Thetownend.com

Good Luck to them....

sadly a small club who made the "big time" in Scotland too fast and have lived beyond their means. There owner is in hospital and therefore has stopped giving the club money. The club play their home games miles away in Motherwell. The club are in debt and have to get £30,000 tomorrow to pay players, book hotels or thats the end of it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/g/gretna/7291519.stm

I think the SPL deserve a fair share of the criticism to a certain extent.  Gretna are a tiny club, who should never have been allowed to groundshare with Motherwell, the club was just too small to cope.

Good luck to them, hopefully they can ride this storm out.

Noone can survive on the crowds they have got, wasn't it sub 500 the other day?

A real rags to riches to rags story. Hope they sort something out

Jumping up the divisions so fast has had such a bad impact on them.
Thats why another year in League One would be good for us, by the end of next season we should be out of the red as Fitton stated, and the club will be more advanced with the stadium plans etc. Next season will be our year. :D

Good luck to Gretna. But I really can see them going under. :(

Real shame there's a great story behind the side.  Hopefully they can re-structure and sort themselves out.

They remind me of Rubbish and Dustbins in a way when the wheels came off in League one after they lost their backer and promptly sank once again back into the conference.

Gretna's population is only about 3,000 I think??

I know it's the norm to say tough luck,  hope they pull through, etc etc but I really really really don't give a fuck about cunting Gretna. Sorry.  :|

Got to feel for the real Gretna fan base though who have supported the club, Sadly the benefactors gone and its gone tits up. Good luck to them but it looks very bleak indeed.

I like for the fact they won me a forune in gambling alone.   :D

What, all 15 of them?

Gretna were a rich mans toy: he bankrolled them to a ridiculous degree.

How many would feel sorry for chelski if abramovich pulled out?

I'd piss myself laughing..........................

I would feel sorry for the REAL chelsea fans not the glory hunters who showed up when Roman did. Gretna are fucked and I do feel sory for the 15 or so REAL Gretna fans  8)  However too many clubs are trying to run before they can walk and suffer...

It is all good and well the owner wanting to get them into the big league but he must have realised that with a population of 3000 he would be doomed to fail .

Ok maybe the Gretna fans have always dreamed of playing in the Spl but it seems to have come at a massive price and im sure the fans wish they were that little club again who had a doctor up front .

Maybe I'm being harsh, but surely they realised it couldn't be sustained?

Fitton appears to have the right idea (Thank God) stabilise the club and run it like a business, not a toy.

There fans travel to games on a JCB  8)

like Nizlopi?

I hope gretna fold. Fucking mickey mouse club.

I dont, its funny watching them play as they are so shit.

It cound get even funnier if Hamilton Accies win promotion this season  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

When I was a lad it seemed the Accies went up and down every season...not sure if that ever happened...or I imagined it...

Just goes to show what a joke that league is.

No wonder the two best teams want in down here.

How does that show that the SPL is a joke?  Because a multi millionaire spent a shit load of money and took a small club into the SPL?

Well in that case Swindon Town should never be allowed to go into the premiership again.  For we are just a small town club, with shit support (defo not up to premiership standards) and quite clearly do not deserve the millions of Fitton and Co.  In fact let's close the league membership off so no other clubs can rise through the leagues.  Stop promotion to the premier league and only let "big" clubs compete.

I hope Gretna survive, and I can't believe Will really wants them to go out of business.

Oh and please let me know of another country with a population of 5 million with a better league.  I'm sure there are a handful, but not many.  I hate the old firm but they've done alright in Europe recently, not bad for teams from a joke league.

Rant over. :oops:

I've just been hooked by a fisherman, I feel.

I was only playing!

Thought so.   :oops:

Not at all, it was a throwaway comment. I admire your passion.

It's really not good for me man, red wine is open, sip and relax!!

To Gretna.....

I can't believe any football fan would want a club to go out of business. i wouldn't even wish that on oxford.

having said that.... Franchise, I wouldn't miss.

