2018-19 National League South

[karlready]

I hope Matt Taylor has applied for the Shots hot seat.He has just hung up his boots at Swindon. I have also heard the Wilkinson rumour, from someone supposedly “ in the know” .
We have heard that we are to operate on a full-time basis. Shit or bust,then.
Ah well, we are familiar with both of those options....

 

[Jerry]

I hope Matt Taylor has applied for the Shots hot seat.He has just hung up his boots at Swindon

Would be a risk appointing a first time manager in your situation.

 

[Pink Panther]

Shahid (our chairman) mentioned the average budget is 250k in this league and another of our board members said our budget would be quite a bit higher than that. So sounds like the board's intention is for this to be a very brief spell in this league. All they need to do now is appoint the right manager. If it was me i'd take McMahon.

That £250k average, or typical/median budget figure is exactly the same that was mentioned by one of the Dulwich directors when speaking at a supporters forum a few months back. (We have another one on Monday evening.) So that equates to around £5k-£6k a week depending upon whether it's spread across a calendar year or a 42 week season. However we were also told that in the National Division the median figure is not just an extra 10-20% or whatever, it's three times as much, i.e. £750k. Both last season's promoted clubs from this division (Havant and Braintree) have come straight back down again. Braintree fluked it up in the play offs from 6th place so that's no surprise but Havant were champions last year and appear to be a stable and commercially strong club. Furthermore Maidstone have also come back down after three seasons of relegation battles even though they have an ideal modern town centre ground and are relatively well supported.

I'm not certain how close to that £250k figure Dulwich are, or which side of it. We've just come through an unpredictable and unstable 18 months period at the start of which our budget was publicly stated by the manager as being £5k a week in November 2017. We managed to get promoted from the Isthmian League in 2nd place with that, always paying the players in full and on time thanks to a lot of hard work on the fundraising front among our fanbase. After starting this season at Tooting and with no immediate prospect of returning it transpired that the club had budgeted for larger attendances than the average of 800 that it got over the first half of this season, causing a shortfall. We probably got back home just in time before there was an issue with honouring players' contracts, but although attendance figures since have exceeded expectations the club didn't start splurging extra money on players.

You'd assume Torquay and Woking were both paying well above the median figure, obviously they were both established in the National Division until last year, and they finished in the top two places. Billericay are the other obvious big spenders, and I guess there are a few other clubs maybe spending upwards of £350k a season, which ought to give you a good shot at going up but might not be enough to keep you there. (And obviously there must be a few clubs paying well below £250k a year who will never realistically get close to the National Division.)

The way the FA and leagues have tweaked the play-offs seems designed to encourage clubs to push for immediate success before they are ready for it. Now the play-offs include the 6th and 7th placed teams it's much easier for a club to suddenly find itself out of its depth at the higher level after a couple of spectacular results at the end of a moderately good season, and I don't think that's a good thing. For example Wealdstone accrued just 66 league points, barely more than 1.5 per match, and comments on their supporters' forum suggest they're going to have a lower playing budget next season following the departure of their main financial backer. How would they compete at National Division level if they'd won the play-offs? (And they were only a few minutes away from today's final, and Braintree went up from a similar position last year.) It's become a real conundrum. You can't take it easy or not push for success in case you finish "too high" and go up "by accident" thanks to a few good wins at the end of the season, but if you're not good enough to finish in the top three of this division and/or average around 2 points per match you're probably not going to be good enough for National Division level.

 

[Bobbin']

Getting into the spirit of things, where can we get a decent away allocation and is best for a drink out of these two? They have my full support.

Was gutted that Wealdstone lost, went there a few times while I was at uni down in London and always struck me as a very sound bunch.

Scratch that, all Welling if Thierry Audel is there. Lovely bloke.

Never been to Woking but Welling is easy to get to, with plenty of pubs on the high street and just up the road from Bexleyheath where there are tons of places to to eat or have a beer.

Think Welling have sold over 400 tickets already and with Charlton/Millwall not playing, they will surpass what we brought for the semi. Though had we reached the final, we would have taken 800-1,000 i suspect.

Charlton are playing tomorrow.

