(24 Mar 2014, 4:01 pm)AdamY wrote Exactly.
Sometime I hear people falsely state that the North East is a hotbed of Football and it really does makes me laugh. There may be some passionate fans in the area, but where are the teams and where are the players?
The North East have four teams in the Football League and one in the Conference. Compare that with how many teams the North West, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and London have in those divisions and you'll find that we are poorly represented. Towns with sizeable populations (over 30,000) like Blyth, Consett, Washington, Peterlee, Durham and South Shields should be able to generate enough fans to sustain Football League clubs. However, they all linger in non-league divisions with wavering support. Darlington is the exception to this rule as I believe that the club and supporters have enough ambition to reach either the Conference or the Football League.
As for players, where exactly is the talent being developed? Sunderland and Newcastle both have academies but very few players seemingly come through the ranks. Oliver Bernard has said he wants to create an academy at Durham City. For the sake of North East football - I hope he succeeds.
Dont know about being the hotbed of football, we do have some of the best fans, very passionate, looking at this area we have(down to Conference North) 3 in Tyne and Wear, 2 in Cleveland and 0 in County Durham
When you say Yorkshire do you mean North, South and West Combined.
North Yorkshire only has 1 League Team(York) with Harrogate Town in Conference North
West Yorkshire has Leeds, Huddersfield, FC Halifax, Bradford City with Guiseley and Bradford PA in Conference North
South Yorkshire has Sheff Wed, Sheff Utd, Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley
That makes 12 if Yorkshire is combined.
I think the real hotbed is probably the North West, I wont even start naming them, but they have more than 1 club in just about every division right down to Conference North.
As for areas round here that could sustain a team high up the Pyramid, I disagree, the only teams below the Conference who could sustain a Conference/Conference North team right now is probably Spennymoor Town and possibly Celtic Nation...
We could be a hotbed of football if Northern League decide to play ball with National League System, there has only been a handul of teams promoted from the Northern League in the last 25 years(Gretna, Blyth, Durham, Newcastle Blue Star and us last year) and it looks like one of Spenny or Celtic Nation will come up this year.
I truly believe in my heart that places like Durham, Bishop, W£$t, Shildon and possibly Consett could do themselves justice at Evo-Stik Premier Division level and Spenny would probably be decent in Conference North.
Out of the teams you mentioned, 2 have had League experience(Durham and South Shields) as has Ashington and Darlington, who I must say will get there again, whether it be 5 or 10 years. Peterlee would never sustain a team in the pyramid, they are currently in the Wearside League now and dont like there going anywhere, anytime soon
At the end of the day you ask where are the teams, well there in a little Northern League bubble, teams happy enough creating a bottleneck at the top as they have very little ambition to progress.
As for Olivier Bernard, I am not sure what he is in it for, can't be money, finances are slim at that level and he will already have a quite a few quid squirrelled away, I worry for Durham, if they get back to the Evo-Stik Premier what will Bernard do if they Conference are still digging there heels in regarding 3G pitches, will he simply accept it or will he pull the financial plug, which would see Durham f****d again...If he makes it work, then good for him, I suppose he has some very good contacts in the game, especially Newcastle and maybe the other pro clubs in the region.
I will leave it at that, I am starting to ramble on now
