Chris Dunlavy
A FRESH TAKE ON FOOTBALL
ON THE eve of the 2020-21 campaign, Matt Gray was asked to keep Sutton United in the National League.
“He failed miserably,” quipped chairman Bruce Elliott, who was as astonished as everybody else when the Non-League lifers somehow beat Wrexham, Stockport, Notts County and Chesterfield to the title.
Sutton were never supposed to be an EFL club. They had part-time players. A 3G pitch. Crowds that frequently dipped below 1,500 spectators. Gray, a former Tottenham and Cardiff youth player, hosted quiz nights in the clubhouse to raise funds.
Promotion necessitated new floodlights, seats in the away end, turnstiles and Wi-Fi. Players demanded full-time contracts.
Most significantly, an EFL ban on artificial surfaces also forced Sutton to rip up a pitch that was fundamental to the way the club operated.
Gander Green Lane’s stateof-the-art pitch was used by everybody - academy, ladies, boys, girls, disability teams, walking football - and hired out to the public when it wasn’t in use.
Literally and figuratively, the costs associated with its removal were enormous; £500,000 to uproot the synthetic turf and lay a grass surface; ongoing losses of around £200,000 per year as a result of being unable to hire it out; renting somewhere to train. In addition, a precious link to the community was severed.
At the time, euphoria ruled. Elliott called EFL clubs “dinosaurs” for their refusal to sanction synthetic surfaces but there was no real prospect of Sutton spurning a maiden promotion into the Football League after 123 years. Who would? Emotionally and politically, it just isn’t the done thing.
Tough
Yet three years on, the magic has evaporated. Pre-weekend, Sutton were bottom of League Two, not quite adrift but a long way from friendly shores.
Steve Morison, who replaced Gray in January, could still save the day. It’s a tough task, however, and if the trapdoor swings open then Sutton may be left to reflect that their three-year thrill ride was not worth the trouble.
What, for instance, would they do about the pitch? Logic suggests a reversion to artificial turf, but that’s another £500,000 down the drain and - unless the EFL changes its stance - another expensive refit in the event of promotion.
Likewise, should Sutton continue to offer full-time contracts or gradually transition to the ‘three-quarter-time’ model that prevailed before?
Back then, their players earned an average of £750 per week. Now, that figure is closer to £1,200.
Cliff edge
Underpinning these thorny issues is
