If we have genuine ambitions to get back into the Football League, we have to think very carefully where we are based, and how to make best use of the local talent pool, something we have abjectly failed at in the recent past. Gone are the days of inflated salaries and club houses to attract players from across the UK!

As much as the North East footballing community is derided for being far too insular (often with good reason) there is now only Blyth Spartans between the Conference and the Northern League and like Durham City, they are not in great shape on or off the green stuff.

Surely, if we get our act together, we could fill the void?

Do Whitby not count like?

No.

Anyone who thinks we could enter the Northern League as a 'Big Club' and suddenly attract the cream of the crop and gain promotion is deluded.

Do you all really need reminding that we have hardly any players, and we will have a manager, ground, and board that have been together less than 6 months.
We don't need a few good NL players, we need a squad full. The other clubs in the NL might not have the money or talent, but they have squads that have played together at this level for a long while. They will have the team spirit and the understanding. They also have experience. You can't put a price on that.
The other clubs also have their own grounds, and their own oppurtunities to make money. We would be paying to use Shildon.

All we have that makes us a 'Big Club' is that we USED TO HAVE a big stadium, and we USED TO BE in the football league. We will probably have higher attendances, that is true, but other than that we are not likely to be any better than any of the established teams in the Northern League.

The arrogance of some people on here is not going to make us popular if we end up in the Northern League.

Gaining promotion will be difficult but not impossible, therefore nobody is deluded. Overly optimistic - maybe. Deluded - no. Furthermore we simply cannot afford to be thinking along the lines of consolidation and a top ten fricking finish.



Everybody is aware of this, the players will have to gel quickly. We'll have to attract the best of the best to overcome the drop in performance caused by players not knowing each other.



Well, yeah. That's what we'll need to go up. Obviously.



You'd presume that we'd ALSO seek players with experience of the level and who might have played together at different clubs! Isn't that the whole point of having a manager, to do just that?



We're not paying a lot to groundshare though, and surely we'll make money through sponsorship, merchandise, bigger gates etc - we'll still surely have the biggest turnover by far, and a cost base little higher than the top NL sides.



Average crowds in the NL are about 150, so we'd be about 10x bigger - I'm confident gates will hold up around 1,500 because for every person that stops going there seems to be an ex fan claiming he wants to join the new adventure. I think we'll surprise ourselves with our gates - precedents have been set by Halifax, Chester, Telford etc - though they went bust and we didn't, it's still the principle of becoming a fan run club at a much lower level - people will smell potential success.



Look, we need to be positive about winning whichever league we are placed in. I don't think that's arrogance - expecting to get promotion is not the same as telling everyone you will be promoted, that's arrogance.

Talking ourselves out of being a promotion chasing club is not going to do any good.

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All this big fish little pond annoys me and is arrogance

We are where we are because of results irresespective of the circumstances as stated elsewhere we USED to be a bigger club with league status

Starting to sound like the boro fans who think they have right to the premiership they dont and play in champioship as its their level

So many OLD big clubs have had this arrogance and we jump on them for think Leeds, Sheff W Sheff U Forrest Southampton et al do we want that rrputation

I think you should put a few more words in capitals to really convince us mate.

Thats because we are a big fish in a little pond you prick!!! How many other clubs at that level can say they would attract around 1000 fans at every home game? I bet the clubs at what ever level we end up at cant wait to have a bumper crowd through their gates, they'll all be looking at the fixtures to see when they play Darlo and their bigger than usual pay day will arrive.
Why dont you take your negative attitude and stick it where the sun dont shine, your trolling is starting to get on my tits.

It's a fact.

It's the same as saying "all this sun rises in the east and sets in the west annoys me and is arrogance"



Well actually no, we aren't where we are because of results. If we are lucky we'll be a league below where we should be because of results, if we are unlucky we'll be much lower.



I don't know what Boro fans "sound like" but we are not saying we have a right to be in any league, just that if we are in the Evo 1N or NL we need to be winning it and should have the tools.



They never had arrogance, they just recognised that they were playing lower than usual and needed to get back up. You might call it arrogance but you were just showing a small time jealousy mentality, like the rest of the Poolies (that last quote gave away you're a Poolie btw. Yet another Poolie pretending to be a Darlo fan to spread discontent. Why do you do it eh?)

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