Pre Season 2015

[Scott Brehaut]

True, but it's a southern shithole, which makes it a lot better than a northern one....

[eastmoorgull]

I hope that's in jest; we'll be at Footes Lane on the 16th August - love the Island to bits, 25th year of visits !

[madgull]

Lay off the personal abuse.

It says a lot about somebody when they have to resort to abusing somebody in order to get their point of view across.

Because a board member straight out calling someone stupid is bad, but an admin passive-aggressively implying that somebody is a [insert word for not a very nice person] is fine. I love the internet. Not that I necessarily disagree with the sentiment. :devil:

Anyway, I don't think the idea really has merit, I'd rather we try and get a few big teams down to Plainmoor, I remember Arjan Van Heusden falling victim to a vicious cross-shot from a Pompey player a few years ago back when they were famous.

[ferrarilover]

Good or bad idea, you are entitled to your opinion, but Pea's / Matt's vitriol / personal abuse towards Dexter is uncalled-for nonsense:

"A staggeringly stupid idea from start to finish. Quite simply the most baffling post on the entire internet. Stay off the sauce, or resist the temptation to post when pissed.", "f**king insanity, to even consider it should be enough to see you sectioned."

Disgraceful.

The idea is stupid, no personal abuse here. If you think that suggesting someone should be sectioned is A) disgraceful or B) anything other than an obviously exaggerated expression of disagreement with the sentiment of an idea, then the internet really isn't the place for you.

Matt.

[tomogull]

The idea is stupid, no personal abuse here. If you think that suggesting someone should be sectioned is A) disgraceful or B) anything other than an obviously exaggerated expression of disagreement with the sentiment of an idea, then the internet really isn't the place for you. Matt.

Wrong Matt. Hiding on the Internet is no excuse for posting abuse such as (quote) 'it should be enough to see you sectioned'. You should only post what you would be prepared to say to a person face-to-face. As Dexter is 6ft 8 ins and has a black belt in judo, I somehow don't think you would tell him he was insane ......
P.S. Oh, by the way - check your maths on your original post - it's not 'over ten grand already ....'

[happytorq]

But in that 23 years, things have changed so much that big clubs just tend to play other big clubs, mostly, and send an XI made up youht team players to play teams like us - if we are lucky!

THe big clubs will go where they can "market their brand" which these days means the US or the Far East - they can get huge crowds, make money, and probably create a few more 'fans' while they're at it. Most big teams don't rely on the domestic market anywhere near as much as they use.

e.g. in the US right now, these are the European teams playing/touring
Arsenal
Liverpool
Man City
Man Utd
Olympiakos
Real Madrid
AC Milan (who've been crap, actually)
Tottenham
Roma
Inter Milan
Fulham
Crystal Palace
Aston Villa
oh, and Bayern Munich

In times past these teams would happily come down to Plainmoor, or other lower division clubs, but the fact is that we don't have the facilities they're looking for, we won't get the crowds, and we don't have the new market for them. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a Premiership team in pre-season for a very long time.

With that said - why do we need them? the purpose of pre-season is to prepare our players for the coming campaign. Playing Liverpool and most likely getting hammered easily is not constructive. it makes sense to play teams either a bit below our 'level' (to improve fitness and hopefully increase confidence) or a bit a bit above (more confidence building if it goes well - a more reliable test for e.g. FA Cup. Almost said League Cup here but..yeah )

The only thing a big team coming to Plainmoor would accomplish would be a big crowd. Now, granted, that would be helpful in some respects but you'd have to charge more to properly benefit and that would probably piss people off again.

And the place would be full of 'die-hard' Liverpool (or whatever) fans who've lived in Devon their whole lives, who won't come back to Plainmoor because "the team is crap, they got beaten 5-0"..

[frenchgull]

There are two reasons why teams tour abroad or within the BritishIsles and that is Firstly money, if you are a premier league side you are invited to some sort of tournamentt to flece the local folk out of their hard earned money or if you travel around the west country or Scotland/Ireland as a lower division team it is done to mould your side and most importantly to build team spirit,ask Chris Hardgreves,he would bite your hand off to take his team away for a week or so,ok we cant afford it but I would love to see us bond as a team away from home.Every business that can afford it take their staff away for a bonding session even if its only for a couple of nights,the difference it makes is well worth the cost.