

[Beefy]

If the new financial fair play rules get applied to not only the Premier League but also football league clubs then clubs like orient col ewe and stevenage will no doubt drop back down to where they should be L2 or lower as bankrolling by rich backers wont be allowed anymore they will have to become proper run businesses living within their means could be v intresting should they rules be bought in

If their chairmen want to bankroll them then they should be allowed to. The problem isn't, and never has been, clubs with wealthy owners be that Manchester City or those inbred farming scumbags from North Essex. Football's problem is the 'keeping up with the Jonesies' culture amongst fans and owners of clubs without rich owners.

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Granty was my favourite player for the past 2 years and was gutted to see him leave. Best of luck to him in his career

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Sent off against Col U. Hope it was a proper red card. :thump:

 

[dan_mays]

Undeserved IMO never a red card