Our natural level

ParkerStraysOffside

ParkerStraysOffside

Well-known member
General consensus seems to be that we should be a stable championship side.
Over the balance of everything, I feel our level is actually L1. Aside from 2007-2015 (and even then you can argue 4 of those years we were battling relegation) we haven’t had a sustained period in the second tier or above since the 60s and 70s.

Add into this home attendances, stadium / facilities and budgets vs 95% of current championship teams we are punching above our weight being in this division.

This isn’t to say we shouldn’t be striving to achieve this status and beyond, just a reflection of where we are in what is one of the most competitive leagues across Europe.
 
Don’t know about other people but I always see teams levels being where they were when I first got interested in football. For us that was mid 90s, Blackpool were knocking around the top of division 4, Everton were winning leagues and in Europe, Manchester City were 2nd division, Notts County were in the 1st division. So basically and absolute nonsense analogy!!

I would like to think we should bounce around league 1 and the Championship for what it’s worth.
 
Nah , how many were at Ewood Park the other night? not much more than 10'000 home fans with them pushing for promotion. We're no "smaller" than the other lancashire clubs but have had lower league ambitions for the last 40+ years.

Plus they all had decent infrastructure well before we had any stands built prior to 1920 so got a good headstart in the early 90s.

This little Blackpool talk hasn't helped us and it was curiously absent at the start of our first champ season but started coming from everyone, board, manager, owner after Critchley left.

All that being said we are seemingly league one financially right now but there's nothing about the history or "size" of our club that makes us inherently incapable of being a solid championship club like PNE, Rovers etc
 
PdxTangerine said:
Nah , how many were at Ewood Park the other night? not much more than 10'000 home fans with them pushing for promotion. We're no "smaller" than the other lancashire clubs but have had lower league ambitions for the last 40+ years.

Plus they all had decent infrastructure well before we had any stands built prior to 1920 so got a good headstart in the early 90s.

This little Blackpool talk hasn't helped us and it was curiously absent at the start of our first champ season but started coming from everyone, board, manager, owner after Critchley left.

All that being said we are seemingly league one financially right now but there's nothing about the history or "size" of our club that makes us inherently incapable of being a solid championship club like PNE, Rovers etc
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The ‘little Blackpool’ talk depends how it is articulated. Done in the way of Parkes and Appleton etc is extremely restrictive as it is used as a mechanism to excuse why we can’t compete.

Flip this around, as Holloway did, and this creates a siege mentality which fires everyone up (us vs the world type approach).

We benefitted from the crest of a wave syndrome last year (which yielded the same effect as the siege mentality).
 
PdxTangerine said:
Nah , how many were at Ewood Park the other night? not much more than 10'000 home fans with them pushing for promotion. We're no "smaller" than the other lancashire clubs but have had lower league ambitions for the last 40+ years.

Plus they all had decent infrastructure well before we had any stands built prior to 1920 so got a good headstart in the early 90s.

This little Blackpool talk hasn't helped us and it was curiously absent at the start of our first champ season but started coming from everyone, board, manager, owner after Critchley left.

All that being said we are seemingly league one financially right now but there's nothing about the history or "size" of our club that makes us inherently incapable of being a solid championship club like PNE, Rovers etc
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And a £20 cheap ticket deal offer on also.
 
I refuse to accept we are below the likes of PNE (14 out of last 18 seasons in the Championship) and Burnley (18 seasons since their last game in league one) in terms of natural level in football. The difference has been appalling mismanagement at owner level. And we still managed a season more than PNE in the top flight during that period.

Those that say league one is our natural level are just plain wrong and lacking any real belief in our club.
 
Natural level doesn't exist. It's a fluid movement. 80's our NL was L2, 50's it was the (now) PL if the NL is to believed, but how can it be both?

Strive to be the best you can be within your means and that's all that counts.
 
Look at Reading. Lower division team for most of their history but had success over the last 30 years. Built up their fan base well.
 
I give you Norwich. When we were dominating the game, they were pissing about in some split regional third division football. Now they expect to bounce between the top two tiers with 27000 regular fans and a hugely supportive infrastructure. They don’t have a billionaire overseas fund behind them but do have a wealthy local benefactor on a board who repeatedly show themselves to be highly competent.
 
Pauls_Boutique said:
Don’t know about other people but I always see teams levels being where they were when I first got interested in football. For us that was mid 90s, Blackpool were knocking around the top of division 4, Everton were winning leagues and in Europe, Manchester City were 2nd division, Notts County were in the 1st division. So basically and absolute nonsense analogy!!

I would like to think we should bounce around league 1 and the Championship for what it’s worth.
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Everton were definitely not winning leagues in the 90's. '87 was their last title, although they may win the Championship next season
 
Total bollox that L1 is our natural level, we have had no sustained success for 50 years. We flirted with it during Ollies time and he did his best to rid us of the small club mentality that many fans seemed to have. We tossed away a golden opportunity through the greed of the previous owners, the fan base was growing nicely after our season in the Prem. Attendances averaged 14k for 4 seasons following the Prem season and we were selling 10k season tickets. While fans were on board was the time to show ambition, kick on and grow the fan base more.

All we got was a managed decline with little investment and KO offering to personally drive his manager to any club that came in with an offer.

