Lysaght Dancer wrote:Stan A. Einstein wrote:UPTHEPORT wrote:Thats the trouble with doing well in the league it puts everyone in the shop window players as well
The trouble is not that County doing well cause bigger clubs to come in for the manager or players. That is inevitable and is as true for Newcastle United as it is for Newport County. And if Aston Villa, or Nottingham Forest wanted Flynn or any other County manager then there is bugger all we can do.
Our problem is that we can't resist approaches from the likes of Shrewsbury, or Oldham or Gillingham or Aldershot, for f@ck's sake Aldershot.
Newport is a big town/city. We should be at least the equal of Shrewsbury, population 71,000, or Aldershot, population 36,000. Newport population 145,000. Newport conurbation 338,000.
Although I agree that our crowds are not good enough, the population argument doesn’t work in context. The rugby effect is huge in Newport and I don’t just mean the failing Dragons. Wales play about 6-8 home matches a year as well and Newport has always been a rugby town, something Shrewsbury haven’t had to worry about.
I would bet that if you asked 10 random people in Newport to name a Newport County player, only 1 person would get it right. We are still a small club but it’s gettibg better and will continue to get better the longer that we stay in the football league.
I've rarely agreed with your comments previously, but I'm in agreement with everything you say this time. I believe if as a club we are able to bring academy players through to the first team in the future it would have a positive, yet not dramatic effect on the attendences. I know I'm only one man, but I have been someone who has always preferred watching and playing (very long time ago) rugby to football, but this season I have only missed one home County game, and Yeovil apart, have thoroughly enjoyed the players efforts and qualities; as well as the very good atmosphere. Really looking forward to the rest of the season. Sadly not something I can say about watching the Dragons underwhelming and underperforming efforts this season.
Back to the threads title though. Obviously there are very few perceived 'smaller' clubs in the EFL and bigger clubs will always try to entice away successful players, managers and coaches, but I hope on this occasion that Shrewsbury is not a big enough enticement to override the Loyalty that I believe MF has to his hometown club.