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Arbroath - Scotlands answer to Leicester ?


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2 hours ago, the philosopher said:

Let's all support the underdogs.

Fantastic if the only part time team in the Championship wins the league.

Gives hope to every small team.

It’s clearly not in the same universe as Leicester winning the PL. There are a lot of extremely poor sides in this league and they are exactly where they deserve to be right now.

If they won the Premiership next season though…

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They're mainly not in the same universe as Leicester because Leicester were being bankrolled by a billionaire and had similar resources to the other clubs in the league, albeit running at a smaller budget than most. Still a great achievement for them to win the league, but if Arbroath get promoted this year, it'll be far more impressive. Just goes to show what's possible for part-timers if the board appoint, support, and hold on to the right manager.

I wonder if any of the chasing pack will do a Celtgers over January and try to filet their squad.

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19 minutes ago, BFTD said:

They're mainly not in the same universe as Leicester because Leicester were being bankrolled by a billionaire and had similar resources to the other clubs in the league, albeit running at a smaller budget than most. Still a great achievement for them to win the league, but if Arbroath get promoted this year, it'll be far more impressive. Just goes to show what's possible for part-timers if the board appoint, support, and hold on to the right manager.

I wonder if any of the chasing pack will do a Celtgers over January and try to filet their squad.

That's a fair point but did Leicester have Dick Campbell? 

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21 minutes ago, BFTD said:

They're mainly not in the same universe as Leicester because Leicester were being bankrolled by a billionaire and had similar resources to the other clubs in the league, albeit running at a smaller budget than most. Still a great achievement for them to win the league, but if Arbroath get promoted this year, it'll be far more impressive. Just goes to show what's possible for part-timers if the board appoint, support, and hold on to the right manager.

I wonder if any of the chasing pack will do a Celtgers over January and try to filet their squad.

I’d guess the financial disparity ratio between Leicester and clubs like Man City, Man United and Chelsea at that time would have been greater than Arbroath to Kilmarnock, Dunfermline and Partick Thistle is currently.

Arbroath winning this league would be a fantastic achievement, but it’s not on the same level of shock as Leicester’s PL win.

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5 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

I’d guess the financial disparity ratio between Leicester and clubs like Man City, Man United and Chelsea at that time would have been greater than Arbroath to Kilmarnock, Dunfermline and Partick Thistle is currently.

Arbroath winning this league would be a fantastic achievement, but it’s not on the same level of shock as Leicester’s PL win.

That's true, but it really should be.

It's not so much the finances at this level, although that plays a big part, but the time and energy that players can dedicate to, what will be to many, a second job. If they somehow can come up, it'll be very interesting to see how The Bunnet does with a full-time squad again. I've a feeling they won't be coming straight back down.

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41 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

I’d guess the financial disparity ratio between Leicester and clubs like Man City, Man United and Chelsea at that time would have been greater than Arbroath to Kilmarnock, Dunfermline and Partick Thistle is currently.

Arbroath winning this league would be a fantastic achievement, but it’s not on the same level of shock as Leicester’s PL win.

Behave. The Leicester side that won the league were a top, full time team of millionaires and international footballers, managed by a big name with a pedigree, playing against teams with a similar setup and financial clout. People talk as if they were a rag-tag bunch of plumbers and brickies on £50 a week.

Arbroath are a part-time side with no benefactor, playing against full time teams with, mostly, far bigger budgets. While all other players in the league are training or “resting”, we have guys like e.g. Bobby Linn emptying bins before travelling to training TWICE a week in Perth. Or working all day before playing midweek games. We also still have some players who were with us when we were scrabbling around at the bottom of League 2. The disparity of setup and expectation is huge, far greater than between one set of full time millionaire pros and another.

This reminds me of Celtic fans claiming their victory at home v Barcelona in the CL was a greater achievement than us drawing with them at Celtic Park in the cup a few weeks later. Utterly deluded.

Edited by Tattie36
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14 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:

Behave. The Leicester side that won the league were a top full time team of millionaires and international footballers managed by a big name with a pedigree, playing against teams with a similar setup and financial clout.

Arbroath are a part time side with no benefactor, playing against full time teams and, mostly, far bigger budgets. While all other players in the league are training or “resting”, we have guys like e.g. Bobby Linn emptying bins before travelling to training TWICE a week. We also still have some players who were with us when we were scrabbling around at the bottom of League 2. The disparity of setup and expectation is huge, far greater than between one set of full time millionaire pros and another.

This reminds me of Celtic fans claiming their victory at home v Barcelona in the CL was a greater achievement than us drawing with them at Celtic Park in the cup a few weeks later. Utterly deluded.

Time to take off the maroon-tinted specs. The majority of teams at this level likely have around double or triple the budget that Arbroath do, but it’s hardly some impoverished social club taking on multi-millionaires. I don’t see many Thai conglomerates throwing cash at Raith Rovers or Ayr United, so the fact there’s no benefactor behind Arbroath is a complete irrelevance because there isn’t for any other club at this level either. Club income at this level is generated by ticket sales and sponsorships; Arbroath are currently getting similar numbers of fans through the door then plenty of the FT clubs, and I can’t imagine there’s a huge difference in the amount of sponsorship money generated between Arbroath and someone like Raith or Ayr either.

Nobody at this level has the level of financial disparity over Arbroath that the likes of Man City and Chelsea did over Leicester at that time. The level of the English top flight as a whole is a useless comparison because it’s all relative. And relatively speaking Arbroath are closer to Kilmarnock than Leicester were to Man City at that time.

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The budgets aren’t the issue here though are they? It’s the difference between being full time and part time, that’s the huge disparity.

I’m not meaning the quality of players as I think we have a few guys who could play for any side in the league, or above, it’s more the lifestyle - the balance of training, rest, mid-week match preparation etc and the ability of the coaching team to work with the players every day. Players at every level, even down to the non leagues are much fitter than they were in the past so that’s not the issue but I imagine it’s incredibly difficult to spend much time on anything other than the basics when a team’s limited to 3 or 4 hours training a week.

Edited by Tattie36
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