Salford already

[RedDwarf 1881]

Lets remember where we have come from and that a solid mid table finish might be whats in order, as opposed to yoyo-ing up and down leagues - runnung before we can walk- Some consolidation before we push on again.

Salford are doing it their way, lets do it ours! UP the O's

Personally, I don't care if Salford win promotion next season or not . I'd be happy with consolidation and a comfortable mid table finish .Anything else would be a bonus . The season after next we can try a push on again higher.

[Article_50]

"Personally, I don't care if Salford win promotion next season or not . I'd be happy with consolidation and a comfortable mid table finish .Anything else would be a bonus . The season after next we can try a push on again higher" Red Dwarf 1881

Agreed.

[Esteban]

Only cared about Salford when they were a serious threat to us regaining league status.

Now we’re there I couldn’t give less of a t*ss about them.

For what it’s worth I still think that my original prediction about them will come true. They will end up in league 1 in a couple of years and then plateau. They’ll hang around in that division for a good while until the owners get bored and realise that buying your way to the championship and beyond is a LOT harder than buying your way from pub leagues to the football league.

[RedDwarf 1881]

Only cared about Salford when they were a serious threat to us regaining league status.

Now we’re there I couldn’t give less of a t*ss about them.

For what it’s worth I still think that my original prediction about them will come true. They will end up in league 1 in a couple of years and then plateau. They’ll hang around in that division for a good while until the owners get bored and realise that buying your way to the championship and beyond is a LOT harder than buying your way from pub leagues to the football league.

Yes, that's the main point. Last season they were our main rivals for automatic promotion but this season their just another club.

[Thor]

Only cared about Salford when they were a serious threat to us regaining league status.

Now we’re there I couldn’t give less of a t*ss about them.

For what it’s worth I still think that my original prediction about them will come true. They will end up in league 1 in a couple of years and then plateau. They’ll hang around in that division for a good while until the owners get bored and realise that buying your way to the championship and beyond is a LOT harder than buying your way from pub leagues to the football league.

Doubt it, they’ve got bucks and big bucks at that. I think long term it’s a statement of intent.

[ComeOnYouOs]

Salford will buy their way into the Championship. Whatever it takes, they will do, and however much it costs they will spend

[Lucky7]

Salford will buy their way into the Championship. Whatever it takes, they will do, and however much it costs they will spend

Thanks for the insight I wasn’t sure what Salford’s aim was

[Esteban]

Salford will buy their way into the Championship. Whatever it takes, they will do, and however much it costs they will spend

I honestly don’t think they will.

Why would Championship level players want to play in front of 3000 fans at Salford? You’d have to offer them ridiculous wages to get them to play there.

It’s one thing to hire League 1 players and pay them a league 1 salary in the conference to get into the football league.

Hiring Championship standard players to go from L1 to Championship is a vastly different (and more expensive prospect). Salford will need a premier league level payroll to get from L1 to Championship. And that just isn’t sustainable, even for the class of 92 saints.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

Who even is this bloke?

I’ve no doubt he’s better than L2 standard but looking at him on soccerbase, there’s nothing to get too excited about.

We’ve already got at least 4 players who are too good for L2, don’t panic!

[Howling Mad Murdock]

I must apologise.I got caught up in all the hype.

[Stowaway]

I can see Salford and, to a lesser extent Flynde, doing a Rushden & Diamonds. When they do stall the crowds will tail off, the interest will dry up and so will the money. I can see Flynde going tits up in the next 5 or 6 years, maybe 10. Salford will just stall and end up like Stockport or Rochdale but with less fans.

[Esteban]

I can see Salford and, to a lesser extent Flynde, doing a Rushden & Diamonds. When they do stall the crowds will tail off, the interest will dry up and so will the money. I can see Flynde going tits up in the next 5 or 6 years, maybe 10. Salford will just stall and end up like Stockport or Rochdale but with less fans.

Exactly this.

Give it a couple of seasons slogging it out in league 1 and the crowds will soon dwindle.

[ComeOnYouOs]

I can see Salford and, to a lesser extent Flynde, doing a Rushden & Diamonds. When they do stall the crowds will tail off, the interest will dry up and so will the money. I can see Flynde going tits up in the next 5 or 6 years, maybe 10. Salford will just stall and end up like Stockport or Rochdale but with less fans.

I can't see that. They are owned by 6 ex Man U millionaires and a Singaporean billionaire (he owns Valencia) too.
They will go on and on till the Championship, doing wherever is needed.
I wouldn't even bet against them getting in the Premier League within 10 years.

[Smendrick Feaselberg]

I can see Salford and, to a lesser extent Flynde, doing a Rushden & Diamonds. When they do stall the crowds will tail off, the interest will dry up and so will the money. I can see Flynde going tits up in the next 5 or 6 years, maybe 10. Salford will just stall and end up like Stockport or Rochdale but with less fans.

