I thought this poll might be interesting to see people’s opinions. Remember vote with your head not your heart.

I've voted for L1 because of the owners' focus on sustainability. If we get to L1 they'll want us to find our feet, build up attendances and commerical revenues even more (maybe redevelop the ground?), and put tgoether a better squad without just splashing the cash. Then push on to the championship when we're ready. They're the opposite of the instant success buying attentions seekers who own some clubs.

Hopefully Forest will be in L1 as well at that point, saddled with massive debts and heavy points deductions.

League 1 for me.

The sustainability bit means that we will have to slowly build up the Notts resources to challenge for the Championship.

League 1 is my prediction and staying there for an extended period of time.

I would like to see a similar path as Lincoln. They are relatively well run, as well run as an EFL side can be given the costs involved and lack of revenue so you'd expect financial losses which Lincoln have had. But they have investors whom I see a lot of similarities with who don't throw good money after bad money. They are prepared to sell players when the time is right which shows mature owners that run the club like a business which is what we as fans need, our job is to be emotional and theirs to be sensible. We have done this just this past summer when selling Alex Bass. They also like to shop in the European markets which is something that Richard Montague talked about in his interview. I would argue with our stadium and potential fan base we have a theoretical higher ceiling than Lincoln but in terms of going from League Two to possible Championship theirs is the path I foresee for us.

What will dictate how we do over the next 5 years will be how stable we are with managers, you only have to look around to see that clubs that stick with their managers (and DoF) have more success in the long run. Chopping and changing managers isn't the answer in my opinion.

I wasn't a big fan of MP to start with, I even thought he would be gone by Halloween but I was wrong. He has done a wonderful job and we would do well to hold on to him as long as possible regardless of how this season pans out.

Heart says Championship, but head says League 1. Which when we consider the mess we were in when we were relegated to the National League is a good return from the brothers management of the club. Well run clubs like Brighton, Bournemouth and Brentford didn’t do overnight. They have been able sustain their place in the Premier League. Unlike others who make it and then drop through the leagues like a stone!

Thanks McPie, great question. I've gone for Championship. Promotion this year or next and then 3 years in League One with continuous improvements year on year. You advised to vote with head not heart. I tried but the heart wouldn't be sidelined for this task I'm afraid. My prediction is based partly on the interview given by the brothers when they bought the club in 2019. They have the Championship in their sights I'm sure and from memory their initial time frame was 10 years.

I’d like to believe we could get higher, but promotion this season and some consolidation in L1 is the most probable option. Competing in the top 3rd of L1 would actually be ok, anything better would be a real bonus.

There are too many ifs, buts & maybes to be taken into account. Fresh investment, new owners, a couple of “major/significant” signings or 1 mega season etc could all affect the outcome.

I’ve gone for league one too, although I’d love it to be Championship but that might take longer than 5 years. I just hope I’m still around when/if they make it. At the rate my friends (who are the same age as me or younger) are popping off lately I’d say the odds aren’t very good. 😢

It's L1 with a bullet.

So much has changed since we seemed naturals for the second tier in the 1970s. In the intervening decades so many other clubs that were considered below us at the time have got their acts together - Brentford, Bournemouth, Swansea, Blackburn, Fulham, etc etc. Other sleeping giants now more regularly punch their weight.

In England, football is just about the only thing that has kept on progressing, while everything else has gone to ****.

Just look at the NL, all those historic football league clubs battling it out. Clubs like Salford, Bromley muscling into the EFL and staying there. All boats have lifted, including Notts. Who would've thought in those top flight years with only 8K, or those trust years on 4K that we'd bounce back and regularly get close to 10K? And being based in the 'much bigger than people realise' Nottingham metropolitan area, we have the potential for even greater growth. But 10K is a struggle at Tier 2 these days and its made up of a formidable list of big 1-club cities. And don't forget every decade a number of towns turn into cities because of growth - including Colchester, Doncaster, Milton Keynes, and Wrexham in 2022.

As things stand our natural position could be around 9th in L1. In fact we'd be good candidates to be that club that stays in the same tier for the longest time, and that tier would be L1.

Momentum can take teams up straight from L2 to Championship. But have you seen that league recently? I wouldn't want that if it meant a crushing relegation soon afterwards. The bros model of a consolidating might be the better long-term strategy and over time we might become that big city club that can mix it in the top two levels eventually.

League 1 for all the above reasons so very well explained.

EFL1 for me too

Although promotion would bring in additional TV distribution £'s, the losses for "normal" clubs in EFL1 tend to go up from £1m -£1.5m to towards £2m -£3m a season.

A Cambridge Utd podcaster said recently, EFL1 is 2 divisions within one, bigger teams dropping from the Championship and the rest, a lottery of avoiding being in the bottom 4 come the end of the season

Notts has spent more of its years in the lowest two tiers, and I don't share any of that entitlement some fans express about us being a "Championship" just because we were part of the foundation of the professional game, or that we are lucky to have a stadium like Meadow Lane. The potential of Notts has always been big, which is where I think some of the misbeliefs come from.