In my eyes Gretna are the Scottish version of Franchise. Ok not in the same way, but I hate them that much. THe whole thing was always going to happen. Gretna is hardly a big enough town to support a 3rd division team let alone get enough through the gates to fund SPL standard players.

Who gives a fuck Will, that's the beauty of football, you could have 60 years of crap then before you know it you've risen through the leagues and playing premiership matches week in week out.

I was at a party on Sat night, talking to some bloke about football, he says he's from Milton Keynes so I ask him who he supports, he says Franchise. I asked him how he could bear to support such a sham of a club and what it was like having a stadium 1/4 full. he said not sure, doesn't go to games but if they get in the play-off final / JPT he would go to wembley. I called him a plastic fan of a plastic franchise club and told him to fuck off and die and take his "club" (yes I did the finger quote mark thing). I may have had a drink or twelve by that point but I still stand by what I said.

I think we all agree with you axs. Just goes to show how pathetic that club is when "supporters" who live in the town will only go if they are at Wembley. If we had a nice shiny new ground our attendances would be pretty high - atleast for a while.

MK sold 30,000 tickets in a day or 2 for the JPT final. Shows how plastic they really are.

Come on, it's not just MKD who do that!

We'd have exactly the same. MKD are plastic franchise from hell, but every club has the "die hard lifelong fans" who never miss a game on Teletext (shopping, DIY etc permitting) but then only actually show for the playoffs, cup runs etc.

Yes but they didn't support a team 4 years ago. And if they did it was Man U on the telly. They reallty are a joke of a club. I hate them with a passion.

We took 35,000 to Wembley in 93, next league match at CG around the 8,000 mark (home to Oldham).

I think that's about right anyway.

This topics been here for ages. Have they closed yet? Its not one of those gay metaphorical tomorrows is it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/g/gretna/7426281.stm

Gretna relegated to Div 3 (if they can still keep going). What a rollercoaster that's been, from Div 3 to the Premier League and back since 2002!!

Partly shows the danger of being backed by one man who's doing it as a hobby.
Brooks Mileson got ill, then the money stopped - and for a club with no assets they were screwed.

Other top clubs are better covered - ie if Roman ill/died/got bored and left, Chelsea would survive, and probably re-sell.

Back where they belong to be honest, no fanbase, no history and just a rich man's play thing.

Harsh :shock:

True though dell.

Unfortunetly the administrator has told the SFA at the moment he does not see them surviving next season, they expect a decision within the next couple of days on if Gretna will be able to survive full stop.

The administrator has told the league that he will not allow Gretna to start the season if he does not think they will surive the whole season.

Bear in mind the administrator released all staff and players making them redundant so effectively they would have to start from scratch as well

Looks like they now longer cease to exist...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7430745.stm

You might have confused that a little....

poor gretna

Looks like Spartans are favourites to take their place in the league.

Would you tackle this man?

http://meltaylor.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/300-movie-400a0309.jpg

He's got a bloody arrow hanging out of him for god's sake.

As has been said before, they should never have been allowed in the SPL, because they could not stage games close to their own town. They should have shared with Carlisle.

The same is true at international level. Ive got no problem with Lichenstein, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg. But San Marino and Andorra cannot play a game in their own country, which means they shouldnt be there at all.

I dont feel sorry for Gretna fans though to be honest. If you were going to compare them to an English club, it would have to be Rushden and Diamonds. Entirely one mans play thing, once he gets bored or the money runs out they plummet out of the league. It served those fans right. The ones in Northamptonshire who should have been supporting their county team, but instead got on a rich mans bandwaggon. Franchise totally different, not comparable.

good film that.

Gerard Butler? Hell no, not only is he the leader of sparta but hes a psychopathic & mutated musician / dead irish musician.

San Marino do play in their own country.

I couldnt give a fuck about Gretna

Piss poor attitude, they may be scottish but it is still a football club going out of existence I feel for the fan's, and the staff and playerswoh are all out of work now.

Agreed unfortunelty they seemed to be a rich man's play thing, he is no longer able to support them due to ill health so they go bust.

