The reaction to Forest Green Rovers' decision to withdraw everything else to focus solely on the Men’s first team has divided opinion.
Some point to the brutal economics of life outside the Football League. Losing around £1.5 million in parachute payments is a huge financial blow. If a planned partnership collapses at the last minute, as Forest Green say happened with Hartpury University, difficult decisions become even harder.
I don't doubt the financial pressures are real. What I struggle with is the conclusion.
The club's statement makes it clear that every available resource is now being directed towards one objective: getting the men's first team back into the EFL. That's a strategy. But it also raises a bigger question.
What is a football club?
Over the past few weeks, I've been lucky enough to sit down with three people from very different parts of Sutton United: Steve King, who has spent years building the club's disability section; Lucy Clark, who has overseen another season of progress with the women's team; and Glen Nichols, who leads our academy programme.
None of those conversations were about Forest Green. Yet together, they answered that question perfectly.
Steve King told me that when Sutton's disability section was created, the aim wasn't simply to provide football. From the very beginning, the players were to be treated exactly like the first team. The same kit. The same tracksuits. The same bags. The message was simple: "You're part of Sutton United."
Lucy Clark spoke proudly about another season of progression. Fourth place. A run to the third round of the FA Cup. Beating Brentford, and defeating champions Dartford twice. Perhaps most importantly, she highlighted two 17-year-olds playing around 30 first-team matches because the pathway through the club is actually working.
Then Glen Nichols spoke about life after relegation.
Like Forest Green, Sutton came down. And coming down meant we lost our official Category 3 academy status. We couldn't simply carry on as before. There were difficult conversations, and young players inevitably missed out.
But our response wasn't to abandon youth development. Instead, the club adapted. A new college programme was built, a new structure was formed, and the pathway into the first team was fiercely protected. This summer, several academy players have earned professional contracts because that commitment never disappeared. They are still heavily linked to the badge. They still have a home.
Contrast that with Forest Green's approach. Rather than spreading the financial pain across the club, they have chosen to protect investment in the men's first team while withdrawing from other programmes. That is a strategic decision, and one that many are now questioning.
That is where this situation becomes incredibly galling. The men's first team, which is the area of the club generating the biggest financial losses, is rewarded with the club's full attention, focus and remaining capital. Meanwhile, the women's and youth programmes, which operate on a fraction of that budget and make far less of a loss, are simply folded.
Listening to those interviews with Steve, Lucy and Glen, the same phrase kept coming back to me:
More than a football club.
It's a phrase boards love to plaster on stadium walls. The real test is whether they still believe it when money gets tight.
Every football club loses money somewhere. The men's first team at most National League clubs isn't profitable either. Owners absorb those massive losses because they believe promotion is a gamble worth chasing. That's their choice. But it is still a choice.
Personally, I'd rather Sutton United missed out on promotion than became a club that sacrificed its women's team, community work and development pathways in pursuit of it. Because promotion isn't the only measure of success.
Success is a young academy player becoming a first-team footballer. It's a young kid believing there is a genuine pathway for them. It's a disability player pulling on the same shirt as everyone else and feeling every inch a Sutton United player. It's a women's team creating memories in the FA Cup and inspiring the next generation.
Those things don't disappear from a balance sheet. They become the very soul and identity of a football club.
Forest Green say they hope to bring their women's programme back when they return to the EFL. I genuinely hope they do. But rebuilding isn't as simple as pressing a reset button. Players move on. Coaches move on. Families move on.
More importantly, why would any self-respecting player, or parent, ever want to join a club where they are treated as an optional luxury? Why would you buy into a project where you can be discarded the moment things go badly for the men's team - over results you had absolutely no control over?
Perhaps that's why, after speaking to people like Steve, Lucy and Glen, I find myself appreciating Sutton United even more.
Promotion would be wonderful. But if we ever have to choose between becoming an EFL club and remaining the kind of club that genuinely values every single member of its football family, I know which I'd choose.
Because that's what a football club should be.
More than three points.
More than promotion.
More than a league table.
A football family.
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