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Post by 61666 on Feb 28, 2019 9:02:45 GMT
The Solihull thread has gone off piste and recent comments need a different heading. What a fickle bunch supporters are! The idea that we can somehow find new owners is astonishing and those who think so need to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. Maidstone is not a football town in the traditional sense, nor is it going to be one of the new breed any time soon. Look at the neighbours over the hill - after 100 years second/third tier is the best they can manage, often lower. Maidstone is a non-league club, in a non league town and should live within its means, for obvious reasons. If that means we don't get league status any time soon, so what? Ambition is one thing, but if/when we do go up, would the football be any better? Would the experience be any better? One thing for certain is that costs to go to a game rise with each promotion and in certain clubs, no certainty of getting in because ground capacity is limited At the end of the day, only a handful of clubs get promoted each season and a similar number go down. That is our fate this season and I increasingly find myself welcoming it. There is every reason to believe the football will be better next season, not least because there is nobody special in the NLS at the moment, which makes losing all the time even harder to take. Winning most games at home is what the average fan wants for their gate money. A cup run to spice things up is nice, but promotion form actually can bring more problems than it is worth. NLS may well be our level at the moment. And for the next few years. We may go back up, but based on the last two seasons at least, I can't help thinking that we did ourselves no favours at all in that play off final and the club would be in a better place if promotion had come later.
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Post by Better things to do in life on Feb 28, 2019 9:13:36 GMT
Good post. Only thing I would say is the way this town is growing with all the housing developments we could sustain an EFL League two club but you are right - for now we are non league and NLS and should go back to semipro and prepare better for the future potential of NL and pro players. We did go up too early but winning promotion at Ebbsfleet will remain one of my top ever games - we werent to know then that we could adapt quickly enough for NL. We don’t need new owners we don’t need new management and we won’t stay up but we do need to see signs of rebuilding and some better football.
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Post by toonarmy on Feb 28, 2019 9:46:58 GMT
I don't believe any rationale fan is expecting league football, I enjoy non league football and have fully embraced it, all I ask for is a team who give it a go, is it too much to ask?
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Post by pwoodstone on Feb 28, 2019 10:06:42 GMT
It’s one bad season. Give the club the chance to get it right.
In retrospect the timing of Jays departure was clearly an error - compounded by the HW appointment.
Ironically, I think the team Jay had, plus Powell, Robinson and Cassidy, would have been comfortably mid-table.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 10:49:09 GMT
Yep looking forward to next season - in JS2 we trust...
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Post by nws on Feb 28, 2019 12:57:34 GMT
I don't believe any rationale fan is expecting league football, I enjoy non league football and have fully embraced it, all I ask for is a team who give it a go, is it too much to ask? I've quite enjoyed your posts of exasperation as each game has brought a new low. I agree with you. I don't really worry if we don't win every game or are challenging for promotion etc etc. I just go to each game hoping that we will be competitive and have a chance of winning it or getting a decent draw. At present we look like a side that will get torn apart in every game. We were debating, on Tuesday, whether we would get 30 points this season. I won't see the Solihull game live or on telly. I just hope we have a real go even if we lose. If what I have seen the last two games is it for the season then y trip to Eastleight is going to be purely to add to my ground list.
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Post by stonelacro on Feb 28, 2019 14:15:02 GMT
I don't believe any rationale fan is expecting league football, I enjoy non league football and have fully embraced it, all I ask for is a team who give it a go, is it too much to ask? Yep not sure we are even a top non league side! Feel we were lucky in having a good manager and set of players to hit above our weight for a few seasons, but think it was a flash in the pan and we will soon be playing back at our true Ryman level. and not bothered by that, those games were always competitive and our little run has been exciting while it lasted!
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Post by jdl on Feb 28, 2019 15:00:18 GMT
I think we are one of the top non-league sides still, and with every chance of staying that way. But the problem is that league/non-league football has realigned - leaving us with a mismatch between history/expectation and reality. The NL isn't the old Conference of the 80s and 90s.
With the creation of the PL and the amount of money that now comes into football via TV, football itself is very different to how it was then - more money, much higher expectations - sophisticated entertainment, rather than just supporting your local side. And, with 30 years of automatic promotion/relegation between the top of non-league and the EFL, the Conference/NL has morphed into a sort of buffer zone between non-league football and the EFL. It's a place for failed EFL clubs to recover, and for 'non-league' clubs with money to try their luck. It is no longer really the top non-league division.
The top of non-league, in the traditional sense (semi-pro, local players, no segregation, etc) is now the NN/NS. Clubs that do well at that level get a chance to prove themselves in the NL, but those without plenty of money behind them, come back down a season or two later. With it's national reach, it's full-time sides, ex-League journeyman players, regular TV, etc, the NL effectively operates as L3. Come on in and try 'League' football if you think you're good enough, but, if you haven't got the dosh, don't expect to be here too long.
