Where should we be as a club

[BriggBlue]

Given that there's a lot of negativity around this forum at the moment, (and most moments), I thought I'd ask the question about where people think Southend United should be as a club.

for me we don't have the investment to be a top four premiership side, even getting into the premiership would be seen as a miracle.

Given the state of our stadium and again no extra money we won't be in the top of the championship naturally, I'd even go as far as to say that given parachute payments and the size of some of the clubs in the championship, mid table in that league would be a major success.

So dropping down to our current league, we aren't the biggest name there but are by no means the smallest so is our natural position, given the current investment and stadium, somewhere in the top 10 of L1? I'd argue that it is.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

I would agree. I think where we have been the last couple of seasons is about our natural position in the football pyramid.

Of course there are clubs punching above their weight (Burton, Bournemouth etc), but for every one of those there is a club performing badly (Coventry, Portsmouth etc.)

I think the annoying thing is that given the new stadium and the potential catchment area we have the ability to be a stable Championship club.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

We are at our level in mid table Div1. We can flirt with play offs and hope for a season or 3 in the Chumps.
Without Fossetts Farm we can not grow (much) & without growth comes stagnation and then decline.
In part this is why some sort of Cup run is important as it is the obvious direct "growth" route and extra funding that is needed.
I don't want a mega rich new owner with loads of "Hooray" type charlies then turning up for prawn sandwiches; just real fans following their local club through its ups and downs.

 

[Shrimperforlife]

Just keep in existence.....I want our club to survive ....

 

[NZamba Legend]

I often think that our greatest achievement is never having been relegated from the football league.

 

[Mad Cyril]

The 'SUFC - no retreat, no surrender, League One family club of the year 2009' tattoo across my back makes it pretty clear where I stand

 

[onceknownasrab]

What you settle for is what you get. If the club and the fans want to be entrenched in the past, we are at the pinnacle of our possibility. Times have changed, the demographic has changed with it, and thus far the club has managed to let it pass them by.

We are not the proverbial chosen ones and I doubt FF is the promised land but certainly a nice, shiny, new stadium, has the potential to lift our status from Championship Wannabee's to Championship Regulars. We may even get the chance of an occasional tilt at the Premiership.

None of this will happen with the current malaise and apathy that besets the club. Poor results and performances are plentiful and yet the number pales into insignificance compared to the list of trite excuses. Many of the fans, some worn down by so many years of supporting and seeing the same thing, have just come to accept we are a little club and how grateful we should be to have no aspiration beyond a top ten place in Lg 1.

We have Brexit (Browns Exit) and the Remoaners (all is as it should be in our sunny corner of the garden.) The Brexiteers are castigated for wanting more and daring to dream. Not settling for what we get. The Remoaners just accept the 'situation' and believe we are doing all we can muster. Which of the two will bring about change? Neither. Until there is a unity and a common goal then the infighting deflects us away from directing our support in any positive and effective way.

So in summary, we are where we are because its as much as we deserve and all we expect. Things could get better but not without change and change is something seldom seen at RH.

 

[westie]

I first saw the Blues @ Grainger Road in 1953. On average, we were a mid-table Division 3 South Club.
Almost 65 years later we remain in pretty much the same position. We have had two opportunities to establish ourselves as a Championship Club. But the lack of much-needed financial investment, together with the annoying policy of selling our star players, has relocated us back to where we truly belong.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

The 'SUFC - no retreat, no surrender, League One family club of the year 2009' tattoo across my back makes it pretty clear where I stand

With your back to people and your top off?

 

[turkishm]

If we were to be a successful club in the Champ, we have to get a new Chairman, or some influx of money into the club. Ido believe Div i is about as far that Ron can take us

 

[ozzie]

We all thought that about BILL RUBIN....be careful what we wish for.
Like you wrote,we are a mid-table 3rd division team-setup......we need a "sugar daddy",but again,lets be careful what we wish

 

[Ex-Member1]

We are doing alright for a little team, and in my 60 years of watching we kind of settle for where we are now quite honestly. I think sometimes we think too grandly, may we should be thankful we are still here, in a decent league, doing our best. Real Madrid we will never be. I love us as we are. COYBB

 

[BlueBore]

In my opinion, with our current funding, stadium and supporter-base we are a mid-table to top-half League 1 side.
I've always thought that third tier is our natural level and that our prolonged spell in League 2 was underachieving with the obvious caveat that given the dire circumstances in which we were relegated, it was inevitable that it would take time to build things back up again.
So yes, currently I think we are exactly where we belong.

However, with some sustained investment, a better stadium and prolonged good management we have the potential to be a mid-table to top-half Championship side.
The Premiership is probably dreamland, but stranger things have happened (Bournemouth, Wigan, Hull, Portsmouth, Burnley etc)

 

[AndyT]

We are doing alright for a little team, and in my 60 years of watching we kind of settle for where we are now quite honestly. I think sometimes we think too grandly, may we should be thankful we are still here, in a decent league, doing our best. Real Madrid we will never be. I love us as we are. COYBB

Spot on, as some other posters on here have also said.

It's those moments that you remember, whichever club you support or whatever status.

