I think academies are too expensive for lower level league teams. The EPL and Championship teams almost all have them from what I remember, but below that it is more rare.
Wrexham? I hardly know him.
- Thread starter DJnVa
- Start date
No. Not in England for a start. And they've not been renamed the Aviation Gin Red Dragons or anything like that. Millionaire owners taking over small non-league clubs and trying to fund them into the EFL has happened for decades. Sometimes it works. Sometimes the owner runs out of money or gets bored, and the team goes bust. Sometimes it works for a while and then the team goes bust.
What's unusual with Wrexham is not the money, it's the owners' exploitation (not in the derogatory sense of that term) of social media, and the TV show. The other big difference is that Wrexham is a historic club with an underlying support that was big for the level, laid low by awful/corrupt ownership. As opposed to the Rushdens and the Forest Greens and the Salfords and the AFC Fyldes where the project essentially involved trying to build a club from scratch.
My personal feeling is that they are far preferable to every other "Money team" that has been seen at the level, but they're still the kind of club that can pay third tier level wages and fees to attract players to play in the fifth.
Yeah, the model that most clubs in League Two use seem to be to try to find a diamond in the rough of castoffs from EPL and Champo academies.
I clicked on Crawley Town's Wikipedia page as a random L2 club:
EPL/Champo academy castoffs who dropped down multiple divisions: 15
Old guys who played at a higher level but are now journeymen: 2 (both came up in bigger club academies)
Guys who came up in a non-League academy: 3
Guy who came up in a League One or League Two academy: 1 (and this was Crewe Alexandra, which IIRC is known as a lower division club that does youth development well)
Plus a bunch of players on loan
I imagine this is typical.
Not in England, but: Mike Piazza presided over the destruction of a 100-year-old soccer team
That link mostly references this story from The Athletic: The Passion of Mike Piazza: How the midlife crisis of a baseball Hall of Famer led to the demise of a 100-year-old Italian soccer club
Yup. Not the best time for a draw. Still need to win two of last games to clinch.
In fairness, Barnet is 5th out of 24, and a 0-0 result is hardly embarrassing. It was the L to bottom-half Halifax a few weeks ago that was the really toughie.
Remaining games are vs Yeovil (22nd), vs Boreham (6th), and @Torquay (21st but winners of 5 in a row). Notts County is facing the very-last-place team for their penultimate match next weekend, though, so that's an almost guaranteed W, and then York City in 19th for their finale on the 29th. If Notts wins out they have 109 points and Wrexham is at 104 with 3 matches to go, so very probably* will need 6 points from 3 matches. Seems doable, but will be much helped by taking care of business on Tuesday afternoon vs Yeovil.
* or 5 points and overcoming a 4-goal GD deficit (unlikely barring some huge blowout win, especially since Notts would have two more wins in this scenario).
Remaining games are vs Yeovil (22nd), vs Boreham (6th), and @Torquay (21st but winners of 5 in a row). Notts County is facing the very-last-place team for their penultimate match next weekend, though, so that's an almost guaranteed W, and then York City in 19th for their finale on the 29th. If Notts wins out they have 109 points and Wrexham is at 104 with 3 matches to go, so very probably* will need 6 points from 3 matches. Seems doable, but will be much helped by taking care of business on Tuesday afternoon vs Yeovil.
* or 5 points and overcoming a 4-goal GD deficit (unlikely barring some huge blowout win, especially since Notts would have two more wins in this scenario).
Not an entirely inspired half from Wrexham.
Draw is pretty much as good as a loss at this point in the season so it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
Draw is pretty much as good as a loss at this point in the season so it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
nil/nil in the 55th minute isn't what the hollywood writers had in mind.
A draw today isn't terrible, would put them 3 pts up on Notts with 2 matches left for each. A win and a draw would still get them promoted but they are really not making this easy on themselves.
EDIT: and there we go 1-0 Wrexham!
A draw today isn't terrible, would put them 3 pts up on Notts with 2 matches left for each. A win and a draw would still get them promoted but they are really not making this easy on themselves.
EDIT: and there we go 1-0 Wrexham!
Can do it at the Racecourse on Saturday. Hope they do it, the fans deserve to celebrate at home with the team.
I didn't get to watch but was able to listen to the radio broadcast of the match. They mentioned that Wrexham have now set an English record for points in a season across all leagues. And they still haven't clinched! Amazing seasons for both them and Notts County.
Notts County plays earlier on Saturday so it's theoretically possible that Wrexham will have it wrapped up before they take the pitch. Only theoretical though -- they are playing the worst team in the league.
Boreham Wood appear to be a decent team. They should be motivated, because I believe that a win would lock up a playoff spot for them. Actually, I think even a draw would, effectively, because they are in very good shape with a game in hand.
I don't think draw draw is going to be enough to win the league for Wrexham. Notts County has them on goal difference. Assuming Notts County win both of their remaining games, Wrexham cannot catch them with draw draw. Notts County has two pretty easy games.
So anything but a win for Wrexham, and they likely will need all three points on the last matchday. They play Torquay United last, which may not be a great situation. Torquay got crushed today, but before that, they had made up 18 points in 7 games to move way up the table and almost out of the drop zone. Pretty good form. If Torquay loses this Saturday, they will have nothing but pride to play for against Wrexham, but if they win this Saturday, they will have it all to play for. That's not the kind of game that Wrexham wants to go into needing all three points away I wouldn't think.
The Red Dragons have to earn this, they won't back into the automatic promotion. Notts is going to win out so Wrexham has to win one of their two reamaining matches. Both clubs have had amazing seaons, it's a shame one is going to have to head to a playoff to move up.
I paid for the official stream at nationalleaguetv.com. I'd imagine there are less "official" sources available as well.
Mullin again! 3-1, about 20 minutes left.
They must be going nuts at the Racecourse. Watching this thread and score updates on the road, this is so compelling. Never had a promotion/relegation drama before, love it from this direction.
These guys are so easy to like. Just a great interview:
View: https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1649867898083581957
View: https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1649867898083581957
Never know how it would have played out, but it looks like that Foster penalty save will be the difference in the league.
Can’t really compare leagues, but just to give a sense, on a points per game basis Notts County would have 91 points if they played 38 games as in the EPL. That is pretty extraordinary if they don’t go up.
Can’t really compare leagues, but just to give a sense, on a points per game basis Notts County would have 91 points if they played 38 games as in the EPL. That is pretty extraordinary if they don’t go up.