Where did it all go wrong...

[newmarketterrier]

Having a bit of a tidy up came across this article in Goal ! magazine from June 1971.

I was only youngster at the time but would be interested to hear views on how within 4 years we were in the 4th Division.

[Chips Longhorn]

Only towns three year plan could be " get relegated, then get relegated again, and again "

[E4b]

Same old story, no brass!

[Giggity]

Not to worry, we have a 5 year plan now.

[Melc]

I remember it well, just a pity it is not now with £100m in our pocket instead of peanuts in them days!

[Sugy , Paignton Devon Terrier]

Town had a chairman in 1970 called Frank Drabble who did not like spending money plus there were rumours at the time that he had little or none to spend as in them days you didnt recieve 150 million for getting in the top flight . Sadly Town  could not compete at the highest  level with the lack of strenth and depth and  relegation saw top players like Cherry and Worthington being be sold on to balance the books plus no fault manager Ian Greaves was replaced  . In 1970 i was watching Town play at clubs like Liverpool ,Arsenal Man utd etc etc and 9 years later it was the shay at Halifax and shitholes like Valley parade where i would end up with food poisoning after eating a stale pie and having to piss over a cliff as the toilets were that bad.   When you have been there and read the book like i have in my 52 years a fan, you realise where everything started to go wrong and what makes matters worse is seeing the same or similar mistakes being made over and over again as this is going to be a bloody hard season for Town and definitely no room for error with this understrenth squad otherwise those same shitholes await.

[nicovaesen]

My dad often talks about that run of consecutive delegations as I am far too young to remember it. However, I have witnessed my fair share of dross since 1994 (1999/00 season excluded) so can sympathise with him somewhat. Since dean has taken the helm though I have been reignited with that passion and belly fire I felt as a kid in the mid nineties with the hope that he will deliver as he promises he will. Firstly he is a town fan secondly he is a businessman and a shrud one at that. He is right to follow the FFP rules however much he is ridiculed for doing so as we cannot afford to keep paying fines from the FA Where as the likes of QPR, Fulham and Leicester can. So I for one will get behind him and support him and the team this season and help our great club move forward and build a stable base to launch a promotion push to the premier league with the aim of staying there for future generations of town fans to enjoy and not have to endure the misery of lower league football UTT!

[nicovaesen]

Relegations not delegation!!!!

[gledholt terrier]

This is where it all went wrong;

www.fifafootballagent.co.uk/wpb/2011/01/17/football-maximumwage-abolished-anniversary/

Inevitable and right, but it is no coincidence that we have had significant spells in the 2 lowest divisions never seen before the 70s.

69/70 (my first full season) was the exception, not the rule.

[Acetripper]

Here's my view - for what it's worth!

Something called tight-arsed Yorkshire men syndrome has blighted our club at 'Director Level' at crucial times. You know the sort? Bible thumping, don't drink, don't swear, chapel worshipers, who didn't have the ambition and the foresight or vision to realise (even back then) that to merely stand still in football you have to invest and to move forward you have to invest even further. We had the same problem just over ten years prior to this instance under manager Bill Shankly, who wanted to improve the team by bringing in a trio of better players in key positions. What happened? The Town Board didn't back him and 'Shanks', full of ambition himself, left for Liverpool and we all know what happened next. He carved out the foundations of a dynasty with them.

In truth. the team Ian Greaves guided to promotion was more or less in place when he took over from Tom Johnston but Ian was a coach first and foremost and he blended the team turning into a very entertaining mean machine. When we were promoted to the Old First Division (now Premier League) we had the makings of a very good side, the main problem being, we didn't score enough goals to stay protect what we'd achieved. Defensively we were pretty good and as I recall when we were relegated after just two seasons in the top flight we concede the least number of goals by a relegated team since the late 1940's.

The story goes that Frankie, Trevor C and Roy E. asked for more money as an incentive in the fight against relegation, which surprise surprise, was refused. The shortage of goals eventually took it's toll and were relegated back the Division Two. After Frank was transferred to Leicester City and Trevor and Roy went to Leeds Utd some of the money that came in went on bring in Alan Gowling, who was in unfairness, a proven goal scorer. I know this is only conjector in hindsight but had we signed Gowling before Frank was sold I'm convinced we would have stayed up and we could have consolidated.

Once the relegation rot set in it was easy to predict what could/might happen - and it did! I think one of my worst memories of being a Town fan was one Friday night when we lost at home to Torquay and hit 91st position in the entire Football League, that and fact that only four seasons before we had (All too briefly I know) sat at the very top of English First Division. I guess enduring times like those either makes you turn away and take up stamp collecting, or makes you a strong diehard fan.

To be honest at times I've wondered which is the more appealing     

[Essex Terrier]

Jul 23, 2014 9:26:18 GMT 1 Acetripper said:

Here's my view - for what it's worth!

Something called tight-arsed Yorkshire men syndrome has blighted our club at 'Director Level' at crucial times. You know the sort? Bible thumping, don't drink, don't swear, chapel worshipers, who didn't have the ambition and the foresight or vision to realise (even back then) that to merely stand still in football you have to invest and to move forward you have to invest even further. We had the same problem just over ten years prior to this instance under manager Bill Shankly, who wanted to improve the team by bringing in a trio of better players in key positions. What happened? The Town Board didn't back him and 'Shanks', full of ambition himself, left for Liverpool and we all know what happened next. He carved out the foundations of a dynasty with them.

It's a tough decision to make - do we spend more of Dean's money to stay where we are, or do we chuck the lot in the direction of all those grateful, unassuming, modest, charming creatures we know and love as the modern footballer, in order to make the promised land of the premiership?

