With the FA cup third round looming, there is an excellent article on the BBC website today regarding the fortunes of a few clubs who have turned things around lately.

A brilliant piece was an interview with the ex FA head Mark Palios who with his wife as vice chair now runs Tranmere. I won't repeat all the details but an interesting thing he said was this:

With an injection of cash they managed to get out of the National league and are running on a budget now in L2 of between 5-7 million. That is sutainable. He stated that if they got to L1 they would need 15 million. He suggested that was possible. However, he then mentioned that to get on a level playing field with other teams in the Championship you would need a budget of 170 million!

Now, aspiration is a wonderful thing, but anyone who believes that the Championship is our rightful place needs to see these figures from a successful businessman. Sometimes within this wonderful game of ours, a sense of reality is required. I would love us to be playing in the Championship, but it ain't gonna happen. Is that me being negative? No just depressingly realistic.

Morning Mike and happy new year.

I see your point but profoundly disagree, Crewe, Colchester, Rotherham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe,Blackburn, Burnley towns smaller than Newport who have played in the Championship. Burton much smaller, Yeovil tiny by comparison. Both have played Championship football. The list contains towns that are economically as disadvantaged as Newport,

Talking of Burnley.

For me County should be aiming for Championship football. If we aspire we might fall short. If we don't aspire we will fall short.

The championship should be what we aspiring towards , but let us face it, we are not getting there without significant investment and certainly not with supporters complaining about a £5 increase to watch a premiership side.

Newport County must be the only club that no one wants to put money into but supporters think we should be sucessful because lots of people live nearby.

Alan G Bryant wrote:

Newport County must be the only club that no one wants to put money into but supporters think we should be sucessful because lots of people live nearby.

I agreed Alan.

Now ask yourself why?

Alan G Bryant wrote:The championship should be what we aspiring towards , but let us face it, we are not getting there without significant investment and certainly not with supporters complaining about a £5 increase to watch a premiership side.

Newport County must be the only club that no one wants to put money into but supporters think we should be sucessful because lots of people live nearby.

Yes I find it astounding that in what is after all a pretty populous area that there is absolutely nobody willing to put a bit of money our way. Perhaps Newport folk are more sensible than most in that once they have acquired some cash they realise that football is a money pit, but I doubt that. Perhaps we’ve always been short of the critical mass of enough supporters to generate such a benefactor. After all even lottery Les wasn’t a Newport fan. Should we start tracking Asia, we’ve been on tv a lot lately?

Stan A. Einstein wrote:Morning Mike and happy new year.

I see your point but profoundly disagree, Crewe, Colchester, Rotherham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe,Blackburn, Burnley towns smaller than Newport who have played in the Championship. Burton much smaller, Yeovil tiny by comparison. Both have played Championship football. The list contains towns that are economically as disadvantaged as Newport,

Talking of Burnley.

For me County should be aiming for Championship football. If we aspire we might fall short. If we don't aspire we will fall short.

Morning Brendan and a happy New Year to you as well. I'm not surprised you disagree to be honest given what we have both said before.

Now, lets just say we drop 70 million and then say we need 100 million to compete on the Championship level playing field. Let's also say that we can do a Burton, Crewe, Peterborough or Scunthorpe and play with some 'lesser' players at that level. Now, given the fact that we would probably drop back down to L1 after trying the Championship (no problem there for me btw), how do we get the 100 million to compete in the first place?

The money is not going to come from the Trust. It can only come from a sugar daddy or a mega company. That is why I say that it is unrealistic at the moment.

I brought the word aspiration into the debate and that is a wonderful thing to bring into football. I would like County to win the Champions league. I would like them to win the Premiership. I would like them to play in the Premiership. I would like them to win the Championship, I would like them to play in the Championship. I think you get my drift. At what part in this process do my aspirations become ridiculous and someone say to me 'Mike, you need to get real'?

In case you are wondering what I think is realistic, it is this. My favourite time as a County fan was the Sir Tommy Tynan era when we were competing at the top of the old Div3 (L1). Could we get to that level again given the money side to the game. I seriously doubt it. Competing and aspiring to higher things whilst playing in the top half of L1 is realistic for me.

If I am wrong and at some stage in the future we are above that level, believe me, I will be chuffed to bits and the first on here posting to admit I got it wrong. I don't think I will be making that post. Cmon the County.