I can't see that. They are owned by 6 ex Man U millionaires and a Singaporean billionaire (he owns Valencia) too.
They will go on and on till the Championship, doing wherever is needed.
I wouldn't even bet against them getting in the Premier League within 10 years.

Did you read the post a couple above this, or are you too stubborn to ever understand a different point of view?

[Max B Gold]

I can see Salford and, to a lesser extent Flynde, doing a Rushden & Diamonds. When they do stall the crowds will tail off, the interest will dry up and so will the money. I can see Flynde going tits up in the next 5 or 6 years, maybe 10. Salford will just stall and end up like Stockport or Rochdale but with less fans.

Exactly this.

Give it a couple of seasons slogging it out in league 1 and the crowds will soon dwindle.

What crowds?

This is a Brooks Mileson at Gretna fisasco waiting to happen all over again. The FA and EFL are mesmorised by money and the need for success stories. This isn't one of them.

[Esteban]

I can see Salford and, to a lesser extent Flynde, doing a Rushden & Diamonds. When they do stall the crowds will tail off, the interest will dry up and so will the money. I can see Flynde going tits up in the next 5 or 6 years, maybe 10. Salford will just stall and end up like Stockport or Rochdale but with less fans.

Exactly this.

Give it a couple of seasons slogging it out in league 1 and the crowds will soon dwindle.

What crowds?

This is a Brooks Mileson at Gretna fisasco waiting to happen all over again. The FA and EFL are mesmorised by money and the need for success stories. This isn't one of them.

agreed.

I’ve said this over and over, just because you pump money into a pub team and get them into the football league, that doesn’t mean that you can keep doing the same thing all the way to the Premiership.

League 1 seems to be the sticking point for these non-league vanity projects. I suspect because it’s really difficult to entice championship level players to come play in front of 3000 people. The only exception I can think of is Burton Albion, who made it to the championship but I don’t really know enough about them to comment fully.

I suppose that old Wimbledon were similar but that was before my time.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

How many non league vanity projects have there been?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - given how high profile the owners of Salford are, they are a lot more secure than we are. There is far more risk of our investors having enough and doing one than there is of their lot.

[Smendrick Feaselberg]

How many non league vanity projects have there been?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - given how high profile the owners of Salford are, they are a lot more secure than we are. There is far more risk of our investors having enough and doing one than there is of their lot.

Why do you say that given that Travis is minted and a lifelong fan?

[eagwgw]

Most football clubs are vanity projects. There seems to be three stages of them: 1) the honeymoon stage where losses are fine and the owners believe that they can achieve their dreams, 2) the realisation stage that it might not occur, where the money starts to dry up and clubs are tried to run within their means, and 3) the capitulation stage, where owners don't care about their initial dreams and want to limit their liabilities. Look at the make up of the division and you can easily categorise a lot of the clubs.

I don't really see any relevance to the non-league part. I certainly feel that this one for Teague. He is a business turnaround man, after all. It is amusing that other owners can come under some harsh scrutiny, yet Kent drawls out 'I fell in love with Leyton' and people lose all their brain cells and take his word for it and that indeed Leyton is the best place in the world.

It also makes me chuckle a bit at people who are saying that League One would be their limit without some kind of real heavy investment. Isn't that exactly the same case as us? The kind of mix of players, manager, and fortune with injuries we had in 2013-2014 which allows a small club to beat clubs with budgets many times their size doesn't come about that much. Not many teams with 5,000 average attendances have gotten promoted to the Championship.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

How many non league vanity projects have there been?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - given how high profile the owners of Salford are, they are a lot more secure than we are. There is far more risk of our investors having enough and doing one than there is of their lot.

Why do you say that given that Travis is minted and a lifelong fan?

1 He’s only a 50% shareholder. For whatever reasons, he brought in someone else to share the burden.

2 He’s not exactly young.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

We talk of vanity projects at Salford and others but we too are a vanity project with Teague, though not Travis. It takes more than being just averagely wealthy to sustain a football club and I wonder if Travis falls into that category. There is a risk that in time Teague will get bored of shelling out money. Maybe not for a while, whilst enjoying progress, but for the long slog.

[Stowaway]

Football at every level is littered with vanity projects. Most have failed, and the only ones that have succeeded have been at or near the top end and have involved established clubs, the most recent being Leicester City. AFC Bournemouth are another example but they have the huge advantage of being in the Premiership, where having a ground that only holds 10,000 doesn’t matter because the sponsorship money is insanely high. Most of the Premiership clubs today are owned by investment groups or stupidly wealthy individuals whose money has come from oil or gas, mostly ill-gotten. Those people aren’t really going to interested in anything below the top level clubs, so the rest have to find their own way.

