06-06-2020, 11:59
The major truth is that football does need to sort out its future and this has been an opportunity to do so. It is one that so far has been spurned over concerns about both future television money and having to pay back monies if the current season's games aren't completed.
For smaller clubs the financial unreality of their business is now stark. It is illustrated in black, white and red on every balance sheet.
Take Chesterfield, apart from the problems create by our ownership, we are in a position in which we have been running only one adult team. Therefore when we get a junior of promise we immediately hit a problem when we want him to graduate to first team level, because he has to make a huge jump, there are no stepping stones. Similarly if we bring in a player from a lower level he has to be first team quality straightaway.
If we were talking about administrative staff no-one would be surprised if several of the positions were part-time, but if we suggested extending the idea to players the reaction would be, "Oh no we can't go part-time!" But why couldn't we mix full and part time players in order to have a second team where developing players could develop and players recovering from injury could regain fitness? Stockport have a mix of full and part timers in their first team. Surely that is a way of furthering our footballing needs within the tight budget to which we will always be confined? Playing football is a job. In all other areas of employment full and part timers mix happily and benefits accrue.
For smaller clubs the financial unreality of their business is now stark. It is illustrated in black, white and red on every balance sheet.
Take Chesterfield, apart from the problems create by our ownership, we are in a position in which we have been running only one adult team. Therefore when we get a junior of promise we immediately hit a problem when we want him to graduate to first team level, because he has to make a huge jump, there are no stepping stones. Similarly if we bring in a player from a lower level he has to be first team quality straightaway.
If we were talking about administrative staff no-one would be surprised if several of the positions were part-time, but if we suggested extending the idea to players the reaction would be, "Oh no we can't go part-time!" But why couldn't we mix full and part time players in order to have a second team where developing players could develop and players recovering from injury could regain fitness? Stockport have a mix of full and part timers in their first team. Surely that is a way of furthering our footballing needs within the tight budget to which we will always be confined? Playing football is a job. In all other areas of employment full and part timers mix happily and benefits accrue.