[paul_47]

Don't much see the point in all this talk of spending X millions to guarantee a higher finish, it doesn't always work (ask Liverpool).Plus if we could have applied ourselves just a little better at home, and got one point instead of none from Stoke, Everton, Norwich and Swansea we would be sitting pretty in eighth place now, I didn't mention Wigan because they hammered us up there and we nicked a point.So all in all Dan "keep calm and carry on"   

[Baggies]

Looking at the silverware angle, would people be happy if the club put out a strong fist eleven for every league cup game, even if it was a bit risky in terms of the next league game, or would you rather they continue to play a mix of first teamers and reserves and only get serious in the Semi Finals rather than over work players?

[kris_boing]

Looking at the silverware angle, would people be happy if the club put out a strong fist eleven for every league cup game, even if it was a bit risky in terms of the next league game, or would you rather they continue to play a mix of first teamers and reserves and only get serious in the Semi Finals rather than over work players?

Year on year we have, more often than not, brought in better quality than that which we already had.  Improving the squad in terms of quality and depth as we go.
 
Imagine for instance if we were to sign two top notch wingers who are better than Brunt and Thomas and they were first choice.  We could pick the top wingers for cup games and Brunt and Thomas for League games knowing that they are of good enough quality to keep us in the division.  More than likely though they will be part of a squad rotation where they'd be rotated.  That seems to be where football has gone over the last few years.
 
Have to say I am desperate to see Albion win a cup or compete in a European competition.  It is the pinacle of achievement for a club our size.

[Baggies]

It's not just about having a strong second side, although that can help. I think playing a settled team and your on form players is where the cup run comes in.

[Baggy nerd]

Year on year we have, more often than not, brought in better quality than that which we already had.  Improving the squad in terms of quality and depth as we go.
 
Imagine for instance if we were to sign two top notch wingers who are better than Brunt and Thomas and they were first choice.  We could pick the top wingers for cup games and Brunt and Thomas for League games knowing that they are of good enough quality to keep us in the division.  More than likely though they will be part of a squad rotation where they'd be rotated.  That seems to be where football has gone over the last few years.
 
Have to say I am desperate to see Albion win a cup or compete in a European competition.  It is the pinacle of achievement for a club our size.

I wouldn't say we have brought in better 'quality' players over the last year but we have put together a team that through experience and good management find it easier to get Premier victories.

[HampshireBaggie]

These are the things i think we should aim for long term, while the top 6 is out of our reach:

• Become the dominant team in the West Midlands - by this i don't mean finishing above Villa once or twice. I mean consistently out performing them over the same amount of years they have outperformed us. So new football fans (fans not even born yet) in the West Midlands start supporting the Albion. Become 'bigger' than Villa.
• Become one of the top 10 academies in England and regularly produce players for our first 11 and the England squad.
• Target cup runs with the hope on winning one
• Continue to entertain the fans. Inspirational managerial appointments, good football.

[Jeremy Roland Peace]

a lot of what he says is right and has been shown this season with the money that some clubs have spent, Liverpool for example have spent the best part of £100 million on transfers for a League Cup victory and a mid table finish. calculate in how much they've spent on wages also and you have to ask is it worth it ?

Newcastle have had an excellent season and put themselves in a great position for European football, they've done this by spending big money on wages and some transfers, Ba was free but his wages must be high as will Demba Cisse's along with his 9 million transfer fee. a lot of that is from the Carroll 35 million but once thats gone they'll have to keep spending more than they have coming in to maintain that positon.

it's well known that we as a club will never spend more than what we have which makes victories over the bigger clubs that much sweeter, but us along with Swansea and Norwich have shown this season that survival can be done without spending money you don't have.

if anything it reminds me of the film moneyball.

[Hulsey74]

To summarise we obviously need realistic goals and to have ambitions; I think these realistically could consist of:
-Finishing top half of the table
-Getting EUROPA football
-Challenging for a domestic cup
-Being/staying the top team in the Midlands
-Playing good football
-Achieving the odd big result e.g beating United away.
-Bringing some academy players through.

I don't really think there will ever be wholesale changes to those objectives unless we attract a billionaire owner or a player (academy or otherwise) is sold for big money - only then would we probably need to review what we could possibly achieve.

Add to this: at a fair and reasonable price to the fans, and i would be more than happy

[Standaman]

Newcastle are an interesting case study. Up until the Ashley era and even at the outset of his reign they had aspirations to be one of the powers of Premier League football and spent huge amounts on wages and fees. They never really ever got it right on the pitch chopped and changed managers ran up huge debts and were it not for Ashley's intervention probably would have gone broke. This period ended in relegation and a huge clear out of over paid under performing stars

Since they have come back they have focussed on building a team and abandoned the "marque" signings the wage bill is considerably lower although still beyond our means and irony of ironies they are closer to a Champions League spot than they have been for many years. It will be interesting to see if they go for big money signings in the summer to try for the next step which their fans will be demanding or do they continue to consolidate with astute but unspectacular signings?

From the Albion perspective we do not have the option of spending big but there is no reason why we cannot keep plugging away and if we were to take the cups a little bit more seriously we could dare to dream. 

[boinging_along]

a lot of what he says is right and has been shown this season with the money that some clubs have spent, Liverpool for example have spent the best part of £100 million on transfers for a League Cup victory and a mid table finish. calculate in how much they've spent on wages also and you have to ask is it worth it ?

Newcastle have had an excellent season and put themselves in a great position for European football, they've done this by spending big money on wages and some transfers, Ba was free but his wages must be high as will Demba Cisse's along with his 9 million transfer fee. a lot of that is from the Carroll 35 million but once thats gone they'll have to keep spending more than they have coming in to maintain that positon.

it's well known that we as a club will never spend more than what we have which makes victories over the bigger clubs that much sweeter, but us along with Swansea and Norwich have shown this season that survival can be done without spending money you don't have.

if anything it reminds me of the film moneyball.