 

[Farleigh]

That £250k average, or typical/median budget figure is exactly the same that was mentioned by one of the Dulwich directors when speaking at a supporters forum a few months back. (We have another one on Monday evening.) So that equates to around £5k-£6k a week depending upon whether it's spread across a calendar year or a 42 week season. However we were also told that in the National Division the median figure is not just an extra 10-20% or whatever, it's three times as much, i.e. £750k. Both last season's promoted clubs from this division (Havant and Braintree) have come straight back down again. Braintree fluked it up in the play offs from 6th place so that's no surprise but Havant were champions last year and appear to be a stable and commercially strong club. Furthermore Maidstone have also come back down after three seasons of relegation battles even though they have an ideal modern town centre ground and are relatively well supported.

I'm not certain how close to that £250k figure Dulwich are, or which side of it. We've just come through an unpredictable and unstable 18 months period at the start of which our budget was publicly stated by the manager as being £5k a week in November 2017. We managed to get promoted from the Isthmian League in 2nd place with that, always paying the players in full and on time thanks to a lot of hard work on the fundraising front among our fanbase. After starting this season at Tooting and with no immediate prospect of returning it transpired that the club had budgeted for larger attendances than the average of 800 that it got over the first half of this season, causing a shortfall. We probably got back home just in time before there was an issue with honouring players' contracts, but although attendance figures since have exceeded expectations the club didn't start splurging extra money on players.

You'd assume Torquay and Woking were both paying well above the median figure, obviously they were both established in the National Division until last year, and they finished in the top two places. Billericay are the other obvious big spenders, and I guess there are a few other clubs maybe spending upwards of £350k a season, which ought to give you a good shot at going up but might not be enough to keep you there. (And obviously there must be a few clubs paying well below £250k a year who will never realistically get close to the National Division.)

The way the FA and leagues have tweaked the play-offs seems designed to encourage clubs to push for immediate success before they are ready for it. Now the play-offs include the 6th and 7th placed teams it's much easier for a club to suddenly find itself out of its depth at the higher level after a couple of spectacular results at the end of a moderately good season, and I don't think that's a good thing. For example Wealdstone accrued just 66 league points, barely more than 1.5 per match, and comments on their supporters' forum suggest they're going to have a lower playing budget next season following the departure of their main financial backer. How would they compete at National Division level if they'd won the play-offs? (And they were only a few minutes away from today's final, and Braintree went up from a similar position last year.) It's become a real conundrum. You can't take it easy or not push for success in case you finish "too high" and go up "by accident" thanks to a few good wins at the end of the season, but if you're not good enough to finish in the top three of this division and/or average around 2 points per match you're probably not going to be good enough for National Division level.

Pretty good summary. Maidstone will remain "full time" but on a reduced budget; no idea what that is. It is possible to survive in the NL, like Bromley and Sutton, but it feels harder. After three years of struggle, not everyone at Maidstone longs for an immediate return. Although it's hard to see what else we can aspire to. Looking at all the fallen BELTs and sugar daddies who dominate the NL; anyone going up needs a strong vision and plan of where they will fit in to that set up.

 

[Raymondo316]

Pretty good summary. Maidstone will remain "full time" but on a reduced budget; no idea what that is. It is possible to survive in the NL, like Bromley and Sutton, but it feels harder. After three years of struggle, not everyone at Maidstone longs for an immediate return. Although it's hard to see what else we can aspire to. Looking at all the fallen BELTs and sugar daddies who dominate the NL; anyone going up needs a strong vision and plan of where they will fit in to that set up.

From what I hear we're actually planning to train more next season than we have this last few seasons. Moving from 3 mornings a week to 4 mornings.

 

[Raymondo316]

That £250k average, or typical/median budget figure is exactly the same that was mentioned by one of the Dulwich directors when speaking at a supporters forum a few months back. (We have another one on Monday evening.) So that equates to around £5k-£6k a week depending upon whether it's spread across a calendar year or a 42 week season. However we were also told that in the National Division the median figure is not just an extra 10-20% or whatever, it's three times as much, i.e. £750k. Both last season's promoted clubs from this division (Havant and Braintree) have come straight back down again. Braintree fluked it up in the play offs from 6th place so that's no surprise but Havant were champions last year and appear to be a stable and commercially strong club. Furthermore Maidstone have also come back down after three seasons of relegation battles even though they have an ideal modern town centre ground and are relatively well supported.

Just to put things into perspective we finished bottom with a 700k player budget.

 

[Farleigh]

We had the budget, but not the infrastructure. The manager wanted money spent on fitness programmes, which was refused. When it went wrong, a fortune was spent on loan players and temporary fixes, rather than working out a long term strategy. With Still and Hakan, it feels like we are planning several years ahead.

