[WBAinDEVON]

Parachute money will go some way to covering his purchase me thinks

[TheBrom]

Parachute money will go some way to covering his purchase me thinks

We'll still be constrained by FFP though and will likely have even less revenue to play with if we go down. Unless we've got relegation clauses in the bulk of our players' contracts that reduces their wages upon relegation.

[Mo]

Seeing nothing from him at all no leadership like a rabbit stuck in the glare of premier league floodlights .

Got a bad feeling about this lot .

[caravanc58]

I'd want to know why the wage bill is around £80m.who s earning all this money?have we got 10 players earning £50k +pw or more? Even if we have that's only around £28m so where s the other £52m going.surely we ain't paying the likes of HRK, McClean, Nyom those sort of wages.
We know Greg's costing around £100k a week.

If I had to guess our top ten earners i would go with.
Evans.    £70k
Foster.    £60k
Rondon.  £50k
Brunt.     Â£50k
Morrison  £50k
Gibbs.      £60k
Barry.      £50k
Chadli.     Â£60k
Phillips.    £50k
Jacob.      £50k
Livermore £50k
Could only think Rodriguez and Dawson are the only other players getting
Anywhere near £50k
I use the term earning lightly.

[TheBrom]

I'd want to know why the wage bill is around £80m.who s earning all this money?have we got 10 players earning £50k +pw or more? Even if we have that's only around £28m so where s the other £52m going.surely we ain't paying the likes of HRK, McClean, Nyom those sort of wages.
We know Greg's costing around £100k a week.

If I had to guess our top ten earners i would go with.
Evans.    £70k
Foster.    £60k
Rondon.  £50k
Brunt.     Â£50k
Morrison  £50k
Gibbs.      £60k
Barry.      £50k
Chadli.     Â£60k
Phillips.    £50k
Jacob.      £50k
Livermore £50k
Could only think Rodriguez and Dawson are the only other players getting
Anywhere near £50k
I use the term earning lightly.

It's been close to 75-80% for the past 4 or 5 seasons. It's the going rate for Premier League players unfortunately. I'm sure I posted all the financial figures including wage percentages somewhere before, but they're all available online. A quick look for example, last reported turnover was £98.3m, staff costs were £73.7m, making it 75%.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Who is this bloke?

I saw something in the paper about only financing two low cost players in January. If that's the best we can hope for then we're screwed. This side isn't good enough and if he took more of an interest he might realise that !

[iwastherein68]

Who is this bloke?

I saw something in the paper about only financing two low cost players in January. If that's the best we can hope for then we're screwed. This side isn't good enough and if he took more of an interest he might realise that !

It could only happen here couldn't it

[Dexy]

Who is this bloke?

I saw something in the paper about only financing two low cost players in January. If that's the best we can hope for then we're screwed. This side isn't good enough and if he took more of an interest he might realise that !

While I'm not defending Lai its Williams who is employed to run the club , he let Pulis play fantasy football sigmings. £108, 000 a week on Greg for starters , a 36 year old Barry , J Rod who looks awful and £15 million on a raw kid in Burke.
Add the other signings and actually I for one can't really call Lai on investment , granted some was self generated but he's not been tight overall . That said he needs to put a bit more in!

[iwastherein68]

I had such high hopes and now they Lai in tatters.

[Standaman]

When he arrived at the club Lai appointed Williams as Chairman and this was generally seen as a good thing given that Williams is very much the traditional "football man" and this dovetailed neatly with the equally traditional "football man" in charge at the time Tony Pulis.

Nick Hammond was a Peace appointment which predated the takeover and might be seen as the wild card here but revealed himself to be in the old school camp when the 1st management appointment was Alan Pardew someone he knew from his time at Reading and fitted the criteria of "Premier League" experience. Williams is the senior party here so Hammond might have just been following orders but the lack of imagination is revealing.

Now we are in a bit of a mess because of the traditional footballing men's ability to do what they do best spend football clubs money badly. Focus on player characteristics such as being good about the place hard working and leadership etc. while overlooking their technical limitations and the basics of team building. Their answer is spend more money which is true to a point but the mountains of money that they can run through without a discernibly better outcome are beyond most owners means. If in doubt look at the money that has gone through Aston Villa and Sunderland in the last decade as a point of reference.

We don't know Lai's thoughts but he cannot be happy with the current position. He has a massive personal investment at stake so at some point he will act. However I have no idea how he will respond. The ownership group have backed Williams and on the face of it that worked well last year and they are no doubt learning about the mechanics of the football business but whether they have the know how to implement a radical change of direction remains to be seen. 