But we're the exception rather than the rule.  There's a direct correlation of money spent on the team to success.  I'd hate for us to take the road of "we don't need to spend as we can stay up", we have to keep moving forward as a club. 

It's all too easy to think you're midtable and a Prem team and suddenly find yourself fighting for your lives.  It wasn't that long ago that Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Villa, Newcastle, West Ham, etc were all steady mid-table sides, now they've either been relegated or look like they're about to.  Even Wolves have had 3 season on the trot in the top flight, we haven't even had that yet.

We should be constantly looking at where we are and what we need to do to improve and push the club further forward.  Rest on your laurels in this league and you get relegated.

[Hunnington Baggie]

But we're the exception rather than the rule.  There's a direct correlation of money spent on the team to success.  I'd hate for us to take the road of "we don't need to spend as we can stay up", we have to keep moving forward as a club. 

It's all too easy to think you're midtable and a Prem team and suddenly find yourself fighting for your lives.  It wasn't that long ago that Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Villa, Newcastle, West Ham, etc were all steady mid-table sides, now they've either been relegated or look like they're about to.  Even Wolves have had 3 season on the trot in the top flight, we haven't even had that yet.

We should be constantly looking at where we are and what we need to do to improve and push the club further forward.  Rest on your laurels in this league and you get relegated.

The problem with this is i don't think may of the clubs you mentioned are "for Profit" clubs and actually do spend more than they take in. We're aren't saying rest on our laurels, just that we have to be realistic of our goals. as such we build slowly and try to take it on place at a time. If we get 11th again. that is average. if lower then we aim lower next season but at least we can aim at a postion number rather than just survive.

[Mister AT]

Each position higher that you finish gives you the opportunity to attract a better player.

If two clubs offereing near enough the same wage finish 8th and 13th, the player is going to choose the team who finished higher.

[Standaman]

I am happy the owner is running the club for profit rather than some ego trip because when the sugar daddy gets tired of his plaything there is usually an awful mess left behind to sort out. The problems at Newcastle and West Ham was they had over extended themselves to achieve mid table premier status. Both had wage bills that needed champions league status to justify, neither were remotely capable of achieving it with the squads they had assembled at huge expense

The merit payments per place barely covers the wages of one average premier league footballer and Newcastle were paying more than £5m a year to Michael Owen the difference between finishing 17th and 8th just about covers it when you take payroll taxes into account. Plainly signing an injury prone former international superstar does not guarantee success quite the contrary.   

There are only 4 success stories of new owners coming into English football spending a bunch of money on underachieving football clubs and making any real difference. Man City, Chelsea, Blackburn and Wigan the rest have been to varying degrees failures and some have been total disasters.

[westbrom4ever]

8th is top half of the table, 11th isn't.

I'd much rather finish 8th, the extra money wouldn't go a miss either.

[Tipton Baggie]

think back to 2002 and many other seasons when we could only ever dream of finishing 17th, finishing 8th would be a massive achievement and no longer looked on as a yo-yo club

[Rich99]

"WBA aiming to be new Everton
Baggies looking for the definition of success

"Roy Hodgson has said we need to aspire to the status of an Everton, and we want to reach a point where relegation is something that's never an issue."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7689560/?

[Standaman]

Good to see Sky have their finger on the pulse one week from our programme to their website 

[wardy65]

For a club like the Albion it really is simple ....
Short term ( and JP tends to talk in 3 year terms ), we have to get a foothold in the greed league & lose our 'yo-yo' tag. This we seem to be doing, though i'd be happier if we got Hodgson's new contract sorted & this isn't going to happen while the England job's vacant!
 Once we become an established premiership club, we've got to start treating the Cup competitions with a bit more respect because while the so called 'Big Boys' of the greed league don't .... we've every chance of getting to a final & even winning the cup & like Stoke .. European football!
 Like what's going on behind the scenes at the club. It'd be great to see us producing our own talent and i'd love to see the Halfords Subbuteo stand replaced with a stand that gives us a 30,000 capacity.

[WestBromJim]

He has a point, I'm not a JP fan and I have criticised him alot, but I don't think Albion or 82+ other league clubs are in a position to chuck a load of sh!t and hope some of it sticks, I personally would love to see the likes of UTD, Citeh and the other usual suspects bugger off to a European league, I think we have enough 'big' clubs to fill the void they will leave. So what if the TV money dries up? to me that just creates a level playing field.

Success to me is winning the league, cups and Europe, I think competing in the top division for a club like ours is a basic requirement and should not be considored a success.

[baggies37]

I found the article somewhat depressing but entirely accurate.

I think a cup run is something we could aspire to (by not shoving out the reserve squad in carling cup quarters for example - or at least be able to afford to not have too)

The level that we have hit on the curve is so acute,  actual progress in terms of league position is measured in 10's of millions of pounds.

Were embarking on what over the next few years will be viewed as the most successful in our recent history.  No doubt the prospect of mid table mediocrity for most will wear thin. 

From DA's perspective,  successful for WBA involves continuing to maintain its current position,  for all intents and purposes ,  standing still.   At least in terms of league table position and status.

We've reached the point where any realistic long term moves forward in terms of league position or status is unrealistic.   Thats the impossible job facing Albion over the next few years.



 

[paulosull]

well after those comments from ashworth we wont be signing messi any time soon

[jjb0rdell0]

Another thing about say the youth academy, is that if we develop good players + the seemingly higher price English players go for...maybe one day we'll be the club selling a young homegrown player for silly money...