Are we bad enough to actually go DOWN next season??

I highly doubt it will be late 40's to stay up this season, I don't see how 2 of the bottom 3 get 15+ points from the remaining games (Colchester 10, FGR 8, Sutton 7). All 3 of them still have Stockport to play and FGR have an awful end with them to play all of the top 5 plus Morecambe & Notts County.

As for us next season, it's impossible to say at this stage as we have no idea which players will be kept or let go. Things can turn around very quickly, I doubt anyone at Salford this time last year or even when they lost to Stockport thought they would be 20th but a bad summer window destroyed the squad. Likewise this time last year I'm not sure many Crewe fans thought they would be in the race for top 3 a year later when they were sat in 18th.

 

The latter part of this season has been relegation form.

 

You're correct the Ground is becoming the potential issue that will actually sink us, and one that most of L2 clubs do not have to the same extent. Potentially a really good revenue earner, or a lead weight around the neck. Without a turn around in direction soon, it is going to become the latter for the next season and beyond.

Financial times have changed significantly and it is no good harking back to times of yore thinking only 6K - 8K fans paying to be in there will be ok. That is unless Flamingo land reverts the rent to what it was 10 years ago, and we get a lucky tax break from the government, and other overheads suddenly decrease to 1990 levels.

In direct regards to the scenario in your post, the Club would be better leaving VP and ground sharing locally if it wants to stay afloat.

 

We are safe this season but with half the budget next season and unlikely to attract good young PL loan players next season due to the awful playing surface I think there is a very real risk of going down next season.
At that point we enter administration and so a points deduction and possible relegation to NPL.
Staying at VP is absolutely out of the question so what next?
And I re-iterate the implications of fans walking away from the club now. Some won’t care because they have other things to do or are new fans not yet with C&A blood but there’s a hardcore of 5000-6000 who will be deeply affected by the disappearance of this club from their lives.

 

Headline on back of the T&A 'We can't chuck in season now'

Lol.

 

Edited for accuracy

 

Well it’s definitely been grim for us in 2024. P14 Pts16. That sort of form throughout a season would keep our heads above water but with a slashed budget next season we could find ourselves in a sticky position.

 

If staying at Valley parade is absolutely out of the question as you state, where are you suggesting that we play ? Odsal would no longer be suitable for league football as it’s massively worse than it was in the mid 1980s and it wasn’t really suitable then. Leeds and Huddersfield wouldn’t entertain us and it would cost a fortune to build a new ground.

 

Absolutely they’ve had far more postponements than we’ve had this season.

 

That’s my point, as a non league club or even where we are with half the budget, Valley Parade is unaffordable and so without a viable option to groundshare, we will go bust.
Can anyone else think of another scenario without Rupp buying the ground or injecting more money to cover the rent?
I can’t

 

Hopefully , we some how manage to clear most of the dead wood, allowing GA space to bring in players with more fight than the bottlers we currently have, not all but plenty. We are not asking city to sign the most gifted of players in the football world, just ones that show determination and courage every game to try and win, not just give in because you concede a deflected goal and then hit the post yourselves, which is what i felt happened the other night. They really do feel sorry for themselves.
To help the cause , we do need to get the stadium back in the clubs hands, the £9000 per week rent is a millstone and i can not see any viable alternative to Valley parade.

 

I don't think we'll go down, no.

I honestly think it's pretty difficult to get relegated from this division, look how bad the bottom 3 or so have been this season. Absolutely hopeless.

Obviously I don't know what team we'll have, but unless we have a horror show to start with and Sparks sacks GA in typical style with no plan, and somehow we just can't get going then our future is just more mediocrity imo.

20th is the lowest I could possibly see.

 

Forward this post to the following clubs and see if they were all saying the same at the time
Scunthorpe
Rochdale
Oldham
Hartlepool
Stockport
Wrexham
Luton
Chesterfield
York
Bristol Rovers
Mansfield
Notts County
Yeovil
Torquay

the list goes on

 

I don't know if they were saying that or not.

I mean, don't get me wrong, getting rid of Sparks and appointing a more serious candidate or two to the boardroom would give us some more breathing room, though.

 

I think we are short of cash right now! They need ST sales or otherwise Rupp will have to prop us up or not. There is something going on I can just sense it. The take up of ST is probably freaking them out and so it should. The selling of a club takes months so that isn’t an instant solution and we can’t not pay our way aka Reading who received a point reduction.

If I was Rupp I would suspend ST sales and offer a 10 match ST or lower that way ppl are not committed longer than it takes to sell the club.