I would imagine with Lai losing a big chunk of his investment when we were relegated, Dowlings remit was get us promoted within 3 seasons or you will be out of a job.
Lai would look at it that he has taken one big hit when we went down, if not back in three years his investment goes down the pan, he made it clear he wasnt going to be pumping extra money in and we would be self sustainable but i doubt he envisaged a club who had been in the premier league without too much trouble for 7 seasons would then implode and be relegated in the 8th and he would lose a lot of his initial outlay.
So i have sympathy with Dowling, he would be under huge pressure to of got the manager and players to be promoted within that three years, he did it after two, now we are there it would seem with the lack of a good budget, maybe the goal posts have been moved due to covid or other factors, or Lai wants to ringfence some of the premier league income so he has something if he ever wants to pay himself a divided.
As for Dowling, if you know you have to be promoted within a few seasons, else the club loses its value and everyday people lose jobs they rely on, you have to think about the here and now.
Thats why i think Dowling has gone British, of course some havent worked out and there are better bargains overseas, but you remove the immediate risk of not being upto speed, language, settling in, etc its a short term fix but it got the result because we got promoted.
Unfortunately with an owner who isnt going to dip into his own pocket if things get tough and who has said its being run as a business, you have to adopt the lowest risk strategy going and for Dowling that mean British players, he cant be signing players that might take a few years to come good.
I would hope during the last two seasons though that we have been setting up a good overseas scouting network so ideally we can bring bargains over and let them have time to settle in whilst also getting ready made players too, the success we have had so far are / will be still expensive, Pereira for £8m and Krov would be at least £6m i imagine, they are both good players and certainly Pereira i would think if we sold him we would make a big money but we havent quite uncovered another Mulumbu, Olsson, Odemwingie, Yacob, so i hope thats an additional path we are going down moving forward.