I like the fact that we can occasionally punch above our weight and have a hope of maybe achieving that again, but whilst we survive well enough at this level and have a side that gives their all, that's pretty much OK for me.

There's plenty of mid-table Premier League sides that are going nowhere. They won't have the high of a last-minute equalizer at Wembley or the tension of that last day, last season.

They just plod around, winning enough games to survive in the Premier League, so they can do it all again the next season.

 

[MisterStubbs]

Speaking as a fan from my head, I think we are where the club should be. As many have mentioned, we aren't the biggest club in the league we are currently in but we aren't the smallest either. I think if someone were to rank the 92 football league clubs in size order we'd be in the third tier of that list I'd imagine.

Speaking from my heart though, it's frustrating as I'm sure it is for most fans of league one clubs to see the likes of Burton come from nowhere and become a stable championship club. To think also we were on the same level, if not above the likes of Huddersfield and Swansea also in years gone by but the difference between us and them is that they've had a decent amount of backing by their owners where we simply can not compete with that unfortunately.

All that said, I think we are a club that could bounce between the championship and league one under the right manager and as a fan I'd certainly have no problem with that.. as long as I never have to make the trip away to somewhere like Stanley or Morceombe on a cold Tuesday night I'll be happy.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Winning the Essex Senior Cup. :whistling:

 

[Rob1920]

I would agree. I think where we have been the last couple of seasons is about our natural position in the football pyramid.

Of course there are clubs punching above their weight (Burton, Bournemouth etc), but for every one of those there is a club performing badly (Coventry, Portsmouth etc.)

I think the annoying thing is that given the new stadium and the potential catchment area we have the ability to be a stable Championship club.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Floval Flyer]

If my memory is correct the first game I saw at Roots Hall was during the 1977/78 season, when we were in old the 4th Division. We finished 2nd at the end of that season, behind Watford, and just above Swansea. Both of these teams have enjoyed Premiership football / 1st Division football, as have other teams in that division during that first season as a supporter; Wimbledon, Reading, Barnsley and also Bournemouth and more recently Huddersfield. On this basis you could say we are underachievers ?

I used the think we were on a par with Watford, both on and off the pitch back then, we had a fair few battles with them in the lower leagues back in the day, however Watford then prospered from Elton John’s investment in the mid 70s along with the management of a certain Graham Taylor; who took them way beyond anywhere we could have hoped and have not really looked back.

Clubs like Swansea, Reading and even Wimbledon (Sam Hamman)also benefitted from a rich chairman, something which always seemed to elude us. I wonder whether we could have been on a level with Watford if we had the same investment in the late 70s \ early 80s.? Generationally they (Watford) have built up a good fan base, something we never did, over those last 4 decades.

On the other hand clubs in that same division back in 1978 have faired a lot worse than us; Aldershot, Halifax, Southport, and York City.

We are where we are I guess, I would like to think we are one of the top 5 sides in league 1 currently, and aspire for Championship football. For that to be sustainable we need the new stadium and further investment into the playing staff.

Going back to Watford, am I deluded to think this is where we should be now? They are close to London like us and have a similar catchment, they were drawing 5 or 6k crowds back in the late 70s, and until the Elton investment had mostly been playing in the bottom two divisions??

Think we missed the boat TBH.

 

[Shrimperforlife]

Winning the Essex Senior Cup. :whistling:

well that went well this year then....

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

What you settle for is what you get. If the club and the fans want to be entrenched in the past, we are at the pinnacle of our possibility. Times have changed, the demographic has changed with it, and thus far the club has managed to let it pass them by.

We are not the proverbial chosen ones and I doubt FF is the promised land but certainly a nice, shiny, new stadium, has the potential to lift our status from Championship Wannabee's to Championship Regulars. We may even get the chance of an occasional tilt at the Premiership.

None of this will happen with the current malaise and apathy that besets the club. Poor results and performances are plentiful and yet the number pales into insignificance compared to the list of trite excuses. Many of the fans, some worn down by so many years of supporting and seeing the same thing, have just come to accept we are a little club and how grateful we should be to have no aspiration beyond a top ten place in Lg 1.

We have Brexit (Browns Exit) and the Remoaners (all is as it should be in our sunny corner of the garden.) The Brexiteers are castigated for wanting more and daring to dream. Not settling for what we get. The Remoaners just accept the 'situation' and believe we are doing all we can muster. Which of the two will bring about change? Neither. Until there is a unity and a common goal then the infighting deflects us away from directing our support in any positive and effective way.

So in summary, we are where we are because its as much as we deserve and all we expect. Things could get better but not without change and change is something seldom seen at RH.

Thank you for making the post Eurotopical but the Brexiters are the moaners. I don't see the reasoning for getting rid of the Tango One nor do I view him as the Messiah or Promised One. All is not "sunny in the garden" however it is my garden and as such I won't be bad mouthing it. The moaners generally don't offer anything up as an alternative and as an example I give you the Timlin or indeed Brown positions which get so much flack but very very little of an idea as to who instead should replace them.
If you heard or read a match/season/team/club report from the typical continual moaner would that encourage a potential supporter to get down The Hall?