Yes i would gladly stay down this season, for selfish reasons i hope we do.
Regardless of what division in we are in next season the squad needs freshening up, all we will do if we go up is kick the can down the road for another season.
This group of players proved last season that they arent good enough for the premier league, this season they have had the chance to prove that last season was a one off and they are better than that, however at the time of writing they have failed with that.
Yet again when the big games have come and the pressure is on they have come up short, they did it numerous times last season (and prior to that) and as somebody said above, against the better teams, when it really mattered in the last month, when the pressure is on, we have shown yet again we are not good enough.
If we did go up (which i dont think we will anyway) it wont be because we are one of the best two teams in the league, it will be because we won the lottery over 3 other clubs via the playoffs, by going up it means the majority of this squad, will have another chance in the premier league which i personally dont feel they are good enough for.
This squad is getting worse and are quite old too, a number of our core players will be turning 30 over the next season or so. When you look at Norwich and Leeds, they have younger, hungry and energetic players, if they go up and struggle, they have years ahead of them to develop and go again, we dont have that luxury, this group of players that once was good enough for premier league football is coming to the end of their cycle and the last 2 years have shown that.
If we go up i would imagine Mr Lai's first thing will be to ring fence some of the £200m money we get so that if we went down again he still has a large sum of money put aside, when he brought us for £150m as a established premier league club i doubt he imagined a year later we would be relegated and he would of lost £75m worth of his investment.
So should we go up, i expect there will a big chunk of the funds put aside for him, these people are investors, in an ideal world they probably would like us to play good football, pack the ground out, become a brand in china (though the chinese approach to football has changed a lot the last two years) but there overall mentality will be (a) make sure they dont lose any more of the club value (b) ring fence funds to make sure they at least get back what put in and (c) try and see a return on their investment.
I would imagine if we went up we would probably keep the majority of players (a mistake as most are not good enough), break our transfer record for a player we know little about and we will gamble on to show supposed ambition but we will then fill the squad with a few seasoned pro's, on good money as they have the supposed experience to keep us in the premier league, should we then get relegated we are lumbered with those players on big wages and it becomes a repeat of last / this season.
I would much rather stay down, get rid of the vast majority of the squad, bring through and give a chance to the academy prospects who are so highly rated and bring in players from overseas and lower leagues, maybe players who had to step down and are ready to step up again, and use the funds we do have to add a couple of quality additions.
Of course we dont have Wolves resources and we wont get a Neves quality player, but their overall approach they signed younger hungry players who will develop and added quality around them for the championship, its what Norwich and Leeds approach has been too, smaller clubs such as Bristol City and Brentford have done it as well. (Sheffield Uniteds team and style has been built over years via a slight different route)
Norwich have yo-yo'd a lot over the past seasons, and last season they almost turned on Farke, however by being patient and supporting him, their fans are now looking forward to getting back to the premier league, they have a young, hungry and ambitious squad, they are looking forward to seeing what they can do at the top level with a new approach, rather than the previous one where they spent big, brought names and went round in a cycle and got bored of it, and that is what we i fear Albion will do should we go up, just more of the same.
You could see last night how much it means to Leeds fans to get back to the premier league, they have been out of it that long they cant wait to get back, as a fan i want that feeling again, that buzz of early 2000's, being desperate to see your team play the best, if we went up this season i just think this time next year we will be having the same conversations as now and this time last year.
The atmosphere at the games now is poor because there is a very little connection between the fans and players, our players have good past reputations but they are now on the wane but the expectancy is still there. Darren Moore has helped build bridges but there is still an under current there, its been like it from the first match of the season, a lot of these players reached their goal of premier league mediocrity and its got stale, some have been with us too long and are now failing and i think it would become poisnous very soon should we go back to the premier league, back to the grind and struggle.
I want us to stay down, rebuild, try a new approach and get that hope and enthusiasm back instead of just trying the route that was once trusted but is now failing, of course you run the risk of becoming a mid table championship club or worse but you also may have the chance to love football again, have that hope and excitement of what a new look team and approach could bring and to me that is the risk worth taking.