The Lower League Thread

A decent piece on the Secret Footballer's website today about you lot and your fans' trust's attempted takeover.

This one?

If so, yes, well worth a read! Unfortunately the amount of money it would take to remove these limpets from the club is just not worth it for many; except to a fan of the club...and I don't know any multi-millionaire Blackpool fans

We have something similar on-going. http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/latest-whites-news/leeds-united-supporter-investment-fans-group-set-to-start-taking-donations-1-7190011

I think something like £300k has been raised so far and the wealthy fans are waiting for a certain amount to be raised or something before invested, I can''t really remember. Highly unlikely with Cellino in charge though, I'm sure he would prefer full control over the club.

Right folks: predictions for the season.

Promoted: Middlesbrough, Burnley
Play-offs: Derby, Wolves, Ipswich, Bristol City
Relegated: Blackburn, Rotherham, MK Dons

Town to finish 15th. If we were a bit tighter at the back, I'd go a bit higher. Leeds to get off to a good start, lose three in a row in late September, sack Rosler, enter administration by March and give everyone a laugh. Wednesday to be the most boring side on the planet again (which they will continue to be until they sign a striker who isn't a clogger) and finish 13th. Hull to miss out on the play-offs for exactly the same reason. Fulham will only just fail to get relegated. Last season's surprise package Brentford to suffer a major slump and finish lower mid-table. Charlton to spend most of the season in the play-offs but drop off at the last.

The above is all highly unlikely, but good fun to think of the permutations before a ball's been kicked.

We've been impressive in pre season. Played two Championship sides in Blackburn and Preston recently. Drew 1-1 with Rovers and won 3-2 against PNE coming back from being 1-2 down. Leon Clarke has been sharp and even Tom Pope looked good in the games I've seen him play. The new goalie we brought in looks very good aswell, very good at commanding the box, has good reflexes and looks a good keeper for his age. Plenty of question marks regarding the defence though. As it stands we only have two match fit defenders in Peter Clarke and Nathan Cameron right now and that's about it. Keil O'Brien is still carrying around an injury from last season and apart from that we're a bit light there. We had Reece Brown (former Man United and Barnsley) on trial but doesn't look like he'll sign although Flitcroft said we're trying to bring in numbers.

However, I'm looking forward to the new season, I really do. I don't think we're going to set the league alight but I don't think we're going to be some sort of cannon fodder either so very exiting times ahead.

I went to the Bury v Rovers friendly actually, forgot to mention on here. Sat in the main stand because I sat in the away end for the friendly last summer (also 1-1, incidentally) and could barely see a thing!

I really don't care how we do this season. I just want rid of the Oystons. Even if it is a negative score in the points scored and another relegation.

Classic

Tbf I've never been to the main stand for a game but heard this one several times. Some things do never change...

Drew 1-1 at Doncaster in a game we should have won. Hit the post twice, Stuckmann made terrific saves, Doncaster got nothing on target. A bizarre ending to say the least. Fair play to Donny though to allow us getting the equalizer.

Deserved a bit better than a 2-0 defeat to Hull. Both goals came from sloppy defending but also bad luck - on both occasions ricochets just dropped to their players when they could have gone anywhere. We needed a bit more adventure at times, but looked good when we did get the ball down and we were certainly miles better than they were in the second half, just lacked a goal.

Useless stat of the day: this is the tenth season I've seen at this level. We've scored on just two of them, and won only one (2-0 v Charlton, 1996).

The new football league highlights show on Channel 5 fucking sucks.

Watching it on catchup now and I have to agree it's bloody awful. Only Channel five could make a footy highlights show so bad.

It's a shame the BBC don't have the FLS anymore. Can almost guarantee the LC highlights will suck as well.

I like it. I've long said the football needs to FEEL like a Big Brother eviction night.

On the bright said that female presenter looked like the first girl the crowd had ever spoke to, so that's a positive. You used to have to build a robot to talk to a girl.

1-1 against Burnley. Gutting that they scored so late thought we would nick it after a top goal from Mirco. Mowatt was too deep, not sure why he wasn't buzzing around Wood. Wood needs more games to get match fit and he should of dinked it over the keeper instead of blasting it.

Think the three to go up will be Hull, Boro and Burnley. Three to go down Huddersfield, Rotherham and Bristol City

Aye that Channel 5 show was crap. I don't think I hate it as much as others do, but showing the games in a majorly jumbled order is a pretty unforgivable sin. I also hate the look of the programme - the set looks poor and the actual graphics look like they were done on the cheap.

Sort of has that late-90s Channel 4 weird Euro show feel to it.

Just won four tickets to Yeovil vs Bristol Rovers tomorrow!