Newport County in the Championship sponsored by Sainsbury's

pembsexile wrote:

Stan A. Einstein wrote:Morning Mike and happy new year.

I see your point but profoundly disagree, Crewe, Colchester, Rotherham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe,Blackburn, Burnley towns smaller than Newport who have played in the Championship. Burton much smaller, Yeovil tiny by comparison. Both have played Championship football. The list contains towns that are economically as disadvantaged as Newport,

Talking of Burnley.

For me County should be aiming for Championship football. If we aspire we might fall short. If we don't aspire we will fall short.

Morning Brendan and a happy New Year to you as well. I'm not surprised you disagree to be honest given what we have both said before.

Now, lets just say we drop 70 million and then say we need 100 million to compete on the Championship level playing field. Let's also say that we can do a Burton, Crewe, Peterborough or Scunthorpe and play with some 'lesser' players at that level. Now, given the fact that we would probably drop back down to L1 after trying the Championship (no problem there for me btw), how do we get the 100 million to compete in the first place?

The money is not going to come from the Trust. It can only come from a sugar daddy or a mega company. That is why I say that it is unrealistic at the moment.

I brought the word aspiration into the debate and that is a wonderful thing to bring into football. I would like County to win the Champions league. I would like them to win the Premiership. I would like them to play in the Premiership. I would like them to win the Championship, I would like them to play in the Championship. I think you get my drift. At what part in this process do my aspirations become ridiculous and someone say to me 'Mike, you need to get real'?

In case you are wondering what I think is realistic, it is this. My favourite time as a County fan was the Sir Tommy Tynan era when we were competing at the top of the old Div3 (L1). Could we get to that level again given the money side to the game. I seriously doubt it. Competing and aspiring to higher things whilst playing in the top half of L1 is realistic for me.

If I am wrong and at some stage in the future we are above that level, believe me, I will be chuffed to bits and the first on here posting to admit I got it wrong. I don't think I will be making that post. Cmon the County.

If I remember correctly, we sold Tommy Tynan and John Aldridge for ridiculously low fees in a desperate bide to postpone the inevitable crash.

We have, of course, been in the Championship when it had the more sensible name of League Division 2.

Tranmere are now running a budget of between 5 and 7 million! We couldn't manage even half that.

Size is not everything, so I've been sympathetically told many times. It not about the size of the population, but about how much money is invested/donated to a club. E,g, FGR , tiny population aren't they but with plenty of money ploughed into them, I understand Gloucester and Worcester are cities of over 100,000, but as far as i'm aware have never had even Football League status.
Have any trust owned/funded clubs existed at championship level? That's where we are presently, therefore shouldn't we comparing ourselves with them alone? If the day arrives when investment is made into the club then of course aspirations can be lifted

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:Size is not everything, so I've been sympathetically told many times. It not about the size of the population, but about how much money is invested/donated to a club. E,g, FGR , tiny population aren't they but with plenty of money ploughed into them, I understand Gloucester and Worcester are cities of over 100,000, but as far as i'm aware have never had even Football League status.
Have any trust owned/funded clubs existed at championship level? That's where we are presently, therefore shouldn't we comparing ourselves with them alone? If the day arrives when investment is made into the club then of course aspirations can be lifted

Size isn't everything. As I have countered those who showed false sympathy. However it does help. Massively!!!

I would dispute the figures that Palios gives. Tranmere are possibly paying over the odds for many of their playing, coaching and administrative staff. Accrington have proved that success can be made in both Leagues 1 and 2 on much smaller budgets.

But Tranmere has much more going for it than County do. Despite being close to bankruptcy Tranmere was saved by monies from Palios, so they didn't have the ignominy of starting again and the potential of losing a generation of football fans like County did. They also are handily placed in an area where football is almost a religion and prosper by being a recognised "second club" for both Liverpool and Everton fans to watch (they traditionally used to play on Friday evenings to avoid clashing with the Liverpool teams). As the "third team" in the Liverpool area they possibly do okay with sponsorship deals too. Plus they own their own ground and see better revenue streams from match day "sundries"...

County can become a Championship team but the first step is to build - a stadium, a greater fanbase, better training facilities and the best Academy they can afford to run. To do all this requires vision...

And this is where County fall flat...