Unlike Manchester United women's team…..
I don't know enough about the structure to know how much of a step up the net league will be, does anyone here know?
Yes well Man U gotta start in the second division because they're Man U and only other teams should have to work their way there.
Thanks for thinking of me. Tbh, I've never watched a match in the National League Division 1... Only the division about (the Southern Division).... However, from what I've seen, there are some teams that yo-yo between Southampton's new division and the division above, and when they're in the division above they tend to do pretty badly. QPR being a prime example. There have been some teams that have been promoted from Southampton's new division to the Southern Division and have done reasonably well, like Chichester... Therefore from that I guess it may be quite a competitive league but quite a bit lower than the division above... However, the gulf of quality between divisions is so high in women's football due to the lack of strength in depth, that it probably would be quite a step up.
There are criteria for promotion to the Championship and Super Leagues.....which presumably we can meet, but winds up Pompey Lapras….as it can mean that good teams can be kept down.
Tbf, the criteria doesn't annoy me that much as it does kind of make sense and most teams (including the losing teams in the Hunger Games/play-offs seem to have already fulfilled them (apparently we had when we were in the play-offs), but what annoys me is the constant promotion and relegation being decided by committee, especially when it's a case of replacing a less glamorous team (e.g. Doncaster) with a more 'glamorous' team (e.g. Man £ity) with on field success (or failure) not being the decider for promotion (or relegation).That's why I have more respect for Spurs and Brighton than Leicester or West Ham, at least they've earned their promotions.
Also, I hate the play-offs because both the Northern and Southern winners should both get promoted and the consequences for the losing team can be pretty catastrophic as many of the losing team players will end up being signed (for no compensation) for WSL teams so the team will be a lot weaker next year, and end up being mid-table or fighting relegation, except in the case of Blackburn who seem to consistently be up there, but I feel like one day not making the final leap will come back to haunt them. Take Portsmouth, we won the League in 2014, lost in the play-offs and now we're a shadow of our former selves, we've lost so many players to the WSL and are nowhere near title contenders... Yet had we won a single match in 2014, we'd have gotten into the WSL, we'd have more money, more media coverage, we'd have kept a lot more players, we wouldn't be playing a Wessex league stadium probably... Who knows where we'd be now... That's why I hate the play-offs, there's so much on the line. It's why I call it the Hunger Games, relative riches and glory awaits the winners, a slow demise awaits the losers.
And it's nothing to do with being bitter about Portsmouth missing out, otherwise I wouldn't care about the play-offs today as they don't affect us and affect other teams, but despite that I still hate them and I'd change the system if I could even though it wouldn't benefit us, but at least other clubs wouldn't have to suffer the systematic dismantling of the club as a result of a single match.