 

[#Beebot]

We had the budget, but not the infrastructure. The manager wanted money spent on fitness programmes, which was refused. When it went wrong, a fortune was spent on loan players and temporary fixes, rather than working out a long term strategy. With Still and Hakan, it feels like we are planning several years ahead.

Does blowing the budget on squad players from his previous club factor anywhere into Still's plans again? For our sake I hope it does.

 

[The Cards]

5000+ at woking today, bring it home lads

 

[chipmunx]

not sure who i want to win this as both are ex-conference teams and have ex-Barrow players - maybe Woking for the inevitable crack between them and Shots IF they win the AGM cup

 

[Pinner Stones]

Our budget was 7.5k last season though we were operating at a higher level at the start and it had to be reigned in , which actually resulted in us having a tighter squad and better results. My view is that a budget of 10k gets you pretty close to the title in a normal year, 7.5k should get you into the play offs , whilst 5-6k should ensure you stay in the division comfortably. Less than that you are trouble.

No announcements have been made for next season but the rumour mill, which is normally quite accurate, is suggesting 4k. At that level we are in trouble, though noises from the board are saying it will be competitive.

Taking out the big spenders of Torquay/Riccay/ Woking, Dartford, Welling and Chelmsford were all paying at least what we were. If you look at the teams which got in to the play-offs, bar Billericay/Dartford, everyone who should have been there on how much they were spending on wages were there and the other two were just short after late season collapses.

There were no surprises in the top ten in terms of budget and let's not kid ourselves that Concord were paying peanuts.

 

[chipmunx]

1-0 Woking

 

[chipmunx]

4981 at Woking

 

[chipmunx]

Finished 1-0 to Woking

 

[Lew]

Wonder if King has got his application in yet

 

[Master D]

Woking back up, to go back down.

 

[Seventyseven]

Finished 1-0 to Woking

That's a shame

 

[rudebwoyben]

The only bit of interest for me in this is how many ex-Barnet players are going to be in their squad next season. At the moment they have Craig Ross in goal, Jake Hyde up front with probably Dave Tarpey to partner him. I’m not that keen to revisit that small uncovered side terrace again.

 

[LondonOrn]

Well done Woking, deserved to go up for running Torquay so close, and the warm welcome you gave us at Kingfield and your continued good luck wishes throughout our FA Cup run.

As for us, very disappointing end to the season. I imagine Wolves aren't sweating much about their Europa League place...

 

[Boz]

Decent crowd at Woking. Probably the better equipped for NL, always had a reasonable travelling support, so well done The Cards.

 

[Pinner Stones]

Congrats to Woking. Whilst down in NS, none of the BBB that Torquay had. Downside for us is losing a half decent away day experience and a side that actually brings away fans.

 

[Shotsfan1993]

Congrats to Woking. Whilst down in NS, none of the BBB that Torquay had. Downside for us is losing a half decent away day experience and a side that actually brings away fans.

Don't worry, we'll bring at least double what Woking took

 

[Jerry]

Well done Woking!

Some of our fans still seem to think we are rivals but that was just a temporary thing last season.

Gerring is still a moron though.

 

[Raymondo316]

Does blowing the budget on squad players from his previous club factor anywhere into Still's plans again? For our sake I hope it does.

Wouldn't be surprised if we signed Bettamer but I doubt we could afford any of the others.

 

[BeeArmy]

Wouldn't be surprised if we signed Bettamer but I doubt we could afford any of the others.

Byron Harrison is quality

 

[Seventyseven]

Congrats to Woking. Whilst down in NS, none of the BBB that Torquay had. Downside for us is losing a half decent away day experience and a side that actually brings away fans.

Nearly got a bite their PS. I'd love to know your reasoning though...

 

[Raymondo316]

Byron Harrison is quality

Dunno what's gone wrong with him in the last year or so, but he was one of the best forwards in the National League a few years back.

 

[BeeArmy]

Dunno what's gone wrong with him in the last year or so, but he was one of the best forwards in the National League a few years back.

Just a complete lack of effort. Doesn't move faster than a light jog.

 

[Pinner Stones]

Nearly got a bite their PS. I'd love to know your reasoning though...

The FB forum merchants have been right arseholes. That said, when we visited you at Plainmoor, everyone was good as gold.