They did overachive granted but even so have some compassion.

Feel for the fans?  Their average crowd was 2600 last season and that includes sizable away folowings from the big clubs up there.  Its the equivalent of a conference south team or maybe lower going bust. I'm sure their hardcore support of about 50 are gutted though.

Feel for the players?  Vast majority will get another club, doubt they really give a fuck to be honest.

Staff?  Yeah I feel for the non football staff who are just everyday people doing everyday jobs (or not as it is now)

And that would be the view of a small minority of premier league teams if we went out of business.  "Who gives a fuck - Swindon only get crap attendances, I'm sure the fans can just go and support another team...."

Rubbish attitude, couldn't care if Gretna only had 2 fans and 5 people working at the club.  At the end of the day (or lunchtime in this case) another football club has gone bust, sad day for the sport.

I've only so much caring to go round. Sadly it dosnt extend to tin pot scottish clubs.

 :shrug:

oxford are tin pot but i wouldn't want to see them go bust.

it's a football team folding which is the shame here.
just hope they bounce back ala Accrington Stanley

I disagree Jan they were a non league club few years back you cant even put them in same comparison as us.  A rich man got them up the leagues so alot of bandwagon jumpers increased an already mediocre following to a still piss poor 2600 to only get that as your average in the highest league shows you have reached the end already.  They only got elected to the Scottish league in 2002 you can barely call them a football club, before that they lingered in the English non leagues.  Joke club I hold no sentiment or upset for there demise.

Again not the same the teams you mention have history and years and years in the game, Gretna have none of this.  They are not massively different to Franchise.

Gone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/g/gretna/7433470.stm

History has nothing to do with it.  Today some football fans of Gretna have lost their club and that is a shame.  So what if a rich bloke took over and got them promotion after promotion.  

What were the Gretna fans supposed to do?  It's a shame that there was no back up plan and yes I admit mistakes were made (in allowing them in the SPL) but it's still not a day for "I told you so's" or "I don't care" as we are all aware here one man's tin pot club, is another man's theatre of dreams.

 

Gretna fans could of tried to save there club, when ours was in danger there were people (trust & others) out fighting to keep it alive.  Bottom line is not enough of them care because they have not been following them long enough.  Gretna coped without a team for years and will go back to just doing that, the few that do care will think of re-forming and starting in the scottish or english lower non leagues.

Come on fella, this attitude stinks.  Just because a club isn't in the league doesn't mean they don't have a club.  Gretna were formed in the 1940's, not 5 years ago.  

If a premier league supporter was talking about us or any league 1 or 2 club like this we'd be up in arms.

Who cares is they had a few hundred fans, the point is those few hundred fans have just lost something dear to them.

Reading plastic fans who have only supported the club for two years were in tears after relegation (how can we ever forget) - and Janaage I think you are 100% right and correct.

Drawing lines where football clubs have enough proper fans to matter is the wrong way to look at football. I can't be arsed to type out the over-wordy diatribe which was about to froth all over this post. So I'll just call you a cunt.

Cunt.

Get a job

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

(not at Gretna)

We played them in Bologna.

Just a pawn for the Italians to get another vote at FIFA/UEFA.

As for Gretna, what theyve done is totally unnatural. Yes its sad for the village of Gretna, but theyve done more than any other village teams in the UK. Like I said, they couldnt host their own games within about 70 miles of their own ground.

when was that? We played them in Serraville in 2000

Just to answer my own question... 1993. They also played Holland in Bologna that year. Every other game has been in Serraville.

Just the big teams then.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

In Serraville? yeah, you arent wrong. THey only play the diddy teams away from there. :mrgreen:

I meant big as in well supported, not big as in fat sweaty blokes eating battered mars bars and washing it down with super strength lager.

Probably more to do with they welcome the well behaved fans in San Marino, whereas trouble making nationalistic wanker supporters are left to the Italians to batten charge.

How dare you talk about the Dutch like that.

Nationalistic wanker fans?

The most apt description of the tartan army I've ever read................