It's like the expectations that we should be walking League Two, when we have only been a stable club since the Reedtz took us over.

I don't knock ambition, or the thought that we should be a Championship team, but I question the merit of some based on expectations rather than realistic logic.

Just to be clear, I am refering to fans who would answer "just because", or use weak points as to where the club should be." Yet, none of us truly know the path size for the club and I think realistically in five years we will be in League One. For us to become any higher, it's going to take a hell of a lot, and I want nothing more than for us to be playing Championship football but the jouney is going to be difficult. Could we be in the Championship in five years? Yes, but my point is more based on the club structure and current size in comparison to our history.

Consolidation is the key word, work both on and off the pitch is a real necessity to position ourselves in a viable workstream giving foundations to build momentum from season to season. Slowly, slowly catchee monkey. Have faith in the brothers by backing the club as a whole. EFL 1 to start me thinks. ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

League One seems likeliest for me so that's what I went for. Promotion will be a close thing this season, but if we keep banging on the door we'll get in eventually over the next five years. And I hope and believe that once we're there, we'll consolidate. As for getting higher up, that's tricky. Even L1 has changed a lot since we were there, at the very top you have clubs that were recently in the Premier League, parachute payments and all, or clubs with big money behind them - Birmingham were there last season, Leicester could be there the next. We'd be competing with clubs with setups and financial backing a world away from ours. So winning promotion to the Championship would require everything to go perfectly, and staying there even more so. I think the Championship is the reasonable limit of our ambitions at this point in time, but it's an outside shot IMO.

4 hours ago, Chris said:

Notts has spent more of its years in the lowest two tiers, and I don't share any of that entitlement some fans express about us being a "Championship" just because we were part of the foundation of the professional game, or that we are lucky to have a stadium like Meadow Lane.

We've spent much more of our League existence in the second or third tier than in the fourth, our recent run in L2 from the 2000s onwards is a historical anomaly. Meadow Lane was built the way it was because we had a realistic ambition of reaching and staying in the Premier League at the time. But the Championship has transformed completely since we left it in 1995 and we really shouldn't feel entitled to play there.

19 hours ago, DangerousSausage said:

We've spent much more of our League existence in the second or third tier than in the fourth, our recent run in L2 from the 2000s onwards is a historical anomaly. Meadow Lane was built the way it was because we had a realistic ambition of reaching and staying in the Premier League at the time. But the Championship has transformed completely since we left it in 1995 and we really shouldn't feel entitled to play there.

I stand correct about the fourth tier, but one of Derek Pavis’ biggest mistakes was voting in favour of the formation of the Premier League to branch out from the Football League. I respect that he rebuilt Meadow Lane and had the ambition to see it used on the international stage, but we sold far too many good assets. Assets that lacked genuine talent or managers who weren't afforded the necessary time to thrive.

If my maths is correct, prior to the foundation of the Premier League we had spent 32 seasons in the First Division, 37 in what would now be the Championship, 35 in League One, and 21 in League Two (the fourth tier).

Although, a very big factor is just how much Sky and the redistribution of funds has played a role in how a team progresses.

43 minutes ago, Chris said:

but one of Derek Pavis’ biggest mistakes was voting in favour of the formation of the Premier League to branch out from the Football League.

That was Jack Dunnett @Chris

1 hour ago, Piethagoram said:

That was Jack Dunnett @Chris

Are you sure? Reason I ask is I watched a documentary about the foundation of the Premier League and it showed as the narriator was talking about letters sent in to the committee, which showed one from Derek Pavis. The documentary went on to mention how it stung us, among clubs like Luton Town and Oldham Athletic.

This is something I have asked people involved in the history of the club to do, and I once spoke to Michael (Pavis) who expressed he wished we hadn't voted in favour.

I thought Jack had left Notts by the time the voting took place?

Dunnett was Chairman of Notts County from 1967, financing the club's regular annual losses by making interest free loans from his company, Park Street Securities. The Club paid a low rent to their landlords who were Nottingham Council. Dunnett inaugurated a fundraising scheme "life line" in 1986. Then in 1987, he stood down as Director and sold all his shares to Derek Pavis, completely severing his connection with the club.

You are right @Chris My memory is fading!

Dunnett voted through that clubs could keep 100% of home receipts

Has to be L1 in my opinion. We will do well to make the automatics this year given some really tough fixtures remaining. And then it will be the playoff lottery. So anything could happen. I just hope that the Brothers keep the faith with MP as I feel he has the attributes to be a successful manager at this level.

If he can't make it this year then, maybe next or even the year after. It won't be easy as some wild investors will come in again to another club and try to do a Wrexham or MK.