The Nobbers and Blackburn are no bigger than us when you think how many seasons they have had in the top 2 divisions compared to us over the last 45 years. Look at the crowd at Rovers last week, take away our 3k and there were around 11k home fans for a team pushing for promotion to th Prem.

Your position in the league does not depend solely on crowds anyway, it's down to good management and the way the club is run. If it was based solely on attendances the likes of Sheff Wednesday, Ipswich, Bradford etc would not be languishing in the lower reaches for decades at a time.

Brentford are the perfect model for a club of our size to follow and this was the direction I thought we were going in under Critchley last season. Bring through young players, sell at a profit and invest again. We do seem to have gone backwards this season and it will be interesting to see what SS has to say this week.

Let's get rid of the small club mentality, you never hear fans at clubs like Luton, the Nobbers and Rovers talking like that and Bournemouth fans seem to believe they belong in the Prem, fair play to them. UTMP
 
clappers said:
I refuse to accept we are below the likes of PNE (14 out of last 18 seasons in the Championship) and Burnley (18 seasons since their last game in league one) in terms of natural level in football. The difference has been appalling mismanagement at owner level. And we still managed a season more than PNE in the top flight during that period.

Those that say league one is our natural level are just plain wrong and lacking any real belief in our club.
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Your own stats seem to confirm we are below The likes of PNE, Burnley and probably Blackburn
 
There's no such thing as a natural level in football, only good or bad ownership for which a clubs' entire history has absolutely no bearing on.
If you have people at the club who don't believe BFC should be in this league, then often they won't be able to get us competing here.
That said, sometimes I think the biggest non-believers are the fans, sadly. The worst phrase often used is 'little old Blackpool', and it's incredibly cringeworthy to hear our own fans say it, which they often do. We won't make any long lasting, real progress until we as a club - fans, manager, owner, ditch completely this attitude we have towards our own club.
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
Think people can accept that. It’s the manner of the relegation that angers/hurts.
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Yup - Luton have stuck around with much lower crowds and and even Blackburn don't get that many more than us and whilst they have investment look at where they are. Complete failure at the top and no other reason is why we have struggled this season.
 
Talk of natural level stunts ambition, but realism is needed. For me, we should have been looking to consolidate as a Championship club, and that was the stated aim. That aim should have been deliverable without over-stretching too much on finances. However, the recruitment decisions made at Board level have been short-sighted and now we stand to lose much more than we’d have spent.
 
Any team that's been a premier league club and had that injection of 90 million in cash should be AT LEAST, a stable championship team.

Hopefully next time we get up to the Premiership, we'll build a strong club.

That said, I'm not fussed to go back up. Too much hassle.

Actually prefer the Championship!
 
is division 2 or championship as it is now unless of course you are MA then it's overachieving
 
clappers said:
I refuse to accept we are below the likes of PNE (14 out of last 18 seasons in the Championship) and Burnley (18 seasons since their last game in league one) in terms of natural level in football. The difference has been appalling mismanagement at owner level. And we still managed a season more than PNE in the top flight during that period.

Those that say league one is our natural level are just plain wrong and lacking any real belief in our club.
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It is now 23 years since Burnley last played in the third tier .. in their entire history they’ve only spent 18 seasons outside the top two divisions .
 
We can all espouse as to what our natural level should be but the cold hard fact is that in the 40 seasons I have been watching the mighty ,
our level gor the absolute majority has been the crap lower two divisions
So maybe while we think and hope our level should be the championship at the minimum
Our mid to recent history tells us what our average level is

Which makes the way we are sleepwalking into relegation all the more galling
 
The voice of reason said:
It is now 23 years since Burnley last played in the third tier .. in their entire history they’ve only spent 18 seasons outside the top two divisions .
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Blackpool have played Burnley in the LG more times, 118 games, than any other team. Fulham are next on 102, then Wolves on 100.So you could say that for 59 seasons we have been in the same LG as them. So 47 per cent of seasons Blackpool have been in existence minus the WWI/2 years that don't count in the official records we have played against them.That's a big chunk of history to be at the same level.
 
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Trammo said:
Blackpool have played Burnley in the LG more times, 118 games, than any other team. Fulham are next on 102, then Wolves on 100.So you could say that for 59 seasons we have been in the same LG as them. So 47 per cent of seasons Blackpool have been in existence minus the WWI/2 years that don't count in the official records we have played against them.That's a big chunk of history to be at the same level.
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True enough .. I was just pointing out that it is getting on for a quarter of a century since Burnley have played in the bottom two tiers . You make a good point though with the right management there is no reason why Blackpool shouldn’t compete on a level playing field with the other major Lancashire clubs.
 
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Before 78 we had never been in the third tier.

All down to one stupid ** of a Chairman.

We then had three decades under the self serving, parasitic Oystain scum.

This season has been a disaster but I have faith in SS.
 
Dick Turton said:
Any team that's been a premier league club and had that injection of 90 million in cash should be AT LEAST, a stable championship team.

Hopefully next time we get up to the Premiership, we'll build a strong club.

That said, I'm not fussed to go back up. Too much hassle.

Actually prefer the Championship!
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Wrong time ,wrong owners that was the problem .At least we have sprinklers to show for it.
 
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