[Lord Snooty]

Congratulations and welcome to the Football League. The smallest club ever to play in the EFL.
How do we all think they'll get on? I know absolutely nothing about them. Had to look them up on Wikipedia. Apparently they're based in Nailsworth in your beautiful state of Glossesstershaire.

[themaclad]

Could have a rant but would upset Devongone and as this is a friendly site would not want to upset the equilibrium

[Devongone]

Have a rant Mac! You won't upset me. You're great, because we can be on opposite sides or the same AND remain friends.

Of course the Green made it due to Dale Vince's Wind Farms. Of course Nailsworth is tiny! Of course their support is small. My main concern is how they square their insistence on a Vegan Diet with spreading cow manure on their pitch cos it be natural? If we wuz all Vegans there wunt be no cows to make that there manure now would there? How about that one Mr Vince?

Swindon, Cheltenham and Forest Green can now play some interesting local derbies. They only usually have grudge matches at rugby union down there. Cheltenham and Gloucester make a huge untapped area for football. The population is big and it is growing. You have to get to Birmingham, Bristol or Reading for even a modest level of football. Forest Green have to be better than another London or commuter belt club ....... But yeah deep down I'd like Tramcar back and I don't want Hartlepool down ..........

But Mac, have that rant, feel better, you're worth it! You'll have to have another in a year's time when they go up!

[spireitematt]

When they played Mansfield in the conference they took 26 fans to Mansfield. So I don't expect they will have a large away following. Be interesting to see what there gates are at home.

Also they've got plans to build a eco-friendly football stadium built out of wood similar to FC United's. They've also chosen the same architect who is designing the stadiums in Qatar for the 2022 WC.

Also the players have a meat and dairy free diet. Supporters can buy a Quorn and leek pie made with soy milk béchamel. Sounds like something Hipsters would eat.

[themaclad]

10 million in debt paying over 150,000 in agents fees is not the non league way, having teams in non league with vastly superior budgets to other teams just screws the level playing field. Only one of the newer teams to the leagues have done it right and that is Burton live within their means. Also include AFC Wimbledon who started from scratch.
No time for the noveaux riche who want to buy their wat up The leagues, just a traditionalist, me

[Devongone]

I can appreciate you want to be a traditionalist Mac - so do I! But this is a world where teams play at the Etihaad and the King Power, Red Bull can win the Austrian League, Leipzig have zoomed in Germany and the play-offs in the Championship will bring one club £100 million. It's a world in which Burton in a couple of years will be playing Chesterfield at best,, like Yeovil, unless they find Far Eastern wealth, and Bournemouth didn't only survive in the Premiership by the magic of Eddie Howe - there's a Samovar full of cash behind him. You know all that!

What have FGR prevented? Dagenham or Aldershot making it back to the league? Have they been missed? Really? And surely Tranmere self-destructed? Picking a defender who needs to be put on FGR's vegan diet made pretty certain that some of the sharpest forwards outside the league were going to have some joy didn't it? Did Tranmere want to win?

BUT I'm glad you had your rant Mac you are a bonus on this site. I'd like the world to be different. Forest Green's debt ties them to one man, but he does care about them - that puts them ahead of Chesterfield for me. At least he hasn't tied a club with some history and thousands of fans in a decent sized town to him ........... and wants to ditch them on a whim. And Dale Vince votes Labour, what more can you want?

[themaclad]

Over the years Lancaster in the Evo Stick North, Halifax, Chester, Darlington all Ex League clubs with budgets far superior to what City have, also the money bag teams such as Salford, Fylde and Spennymoor although part time paying at least £200 per week, City's players on littlemore than travel expenses.
This season no money bag teams and what happens City win league.
As for Dale Vince after today's Labour manifesto he'll be turnuing into a tax exile.

[spireitematt]

Over the years Lancaster in the Evo Stick North, Halifax, Chester, Darlington all Ex League clubs with budgets far superior to what City have, also the money bag teams such as Salford, Fylde and Spennymoor although part time paying at least £200 per week, City's players on littlemore than travel expenses.
This season no money bag teams and what happens City win league.
As for Dale Vince after today's Labour manifesto he'll be turnuing into a tax exile.

Football is changing Mac in some ways not for the better. I believe there should be wage caps on players in all the leagues. It would be interesting to see what would happen if each league had a budget cap on how much they could spend over the two transfer windows in the season.

The reason Halifax, Chester and Darlington have got bigger budgets than Lancaster City is because they are former league clubs like you state above and they are fan owned AKA socialist football and they will have a bigger budget as they will have a good fan base.

Teams like Salford and Fylde have big budgets and they are sort of buying there way up the league similar to what Fleetwood have done and Crawley. Not many people like it but there's not a lot anyone can do. Look at the Premier League and what City, United, Chelsea etc are all doing they are spending fortunes on players every season in hope of winning the league.

You mention Lancaster City winning the league and getting promoted to the Evo-Stik Northern Premier Divison on no budget and players getting travel expenses. Well Leicester City built a team by looking at gems in the lower French divisions etc and they managed to build a rapport and good team morale which helped them win the league.

[Devongone]

I'd love a team to get to the top on spirit and teamwork and togetherness, but all the teams who really succeed are plastic. Even the traditionally successful ones are floating on huge influxes of cash used, misused and abused appallingly. (Bournemouth WERE on the up pre-Russian money, but they'd never looked like Premiership candidates before it.)

Does the north west coast need a Fylde and a Fleetwood? Wouldn't almost all support other than finance drain back to Blackpool if the Oystons died in a plane crash and suddenly a young Stanley Matthews started taunting every opposing defence? Similarly aren't Salford City or United of Manchester using cash to fill the void left by Stockport County's plunge to obscurity?

The fact remains that the only club anywhere near reaching the football league this season who should have league status and thus suffered by Dale Vince's investment in Forest Green was Tranmere. And they did choose to play the Michelin Man against very quick and able forwards ........ what did they think would happen?

We live in a capitalist system. Money always dominated, but once clubs' income came from sources other than attendance the hare was off and running. My dad ran an amateur football team. He was a VERY efficient man. It was a works team, so he set up money-raising schemes, busters, raffles etc in the captive audience of a large works. Every week I helped him update stuff and count cash! Me and my mate took the kit to the laundrette. The team was always well-financed. The works had a sports ground, and its transport section got the players to matches. Being efficient my dad made sure all the players were looked after, the club would provide a present if they married etc ....... so new wives never thought to stop them playing ........ And the best players around were happy, more than happy to play. They loved it. They won everything available, but they'd got access to facilities and stuff that all their opponents lacked. Was their success plastic, or the acumen of one man?

It isn't a level playing field. It never is. I'm betting if you look behind the scenes at Lancaster City resources are being created, money is being found and used that make them superior to their opponents off the field as well as on it. Where does the acumen of a couple of keen committee people growing a club turn into them unearthing a rich sponsor. At what point does success become plastic? Are Lancaster City more authentic than Shaw Lane?

[themaclad]

Are Lancaster better than Shaw Lane? of course they are they are from Lancashire enough said!!!!