Hmmmmmmm, tough call?

For what it is worth June 1971 I was a school leaver and started my 1st job working in estate agents in Essex. So, that's two more reasons not to be liked on DATM?

[3Pipe]

Jul 23, 2014 9:08:04 GMT 1 nicovaesen said:

Relegations not delegation!!!!

And 'shrewd' not 'shrud'

[nicovaesen]

Jul 23, 2014 12:08:25 GMT 1 3Pipe said:

Jul 23, 2014 9:08:04 GMT 1 nicovaesen said:

Relegations not delegation!!!!

And 'shrewd' not 'shrud'

Haha cheers for that. I'll blame autocorrect

[Deleted]

Complete lack of anything even resembling luck. Would never happen now would it?

[Sugy , Paignton Devon Terrier]

It seems to be a fact in football that teams dont progress without proper investment but the fair play rules were introduced for a reason and many much prefer to do things the sensible Hoyle way rather than go back down the Rubery road. I very much doubt that Mr Hoyle will be chairman in 5 years time and surely it must have entered his businessman head that it would be far easier to sell a club without serious debt and we must also take into consideration that he is a businesssman first and Town fan second even though he isnt in the game to walk away with  a massive profit  .

[rantinray]

Jul 22, 2014 22:33:29 GMT 1 Giggity said:

Not to worry, we have a 5 year plan now.

And two of those have passed us by with no improvement. As Guns and Roses sang "Where do we go"?

[Headless Chicken]

Jul 23, 2014 21:31:06 GMT 1 rantinray said:

Jul 22, 2014 22:33:29 GMT 1 Giggity said:

Not to worry, we have a 5 year plan now.

And two of those have passed us by with no improvement. As Guns and Roses sang "Where do we go"?

I'm a little concerned myself with this transfer window's activity, but to say we've not made progress in the last two years is ridiculous.

[iangreaves]

Wonderful memories of us getting there, and the first season in the top flight. Unfortunately we wouldn't or couldn't spend enough to keep the dream alive. Leading players notoriously got involved in a so-called pay revolt and it all turned to shit. The same has been happening mostly ever since.

[Melc]

Jul 23, 2014 12:35:57 GMT 1 Sugy , Paignton Devon Terrier said:

It seems to be a fact in football that teams dont progress without proper investment but the fair play rules were introduced for a reason and many much prefer to do things the sensible Hoyle way rather than go back down the Rubery road. I very much doubt that Mr Hoyle will be chairman in 5 years time and surely it must have entered his businessman head that it would be far easier to sell a club without serious debt and we must also take into consideration that he is a businesssman first and Town fan second even though he isnt in the game to walk away with  a massive profit  .

Seems to me this fair play rules letter only arrived at the john smiths stadium, and the rest had their letter boxes taped up!

[Grandfather Berty of Cleck]

Jul 22, 2014 22:17:55 GMT 1 Chips Longhorn said:

Only towns three year plan could be " get relegated, then get relegated again, and again "

Cheeky git,
it was relegated, relegated, SAFE, relegated !!!

[Chips Longhorn]

Yeah, four seasons.... But was it within three calendar years ?

Ps the safe season was my first season watching town.. I thought third division was "normal"

[terracesider]

My favourite season ('69/'70) soon followed a period of "consolidation" and hope ----- the hope being that (as we were "thrice champions") we were, after a period in the doldrums of division two, "back where we belonged." At least that's what some of my more ancient workmates told us....

Any road, as ever, it's easy to blame somebody else's "lack of ambition" and our directors wouldn't but Gowling, Law or Curran until they had the proceeds of the sales of our best players tucked away....The players who left were stigmatized as "greedy boogers" for wanting a bonus to avoid relegation (yes that was the story I remember!) And even though Pugh and Gowling WERE bought the morale inside the club appeared to have been irreparably damaged.

We were not - and are not - a rich club ---- at the time when we were getting gates of around 15,000 in the first division there would have been 40,000 at Anfield or O.T. to watch the grass grow and they frequently got 60,000 +++ there and elsewhere.

Enough on the past --- I'm looking forward to a real push for promotion with some of the younger players coming to the fore as did Frankie, Geoff Hutt, Trevor Cherry, viva Bobby Hoy, Terry Poole and so on during that halcyon period.

UTT

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2014 12:14:35 GMT 1 @pruneface said:

Complete lack of anything even resembling luck. Would never happen now would it?

It was absolutely nothing to do with luck, and everything to do with greed and short-sightedness:-

1. In the close season after promotion we spent £70,000 putting seating in the paddock at the front of the main stand, to increase revenue. It would have been better invested in someone to play next to Frank, and in those days that money would get you a very decent striker
2. The defence was solid, but goals were the problem, yet we persevered in the belief that Greenhalgh, Mahoney and David Smith could cut it at the top level when they obviously couldn't. In the second season we went three months without scoring a goal in a home league match, which says it all. Having achieved top level status we spent virtually nothing trying to stay there, despite an average home attendance of over 23,000 in our first season back.
3. Only once we were relegated (and had received over £200k for Frank, Cherry and Ellam) did we spend any money, and wasted a slice of that on Graham Pugh......Gowling was a good buy to be fair, as he scored goals and we got our money back on him, and a little more from memory.
4. Forest, who went down with us, and were then not that far apart from us in potential, won two European Cups within 10 years.

In the early seventies we were run by small men with little or no imagination, I met one or two of them at the time, and wasn't impressed.

Thank goodness we finally have the right man at the top