[Albion79]

Well said Dexy, agree with all that.

Its too easy to say typical Albion, lack of ambition, etc. The owners backed Pulis massively in the summer, a lot of posters (myself included) said this was the best squad we have had for 30 years.

Five months down the line it would appear that wasnt the case, looking at it now we have signed good players but not what we needed and who dont fit into how the team played, at that point you have to blame the manager, as far as i know he signed them all.

I think the FFP is largely to blame for us been limited in January isnt it? Get Greg off the wage bill if we can, that frees up £100k, soon as Chadli is fit, wrap him in cotton wool, let it be known in the press that he is fit and we will sell, accept the bid, drive him to the medical ourselves so he dont pull a muscle when driving and sell him, give Pardew the transfer fee and his wages too.

The thing you could blame the board for is giving Pulis a new contract which again in hindsight was a stupid thing to do but they had backed him well.

Can see the logic and why they appointed Pardew as well, its halfway through the season, your asking somebody to come in and try and advance a group of players that has had the footballing life sucked out of it, as we are already seeing its going to take time and so had we got somebody who was the exact opposite of it Pulis it could of madness, Pardew is somewhere inbetween.

[BB74]

I had such high hopes and now they Lai in tatters.

He is an investor and made it clear from the start that rudderless leadership would remain. I don’t know why anyone is surprised.

[Mo]

Who is this bloke?

I saw something in the paper about only financing two low cost players in January. If that's the best we can hope for then we're screwed. This side isn't good enough and if he took more of an interest he might realise that !

Given he only seems to come when we play one of the top six I would say his main criteria is to network the high profile people . We are merely a vehicle to make him some cash whichevet way it comes .

[wba1993dave]

The fact that he only turns up for big games is a disgrace.

[BigFrank20]

You have to hope he isn't sitting back and watching his not inconsiderable investment in WBA football club circling the drain?

We as a club are notorious for not going public until deals are done and dusted and I hope the plan for getting us out of the pooh is being quietly actioned in the background

Look at me the eternal Christmas optimist 

[iwastherein68]

He is an investor and made it clear from the start that rudderless leadership would remain. I don’t know why anyone is surprised.

I'm not surprised, but just had high hopes

[weareblueweare white]

While I'm not defending Lai its Williams who is employed to run the club , he let Pulis play fantasy football sigmings. £108, 000 a week on Greg for starters , a 36 year old Barry , J Rod who looks awful and £15 million on a raw kid in Burke.
Add the other signings and actually I for one can't really call Lai on investment , granted some was self generated but he's not been tight overall . That said he needs to put a bit more in!

He’d have spent £23M on Ben Gibson if Boro accepted it.

[zippyandbungle]

I really don't understand why us not defending properly or Pardew picking clearly out of for players suddenly becomes the owners fault
If he were interefering in selection we would all be going mad ?

Players and manager have to take responsibility for the poor results, Lai put the money down , Greg ain't cheap, Gibbs and the others all cost real money, if anybody else thinks that they can show more "intent" then buy him out..

[baggiejohn]

When he arrived at the club Lai appointed Williams as Chairman and this was generally seen as a good thing given that Williams is very much the traditional "football man" and this dovetailed neatly with the equally traditional "football man" in charge at the time Tony Pulis.

Nick Hammond was a Peace appointment which predated the takeover and might be seen as the wild card here but revealed himself to be in the old school camp when the 1st management appointment was Alan Pardew someone he knew from his time at Reading and fitted the criteria of "Premier League" experience. Williams is the senior party here so Hammond might have just been following orders but the lack of imagination is revealing.

Now we are in a bit of a mess because of the traditional footballing men's ability to do what they do best spend football clubs money badly. Focus on player characteristics such as being good about the place hard working and leadership etc. while overlooking their technical limitations and the basics of team building. Their answer is spend more money which is true to a point but the mountains of money that they can run through without a discernibly better outcome are beyond most owners means. If in doubt look at the money that has gone through Aston Villa and Sunderland in the last decade as a point of reference.

We don't know Lai's thoughts but he cannot be happy with the current position. He has a massive personal investment at stake so at some point he will act. However I have no idea how he will respond. The ownership group have backed Williams and on the face of it that worked well last year and they are no doubt learning about the mechanics of the football business but whether they have the know how to implement a radical change of direction remains to be seen.