And the NL is now very much stratified like the PL is - with a few clubs at the top who can reasonably expect to win the league or finish in one of the top 6 or 7 places, and then a 'second division' of clubs who have managed to get into the league, but who (mostly) won't be there for more than a few seasons.
Back in the 80s/90s, a Conference side with a decent set-up, healthy gates and a good manager, could reasonably expect to get to be champions and even do well in the League. These days, you need all that, AND money - and a lot of it.
So, as a top non-league side, we are where we are - NL for a few seasons, NS for a couple, back up again, back down again. Unlike many in our position, we do have the potential to do better because we can attract decent gates and there is a football vacuum in this area (otherwise known as Gillingham), so I see no reason why we shouldn't develop into a top NL side and then move upwards (and survive) - in time. But it will take time. And, personally, I'd rather wait and enjoy the football in the process than take the outside 'investor' approach. We all know where that leads.
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Post by jdl on Feb 28, 2019 15:05:20 GMT
Still pretty pissed off at the moment though!
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Post by 61666 on Feb 28, 2019 15:35:31 GMT
Good posts, long and short.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 15:53:14 GMT
Good posts, long and short. Yup, that's how you get to 10,000+ posts - post twice when one is more than enough A look at the top halves of NN and NS bear JDL out though, lots of sides who've been up there briefly before. We're on a par with Braintree, Woking, Altrincham, (whisper it) Dartford, Southport in that yo-yo area. And that's actually being optimistic and assuming we do well next year.
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Post by jdl on Feb 28, 2019 19:22:58 GMT
Good posts, long and short. Yup, that's how you get to 10,000+ posts - post twice when one is more than enough A look at the top halves of NN and NS bear JDL out though, lots of sides who've been up there briefly before. We're on a par with Braintree, Woking, Altrincham, (whisper it) Dartford, Southport in that yo-yo area. And that's actually being optimistic and assuming we do well next year. Actually, how you do it is try to beat nws! But I failed. Even with double posting, I can't catch up with him!
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Post by sword65 on Feb 28, 2019 19:39:05 GMT
We do not need new owners. We do not need new managers. What we need are players who play to the level that they are being paid to play at. I,along with most of you ,have no real idea how much we are paying these players. Maybe that is the problem ,we are not paying them enough to bother but then why come here in the first place, so no I don't think that is it. They are just, and I don't like the word, mercenaries who just don't care . As for the thought of getting new owners well that is a bit Wacko Jakko. I don't agree with all their decisions and let's face it they have royally fucked up this year but nobody and I mean nobody gets things right all of the time. They have done wonders to get us this far and it will probably take another investor, to join them not replace them, if the club is to go up to the next level. I have already stated that I do not wish to go to the EFL as I will be financially unable to watch the club I love. Relegation to NLS ,for me , will be better as I may be able to go to a few away games whereas the 300 mile journeys up the country are well beyond my finances. I know there will be 2000 or so who disagree with me but for once in my life I feel like being selfish ,why should I not be able to watch the club that I have supported for 47 years just to keep you lot who couldn't be f**king bothered up until 2012 and will probably disappear for the next few years until we rise up again ,if we rise up again. We as a club are doing OK I just wish that I hadn't gone on Tuesday then I would not of been so upset as I am now.
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Post by jdl on Feb 28, 2019 20:03:53 GMT
Another mismatch between perception and reality - although T&O are 'the owners', what they really are are fans who bought the club.
In football, we're so used to thinking of 'owners' as 'them', not us, and expecting them to shaft us at any moment, that we tend to slip into that way of thinking with T&O - but, in our case, it's completely wrong. They bought the club and 'invested' a fortune in it because they wanted MUFC to survive and succeed.
They didn't do it because they wanted thanks, or to make money, or to sell out and build houses at the first opportunity. It wasn't a vanity project, they didn't spray paint the changing rooms or make endless self-promoting videos, and they aren't some foreign businessman with more money than sense, who's been conned into buying a club they've never heard of. They are 'just' fans who happened to have the money to save the club, and decided to take the chance.
One bad season, and some on here seem to have forgotten all that. They are not 'them', they are us. And thank God they are.
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Post by Bernie on Feb 28, 2019 20:48:04 GMT
The kind of people who bankroll non league clubs would have owned and underachieved at Football League clubs in the past. They've been outspent by foreign owners, so buy the likes of Fylde and Forest Green. Can't really blame Oliver and Terry for not trying to match their inflated budgets. I wouldn't if it was my money.
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