Tranmere Rovers


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Bye bye my team for 60+ years :sad:  :sad:  

 

It's not "bye bye", honest!

 

The Conference (or National League as it will be next season) is a dreadful place for a proper club to find itself, but I'm sure a club with Tranmere's tradition and passionate support will find its way back, even if it takes a few years. It took York City 8 gruelling years, so anything less than that is a bonus!

 

There are more ex-League clubs than ever competing at that level, so there'll be some great battles with the likes of Wrexham, Lincoln, Chester, Halifax, Barrow, Bristol Rovers and/or Grimsby, etc to compensate for the Braintrees and Dovers.

 

The biggest shock we got (apart from not getting promoted at the first seven attempts) was the tiny away followings that came to Bootham Crescent, the worst being Leigh RMI who brought 11 to a Tuesday night fixture. When the home fans applauded the dedication of that select few, the Leigh chairman though we were taking the p!ss, took offence, and it nearly kicked off in the directors' box :laugh:

 

Yes it's a dismal league, but keep faith and you'll have some great laughs along the way, and the passion of the fans who remain loyal will become deeper than you ever thought possible.

Edited by Grovesred
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Probably the reason so many of the smaller teams do so well in the conference and the relegated league clubs can take years to get promotion is that the smaller clubs are just run so much better. With limited income from small crowds they have to make sure they spend every penny wisely. I don't know how true this is but I heard that when Stockport were relegated to the Conference they had over 50 non playing members of staff on the payroll ! If this was true then no wonder they went down again into Conference North.

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Probably the reason so many of the smaller teams do so well in the conference and the relegated league clubs can take years to get promotion is that the smaller clubs are just run so much better. With limited income from small crowds they have to make sure they spend every penny wisely. I don't know how true this is but I heard that when Stockport were relegated to the Conference they had over 50 non playing members of staff on the payroll ! If this was true then no wonder they went down again into Conference North.

 

I take the point about clubs who've come up through the ranks being well-run, but I'm not so sure it's the case that relegated clubs struggle because they're run in a profligate manner (though some may well be).

 

York City was always known as a well-run club, but what changed was that it was asset-stripped by two successive owners. Despite promotion back to the League, we're still struggling against the legacy of those owners who ran the club not so much "badly", as purely in their own interests. If we can get through next season in one piece, our long-awaited new stadium should put the club on a more secure footing, but it's been a long hard struggle which may well have contributed to the recent premature death of another former chairman Steve Beck who in my opinion was the single most important person in the fight to save York City (RIP big man).

 

Even a healthy club will struggle after relegation to the Conference though; it's reckoned that the relegated club will be around £500,000 a year worse off as various League payments are cut off, funding for youth and community schemes dries up, etc.

 

The transition is traumatic and morale-sapping, which is why I believe the loyalty and passion of the supporters is so important: they have to learn the fund-raising skills that has always been second nature to their non-league cousins; they have to learn to take it on the chin when they attract 5,000 fans to a game, but still can't beat a team that plays in front of 750 week in and week out; and they have to learn to accept that for the time being, they're the big time charlies that everyone else loves to hate, and wants to beat.

 

I know next to nothing about the circumstances behind Tranmere's relegation, but I do believe their fans will carry them through this, no matter how long it takes.

 

Good luck to both them and Barrow next season!

Edited by Grovesred
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