As far as Lai is concerned, he's broken one of the primary rules of business, i.e. "Don't go into a business you don't understand".
You're probably right, that he's not at all happy, (considering we were targeting a top 10 finish), &, like you, I'm not sure that he has the contacts for an alternative executive.

I'm not sure I agree with some of your assessments of 2017 signings though. IMO, by & large, we have signed technically superior players, but it's the character that's found wanting.
Personally, I think we have a pretty good bunch of technical players, certainly good enough to keep us in the Premier League, but I'm not sure we've got the leadership that we need. It will be interesting over the next few weeks, to see who actually steps up to the plate.

[hardtobeat]

 the culpability for our current predicament  can be attributed to no one person and can be traced back to the time Roy left, Since then we have had some strange managerial appointments (Irvine  and Mel ) as well as renewal of Pulis' contract, and premature sacking of Clarke. This has been added to by uncertainty over the sale, board room inertia and poor recruitment decisions. I suspect too their has probably been some dressing room disquiet over a number of things particularly over the last 12 months. Add all those things up and it is no wonder we are a ship heading for the rocks of relegation with a ready made scapegoat in the eyes of many at the helm. All my opinion of course no insider knowledge at all

[zippyandbungle]

the culpability for our current predicament  can be attributed to no one person and can be traced back to the time Roy left, Since then we have had some strange managerial appointments (Irvine  and Mel ) as well as renewal of Pulis' contract, and premature sacking of Clarke. This has been added to by uncertainty over the sale, board room inertia and poor recruitment decisions. I suspect too their has probably been some dressing room disquiet over a number of things particularly over the last 12 months. Add all those things up and it is no wonder we are a ship heading for the rocks of relegation with a ready made scapegoat in the eyes of many at the helm. All my opinion of course no insider knowledge at all

All of this, but Clarke was not premature imo

[Lloydy]

Whatever happened to Saint Jeremy of Albion only wanting to sell us to someone who could take the club further than he could?

Hope he gets a sunburnt head on his Caribbean cruise, the absolute s**thouse.

[Standaman]

As far as Lai is concerned, he's broken one of the primary rules of business, i.e. "Don't go into a business you don't understand".
You're probably right, that he's not at all happy, (considering we were targeting a top 10 finish), &, like you, I'm not sure that he has the contacts for an alternative executive.

I'm not sure I agree with some of your assessments of 2017 signings though. IMO, by & large, we have signed technically superior players, but it's the character that's found wanting.
Personally, I think we have a pretty good bunch of technical players, certainly good enough to keep us in the Premier League, but I'm not sure we've got the leadership that we need. It will be interesting over the next few ingweeks, to see who actually steps up to the plate.

Couple of points because of the nature of the beast those who buy football clubs seldom have experience of running football clubs because few people actually make money in the industry. The only people with a sports background are those Americans who have experience of owning US sports franchises and they haven't always been a conspicuous success. 

With regard to recruitment my point was not specifically about this summer. I would concede that technically they are better than some of the earlier cohorts. Yet Barry screams "good character" Krychowiak signed on reputation and no real thought about how any of it was going to work together

[baggie82]

Whatever happened to Saint Jeremy of Albion only wanting to sell us to someone who could take the club further than he could? Hope he gets a sunburnt head on his Caribbean cruise, the absolute s**thouse.

His priority was maximising his return not selling us to the best owner for the football club. If he cared about the club he could have sold at discount £50-100m to FOSUN who have deep pockets and ambition. As it was he sold to an owner who doesn't have any means or intent to invest in the club. He got his circa £175m but left the club adrift. That legacy will hold us back for decades.

[VVVAlbion]

His priority was maximising his return not selling us to the best owner for the football club. If he cared about the club he could have sold at discount £50-100m to FOSUN who have deep pockets and ambition. As it was he sold to an owner who doesn't have any means or intent to invest in the club. He got his circa £175m but left the club adrift. That legacy will hold us back for decades.

I'm guessing you're not aware of libel laws or else you wouldn't be posting your opinions as facts.
Unless you were part of the negotiations and know who did or didn't submit bids you can only speculate on the motives and intentions of either Peace or Lai.

Also, it doesn't matter how deep your pockets are if you're hamstrung by the FPP rules.

You may think Peace's legacy will hold us back for decades but it is my understanding that actually the Premier League rules wouldn't allow him to take us any further (which he regularly voted against) and without him continuing on from the start Thompson gave us, we would quite possibly be in a lower division now.