Kind of hard to imagine it.
League 2 side Newport County unveiled former English international Terry Butcher as manager this afternoon, and made quite the bold statement about where he potentially sees the Welsh town in the future.
Butcher cited the rise of Swansea, Bournmouth and Burnley in making it to the promised land of the Premier League, and reckons with the right backing and planning, we could be seeing little old Newport County mixing it with the like of Man United and Chelsea in years to come.
“It can happen, providing you get the right structure in place, the right team in place and the right philosophy in place, and that’s what we want to do now, it starts pre-season.”
A little bit taken aback at the prediction, a journalist then specifically asked him if Newport could become a Premier League team, to which he replied: “Who knows? Given the right structure, given the right team, given the right leadership, given the right everything else, given the right circumstances, then yeah.
“I’m not coming into a club that’s struggled, or a club having a bad time. This is a club that has had good times recently and is having a good time this season”
While we don’t mean to be disrespectful, it may be a stretch to compare Newport’s situation with that of Burnley, Swansea and Bournmouth. Newport are only back in the Football League since 2013, having been a non league club for 25 years, and while yes, in theory, they could be a Premier League club, it may take several decades and a few miracles along the way.
In theory, they could also secure a playoff spot on the final day of the season tomorrow, but they’re three points off seventh place Plymouth, who have a goal difference advantage of 18.
Still, who knows?
Hat-tip BBC
