The real trouble for a lot of the suburban clubs is that they will find the EFL nothing but a struggle. Players expect more money, as do managers and non-playing staff. A pitch like Sutton's provides an income stream. Grass is nowhere near so flexible and requires a lot of maintenance. I'm sure there are a lot of people at Sutton who want promotion - sports people want to win - but there is bound to be disquiet in the background over their financial position. Remember where their plastic pitch came from - their former manager Paul Doswell, a successful businessman bought it! They clearly don't have great financial clout and are located in an area surrounded by other clubs. Yes they could groundshare, but a ground is a club's identity. Going up at the cost of your identity is a bit Faustian for me. Imagine if the price for us going up was to groundshare in Mansfield.
As for aiming for fourth, I'm not sure that works. There are precedents in this football for teams coming from way off the pace to win it - like Bristol Rovers. The reality is none of the competing clubs are that much better than each other on paper. There is nothing like the dissonance of Man City's attacking power meeting West Brom's defence on Ajayi's day-off. Sutton, Hartlepool and Torquay couldn't guarantee to beat Weymouth, Barnet or King's Lynn. The play-offs would delight me, but I'd bet my bottom dollar Mr Rowe isn't galvanising his players with a team talk about finishing fourth. Doing it is another matter. Maidenhead on Saturday will present a real challenge and their EFL ambitions look more sustainable than Sutton's.
The imponderable is the mental resilience of these teams when the pressure is on. Torquay couldn't help winning, now they've stopped, but they have an excellent manager, if anyone knows where the re-boot button is, it's him. For all that our wins have impressed me, it was the fact that we bounced back from defeat at Stockport to beat two in-form teams that convinced me we were doing more than just talking a good game. Similarly Covid is a wild card in all this. What if Sutton were to have their worst day against us, then a few days later several of their back room staff go down with the virus? They get two or three weeks out of training on top of that memory of playing absolutely pants. Coming out and being the successful Sutton again wouldn't be easy.
As for aiming for fourth, I'm not sure that works. There are precedents in this football for teams coming from way off the pace to win it - like Bristol Rovers. The reality is none of the competing clubs are that much better than each other on paper. There is nothing like the dissonance of Man City's attacking power meeting West Brom's defence on Ajayi's day-off. Sutton, Hartlepool and Torquay couldn't guarantee to beat Weymouth, Barnet or King's Lynn. The play-offs would delight me, but I'd bet my bottom dollar Mr Rowe isn't galvanising his players with a team talk about finishing fourth. Doing it is another matter. Maidenhead on Saturday will present a real challenge and their EFL ambitions look more sustainable than Sutton's.
The imponderable is the mental resilience of these teams when the pressure is on. Torquay couldn't help winning, now they've stopped, but they have an excellent manager, if anyone knows where the re-boot button is, it's him. For all that our wins have impressed me, it was the fact that we bounced back from defeat at Stockport to beat two in-form teams that convinced me we were doing more than just talking a good game. Similarly Covid is a wild card in all this. What if Sutton were to have their worst day against us, then a few days later several of their back room staff go down with the virus? They get two or three weeks out of training on top of that memory of playing absolutely pants. Coming out and being the successful Sutton again wouldn't be easy.