As a club have the custodians consolidated that we are a championship outfit, maybe once in a blue moon we might get a chance for a year or two in the SPL although even that seems unlikely as the years pass by!

Without a serious cash injection or a Uncle Roy appearing over the horizon I tend to think that we have reached our correct level in the Scottish game. 

I think our fan base or what’s left of it have resigned to the fact we are, a result like yesterdays debacle would have sparked outrage on here in the past but it’s passed with hardly a whimper reading the match thread etc.

I still think they the board are heading us down the part time football route at some point similar to the model that Arbroath are adopting but I sincerely hope I’m wrong 

Thoughts?

Dougal

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, dougal said:

As a club have the custodians consolidated that we are a championship outfit, maybe once in a blue moon we might get a chance for a year or two in the SPL although even that seems unlikely as the years pass by!

Without a serious cash injection or a Uncle Roy appearing over the horizon I tend to think that we have reached our correct level in the Scottish game. 

I think our fan base or what’s left of it have resigned to the fact we are, a result like yesterdays debacle would have sparked outrage on here in the past but it’s passed with hardly a whimper reading the match thread etc.

I still think they the board are heading us down the part time football route at some point similar to the model that Arbroath are adopting but I sincerely hope I’m wrong 

Thoughts?

Dougal

 

 

 

 

Absolutely we are a championship club. We have no right to think we are anything more. There’s clubs lower down than us with greater supports. 
 

If we were lucky enough to get up to the Prem though I wouldn’t see any reason why we couldn’t hold our own once there. You only have to look at how we succeeded last time or look at the likes of Livi, County, St Mirren etc. 

Yes. Statistically last season our average home attendance was 18th in Scotland.

 

In my opinion, if we ever manage to get promotion again, we would tend to be a yoyo club. I don't think we have the resources or Premier player pulling power to sustain a place in the top flight. When we were last in the Premier league, after we won the Scottish Cup, that was the time to push on, but we didn't, we've regressed. We couldn't keep that squad together, and most of the players that were brought in just didn't match up to the ones we lost. That was our golden era at the club, and fear we will never see the likes again, all the planets aligned then, and if we couldn't attract a better quality of player and increase our attendances after coming third in the league, winning the Scottish Cup and playing in Europe, when will we.

County are a different fish, they have the financial pulling power, and teams like St Mirren and Livingston are in the central belt and most Scottish players don't want to relocate their whole family North for what might be a two years contract, we couldn't even hold on to thirty-eight year old Broadfoot, who was travelling up and back on his own from the South.

I agree with Dougal, I can see us going the way of Arbroath, as year after year that we remain in the championship, the more our resources and talent are depleted. We are not alone, bigger clubs than us, with much bigger fan bases and pulling power are struggling in leagues below us, Dunfermline and Falkirk being two, and to a lesser extent, our opponents last Saturday, Brechin City, were our league rivals a few seasons ago, before dropping down and down until they eventually ended up in the Highland League. And with the Highland League now attracting former Scottish League players to their ranks, with the likes of our former players, Meekings, Warren, Mchattie and Mcdonald, who probably earn more from their day jobs and football money than we could pay them as full time pros, we are on a hiding to nothing.

The times are changing, ambitious Highland and Lowland league club can now offer better packages to players and are gaining good sponsorship and are becoming more professional.

This for me is the season we must get promotion, or I can see us going the Arbroath way, being a good championship club with dwindling attendances and sponsorship, looking for Highland League players, like we used to. 

21 hours ago, Jaggernaut said:

In my opinion, if we ever manage to get promotion again, we would tend to be a yoyo club. I don't think we have the resources or Premier player pulling power to sustain a place in the top flight.

I've cut the rest, but basically I agree with everything you have said.   

What I'd throw into the mix, however, would be my view that we'd be a yo-yo side because the divisions are too small in size.  12- and 10-team divisions are just ridiculous.

I was thinking about this before the match with Brechin.  Yes, we are in the Championship and they are in the Highland League, but if you look at the teams' positions and the size of the divisions, then we are only 27 places above them.  That's only 3 more than the size of each of the lower divisions in England, where a draw between two teams from different divisions may be unexpected, but is hardly a great shock.

And, harking back to what Mr Bannerman, late of this parish, once said, I find it difficult to believe that there is enough support and spare money in the Highlands to maintain two top-12 clubs less than 14 miles apart. 

Clearly, it would be different if the top tier had, say, 18 clubs in it.

Now that we are past the fight for survival through the pandemic, it is surely time to look again at league reform.

1 minute ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

I've cut the rest, but basically I agree with everything you have said.   

What I'd throw into the mix, however, would be my view that we'd be a yo-yo side because the divisions are too small in size.  12- and 10-team divisions are just ridiculous.

I was thinking about this before the match with Brechin.  Yes, we are in the Championship and they are in the Highland League, but if you look at the teams' positions and the size of the divisions, then we are only 27 places above them.  That's only 3 more than the size of each of the lower divisions in England, where a draw between two teams from different divisions may be unexpected, but is hardly a great shock.

And, harking back to what Mr Bannerman, late of this parish, once said, I find it difficult to believe that there is enough support and spare money in the Highlands to maintain two top-12 clubs less than 14 miles apart. 

Clearly, it would be different if the top tier had, say, 18 clubs in it.

Now that we are past the fight for survival through the pandemic, it is surely time to look again at league reform.

Couldn't agree more, I have said on numerous sites that the league is too small, there is no mid section, you are either fighting for promotion or relegation, you can be in the bottom three one week and nudging into the top six the next.

All the fans I have spoken to would want bigger leagues, so we only played our opponents home and away, and only met them again if we were drawn in cup competitions. The TV companies, who want four Glasgow derbies certainly wouldn't want only two certain derbies to show on tv, so it's up to the rest of the leagues to try and show a united front to get change.

On the pitch we are a Championship Club with potential to be more.

Off the pitch we are a Championship Club with potential to be less.

Hope we at least remain at Championship level.
If we go down we might as well head back into the Highland league to join Elgin who’ll be waiting for us. 

I say,

Yes, Championship club. Hope we don't become like Dons fans harking back to Gothenburg 1983, re Scottish Cup 2015.

Albeit, it was a splendid day out. Oops, I've fallen into the chuffing trap myself. 

Eh what? 🧐