At the next level you can look at Leeds and particularly Portsmouth as examples of going for broke, and ending up just going broke instead. An exception is Burton, who must be spectacularly well-run and budgeted. At the other end of the scale are Forest Green, who have a wealthy backer and who are a prime example of one man’s vanity project - coming out of nowhere, with no roots, history or foundations, in an area where there has previously been nothing and throwing cash at it. These projects are just castles built on sand, and invariably fail.

Below that, non-league is awash with failed vanity projects. Rushden, Colne, Billericay, Sittingbourne, Gravesend and Northfleet, and that’s just off the top of my head. The list is huge. Remember the kerfuffle when disillusioned Man Utd fans set up FC United of Manchester? They had a lot of support and media interest but even that hasn’t stopped then stalling at the NLN with dwindling crowds.
I live in south London these days, and my local non-league outfit is Dulwich Hamlet. They’ve been around for well over 100 years, have had some tough times of late because having your own ground in an area like Dulwich means you’re a prime target for scalpers, but they’ve got over that so far, have been a real community club and attract crowds of around 3,000 in the NLS. That’s because they have a history and a heritage and in football, that means a lot. I’ve already mention Fylde, but they’re the complete opposite of Dulwich. As I said, I give them 5 or 6 years, because without their wealthy backer they’re totally unsustainable because they have no roots, and when he gets bored/dies, they’re screwed. See also Rushden, Gretna.

[Esteban]

Football at every level is littered with vanity projects. Most have failed, and the only ones that have succeeded have been at or near the top end and have involved established clubs, the most recent being Leicester City. AFC Bournemouth are another example but they have the huge advantage of being in the Premiership, where having a ground that only holds 10,000 doesn’t matter because the sponsorship money is insanely high. Most of the Premiership clubs today are owned by investment groups or stupidly wealthy individuals whose money has come from oil or gas, mostly ill-gotten. Those people aren’t really going to interested in anything below the top level clubs, so the rest have to find their own way.

At the next level you can look at Leeds and particularly Portsmouth as examples of going for broke, and ending up just going broke instead. An exception is Burton, who must be spectacularly well-run and budgeted. At the other end of the scale are Forest Green, who have a wealthy backer and who are a prime example of one man’s vanity project - coming out of nowhere, with no roots, history or foundations, in an area where there has previously been nothing and throwing cash at it. These projects are just castles built on sand, and invariably fail.

Below that, non-league is awash with failed vanity projects. Rushden, Colne, Billericay, Sittingbourne, Gravesend and Northfleet, and that’s just off the top of my head. The list is huge. Remember the kerfuffle when disillusioned Man Utd fans set up FC United of Manchester? They had a lot of support and media interest but even that hasn’t stopped then stalling at the NLN with dwindling crowds.
I live in south London these days, and my local non-league outfit is Dulwich Hamlet. They’ve been around for well over 100 years, have had some tough times of late because having your own ground in an area like Dulwich means you’re a prime target for scalpers, but they’ve got over that so far, have been a real community club and attract crowds of around 3,000 in the NLS. That’s because they have a history and a heritage and in football, that means a lot. I’ve already mention Fylde, but they’re the complete opposite of Dulwich. As I said, I give them 5 or 6 years, because without their wealthy backer they’re totally unsustainable because they have no roots, and when he gets bored/dies, they’re screwed. See also Rushden, Gretna.

What an excellent post! Especially like your point about Dulwich having a community and history hence why they are different and ultimately more sustainable. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to make this point every time somebody wheels out the “we have wealthy owners too so we’re no different to Salford” argument.

Whilst Salford may have a higher chance of being in the championship than Orient in 10 years time, I’d argue that Orient have a higher chance of actually still existing in 15 years time.

Money can build a squad, a stadium and hire a graphic artist to redesign your logos. It can’t buy an established fan base and community. That takes decades.

[Howling Mad Murdock]

Yup I agree.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Spending big. How much? Released by BHA so presumably on a free. Last season played for a relegated club. Looks a decent enough signing but hardly startling.

I still wouldn't bet against them finishing at least in the play off places next season . It remains to be seen what quality of players we end up signing.

Tbh Red I can’t get too excited over other teams. Passing interest for sure. But there seems to be trends. Player signs for another team is generally portrayed as a great signing showing ambition. Yet our signings are often criticised as mediocre and not the calibre we should be after. But the truth, we are Champions so must be doing something right.

As for this season. I’d be happy with a comfortable season, maybe edging the play offs. Good luck to the others pushing for promotion. With our roller coaster past years I can cope with a largely uneventful season as we continue to build for the future.