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I would happily take one year in the championship and then be back fighting relegation to the conference. That would mean that nothing had changed in terms of our normal (fighting relegation to the conference) but that we had had a hell of a lot of fun in between!

Neither do i Matt, but i do think that despite the examples set by Plymouth and Portsmouth, it is possible to achieve stability in the Championship, without breaking the bank. I also believe that when you get to that level, a strange phenomenon occurs, out of the woodwork will crawl a fair few thousand of previously undiscovered supporters, and that number continues to grow. I think the key is, to always ensure financial stability, and first look to consolidate in league 1, then the Championship. Call me deluded, but i am certain that in the even TUFC were to ever reach the premier league we would easily attract 20000 a week, along with the TV money financial stability and survival is possible. However playing at that level brings plenty of other negatives with it.

WestLondonYellow wrote:Call me deluded, but i am certain that in the event TUFC were to ever reach the premier league we would easily attract 20000 a week, along with the TV money financial stability and survival is possible. However playing at that level brings plenty of other negatives with it.

the answer is finance. thats the key to progress.
if you take portsmouth for example, they did have sound financial backing, until they were relegated from the prem.
then they had overpaid, underpeforming players that we just interested in money. look at Kanu, £50k per week anyone in league 1??
there are loads of clubs that have ended up in the financial sh*t and also loads that have fallen out of the league and never destined to return.
even clubs that are seemingly run well, can end up in trouble - eh, barnsley for example. then have the likes of dirty leeds, coventry and now it appears even poor old bury. bury is a strange case, as they did get backing from a lottery winner..........

even the chairman at huddersfield, despite flogging Jordan Rhodes for £8M said that he is owed a lot of money by the club, but will never ask for it.

so, we have to be careful what we wish for - because going up to league one means higher wages etc. and given our history when this has been achieved and we return straight back down, im sure its not the situation that our board would relish as we would be in the situation with league 2 players on league 1 wages.

thats maybe why I like the "stability" of league 2, we all know, if we are being totally honest - that this is our level because of finances and the crowd numbers that we attract.

Gullscorer wrote:

Doesn't seem too outrageous to me. Wigan and Swansea have shown that you don't have to be located in a large city to get 20k through the gates.

An awful lot of glory-hunters must live within an hour's drive of Plainmoor. Dare I say it, a few weaker-willed Plymouth and Exeter fans would start showing up too.

If I lived anywhere near Wigan, I'd be a regular visitor to the DW. Have you seen their season ticket prices, by the way?!

'Oh United! The best team in the land! Oh UNited! You've really got things planned! You've got the skill, you've got the fight & that should see us through! Torquay Division Two!' THink I've got the words right; Dick Edwards' promotion song (sometime between 1970 & 1973) when we were trying to go up out of Division 3 (equivalent of today's League 1 & Div 2 would be today's Championship). The days before TV & silly money came along; & we used to sing about crowds of '20,000 strong' as well!

Cardiff are already 84 million in the red and they haven't kicked a ball in the fat cat league. Give me Torquay United any day. As for Suarez when are fools that run football in this country going to live in the world the majority of us live in. When he did the same at Ajax they instantly banned him themselves for four games. Liverpool failed yet again like aĺl the others before them. Come on you yellows!

taxilady wrote:'Oh United! The best team in the land! Oh UNited! You've really got things planned! You've got the skill, you've got the fight & that should see us through! Torquay Division Two!' THink I've got the words right; Dick Edwards' promotion song (sometime between 1970 & 1973) when we were trying to go up out of Division 3 (equivalent of today's League 1 & Div 2 would be today's Championship). The days before TV & silly money came along; & we used to sing about crowds of '20,000 strong' as well!

Well, maybe not 20k, but certainly as high as 16 - 17k for a Bank Holiday clash against Argyle/Bristol Rovers/Swindon. Exeter didn't feature in them days, they were in their natural home of Division IV.

I saw Dick's old singing partner in Boots before the recent Barnet game. Aye, local hero Bruce Stuckey.

Remember the chant from the Popside when fast as f^ck got the ball in front of it ?


" BRUCE ! BRUCE ! BRUCE ! "

Kernowgull wrote:I would happily take one year in the championship and then be back fighting relegation to the conference. That would mean that nothing had changed in terms of our normal (fighting relegation to the conference) but that we had had a hell of a lot of fun in between!

Madness for so many reasons. Chief among which is that fighting relegation isn't our normal position. We've been relegated to the non-league ONCE in over 100 years (and that was the fault of one man, not the club in general). That is not a trait of a team fighting relegation. I'm also not convinced how much fun it would really be, watching a bunch of flash Harries on £20,000/week swanning about with their man-bags and £500 haircuts and God-awful Khan modified Range Rover Sports. Nah, I prefer where we are now, a nice small club with a nice small band of loyal and (partially) knowledgeable supporters who actually get to games, rather than commenting on this and that with no more information that that which was reported on the 7th page of the Daily Mirror weekend round-up.

Matt.

harbertongull wrote:Cardiff are already 84 million in the red and they haven't kicked a ball in the fat cat league. Give me Torquay United any day. As for Suarez when are fools that run football in this country going to live in the world the majority of us live in. When he did the same at Ajax they instantly banned him themselves for four games. Liverpool failed yet again like aĺl the others before them. Come on you yellows!

They've fined him too. Since the PFA impose a maximum fine of 2 weeks wages for any offence, this means they've fined him, what, £500,000? He earns £13,000,000/year, it hardly seems to matter. Liverpool, like Man City, are spineless *****. At least Ferguson has the bottle to sack anyone who gets too big for their boots. Beckham was booted (literally), as was Diego Forlan (who, I believe, was actually sacked in the dressing room after a game).

Not that I don't believe you, but from where did you get the Cardiff figure?

Matt.

Mod Edit: Removed foul language (Nick)

Quote from one of the Cardiff fans on their forum in response to the question of how much debt they're in : ''d guess we now owe Tan over £65m and Langston £24m so total debt probably close to £100m

I'd expect us to make a profit next year as long as we don't spend more than £25m in the transfer market and don't spend any money on new training ground (£10m in Tans plan) and stadium expansion (£12m in Tans plan).

If we stick to this I'd expect our debt situation to get no worse next season. It could potentially get a lot better if Langston gets sorted for less than £24m and Tan starts converting some debt to equity but I don't hold out too much hope for movement on this.' WOW!!!!!!!

Matt Ferrarilover. I got that 84 million figure from radio 5 live. As media go a reasonable source!

Matt, I have been supporting Torquay since 1991. In thqt time we have been in a relegation fight to avoid the conference in 1993, 1994, 1996 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2013. I suggest that could reasonably considered spending a lot of time fighting relegation from league two.

Kernowgull wrote:Matt, I have been supporting Torquay since 1991. In thqt time we have been in a relegation fight to avoid the conference in 1993, 1994, 1996 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2013. I suggest that could reasonably considered spending a lot of time fighting relegation from league two.

1990 - 2007, the Bateson years...

Kernowgull wrote:Matt, I have been supporting Torquay since 1991. In thqt time we have been in a relegation fight to avoid the conference in 1993, 1994, 1996 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2013. I suggest that could reasonably considered spending a lot of time fighting relegation from league two.

You can add at least another 3 or 4 from the 80's as well to that lot Cornish (including finishing bottom 2 seasons running)