Sounds like we've finally bid for O'Sullivan. Blackburn have Jobi McAnuff on trial too? 2+2=5?

Holgate has finally f*cked off so we've got some transfer funds. Expect us to bring in a striker, a winger, or two, plus a full-back.

Not rate Holgate?

I'd like to think he's just happy this transfer saga ended et all. Quite a good fee for Barnsley aswell

He's a very good player. Looked so cool and composed despite only playing 20-odd games. He's not quite John Stones, but I think he'll make it.

I'm more relieved, like gfnx25 says, because it's finally come to an end. He's apparently turned down moves to Bournemouth and Aston Villa, and had a two week trial at Man Utd. Rumours this week were that his agent was saying he'd not sign a new deal and move abroad at the end of the season for free. We ended up with a decent price, rumoured to be worth £2m, which means we can strengthen. Funny thing is, the lad actually regarded as our best talent since John Stones, who turned down Man Utd, is still here. No doubt he'll have a good season and move to Everton..

If we sign a 33 year-old who ended the season on Leyton Orient's bench and sell O'Sullivan.....then there'll be even more unhappy people. I can't see us signing him to be honest, but O'Sullivan could still leave.

I've come to the conclusion that we (Yeovil Town) are shit! Its only taken me two seasons and back to back relegations, and todays poor performance against Rovers to realise!

We weren't great, but we really should have beaten Blackburn. But we conceded a sloppy goal to literally their only shot of the entire game and never looked like regaining the lead.

More worrying is the probability of Alex Smithies going to QPR. Not in the team today, bid officially lodged, and sounds like Powell's planning for life without him without bringing in a direct replacement. That Bentley from Southend would be ideal, but more likely is that we stick with what we have and risk Murphy's dodgy foot flaring up again.

Drew 2-2. Threw away a 2-0 lead and missed a pen but let's not go there for once Just one of them days and we'll be back. Soon.

Plenty of rumours going around that he was at our game today.

Shame Smithies is going to QPR... every time he is in the net against us he's shit.

Boring 0-0 against Reading. Defensively we have massively improved under Uwe just need to get firing now..

Looks as if Byrne at Swindon is off to Burnley. Would of liked him here considering the fee is so small

Bristol City have £9m bid for Andre Gray accepted by Brentford.

Football really has gone bananas. Gray is a good player, no one could doubt that. But how can a newly-promoted club justify spending that on him? How could any club in this division justify it? In the same window we've seen Stewart Downing move for £5m (rising to £7m), a mooted £14m transfer for Jordan Rhodes, and Tom Ince move for almost £5m. Last year we saw Ross McCormack move for £11m. This is the second tier of English football. And although there are some big clubs in this division, the amount of money is still utterly obscene.

I enjoy football at this level. It really is a cut above League One. I remember when we played our first home game against Nottingham Forest and thinking that this was something else - Forest should have hammered us that night, but we ended up scraping a draw. After years of being flat-track bullies in League One ("big-spending Huddersfield," to quote Steve Claridge) the quality and the challenge of the Championship was refreshing. But I can't help but feel alienated by the amount of money being thrown around. This isn't the game I grew up with.

This isn't a complaint about how all this money being spent makes it so much harder - Fulham spent more than anyone else in this division last season and still finished below us, proving that it isn't how much you spend that matters but how you spend it, and Burnley got up on free transfers and scrupulous spending in the right places. It is a complaint that as a football fan I find it hard to identify with the modern game. Things like Bristol City - a mid-sized club like Town with no added financial bonuses from Premier League failure - bidding £6m for Dwight Gayle and £9m for Andre Gray are the sort of things that take the clubs away from the fans.

The 6 years of First Division football I watched between 1995 and 2001 are still a high point in my time watching football. I might be looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but it seemed like the clubs themselves connected to fans so much more. The players out there might have had a reasonable fee paid for them (£200k was a common one, I seem to remember), but even that kind of money was something fans could relate to. Players still lived in and among the fans (I remember Marcus Stewart living in Dewsbury). Clubs weren't owned by foreign conglomerates or city yuppie types, but by local businessmen made good.

Football won't go back to how it was, which is a shame in some ways. Clubs used to want old First Division status because it was the top division and it was a chance to play the biggest clubs in the country, but now it all seems to be financial. The desire for riches seems to trump providing a good afternoon's entertainment for the local public. Looking up a level, the Europa League is shunned because it doesn't bring riches with it and is blamed for all sorts of ills, whilst the Champions League - which is just as demanding on a team's schedule - is the holy grail because of the millions in TV money. It's ridiculous.

£9 million!!! Absolutely insane, for a bog average striker. Modern football is shit.