As a neutral who goes to watch several Whitley Bay home games each season i am quite shocked to see how many Bay players have been transferred over to North Shields to join former Bay manager Marc Nash. I should know that players follow players but these recent events suggest to me a lack of money at Whitley Bay. However, i don't think the players that have left today will be a big miss to The Bay but they do need to sign 6 or 7 experienced northern league players to have a chance of remaining in the first division Luke Salmon is a positive signing I will continue to watch Whitley and North Shields and i enjoy their brand of football. Whitley Bay FC need to start thinking out of the box and look for new ways of bringing in income.
I think we need to allow a selection of Northern English non-league sides into the Irn Bru Cup. I think the addition of non Scottish sides (from Wales, and the two Irelands), into the trophy is great because it allows fans to travel to new places with their football buddies. The fans of clubs that never or rarely get to play in Europe, get to test their sides against non Scottish sides. But I think non-league northern English sides would add something extra to the trophy. I am not suggesting these sides would bring huge amounts of money into the trophy. I am not suggesting Blyth Spartans would bring 20,000 fans to see St Mirren, or that Bt Sport would spend 10 million quid on rights for a Gateshead V Cowdenbeath game. I am suggesting they would bring new teams to play in competitive games. New grounds, new journeys, new fans, new landscapes, and new players to see. Just imagine the fun in travelling to interesting stadiums, and towns, for the football games. The fans of the smaller clubs see this as their equivalent of European football. Many of the smaller teams bring relatively big crowds for their cross border games. The advantage of Northern English non-league sides is it adds a bunch of clubs that are not that far from Scotland, yet have rich histories, large fan bases, and interesting stadiums. This could allow new teams. I know that sometimes these English teams would win the Scottish Challenge Cup (AKA Irn Bru Cup). But I do believe it would spark interest from the Scottish V English intensity. Some people might say UEFA would not allow it. But I cannot understand why UEFA would allow Welsh and Irish sides into the trophy but non non league English sides. I do not want to see the British leagues merging, as I love that we have our own leagues. But let’s just have more cross border cups. I would also support a British and Irish Premier Cup played by Scottish, English, Welsh, Northern Irish Premier sides, plus all English Premier League sides not in the main European trophies. Diolch.
