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?
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?