Author Topic: If we don’t go up  (Read 15414 times)

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Adder

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #25 on: February 09, 2019, 10:43:53 PM »

But we haven't spent anything this year (really). Selling Rondon, not to mention Rodriguez, Livermore, Dawson, Gibbs and Hegazi won't bring in anything that will be passed on to Darren to spend.
We can't be sure of that though. I think we know he's not going to give his own money to Darren to spend but other than that we can still hope that the club hierarchy wants us to stay in the upper reaches of the Championship with a chance of going back up and that would include some sort of reinvestment in replacements.
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overseas baggie

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #26 on: February 09, 2019, 10:47:25 PM »

But we haven't spent anything this year (really). Selling Rondon, not to mention Rodriguez, Livermore, Dawson, Gibbs and Hegazi won't bring in anything that will be passed on to Darren to spend.

If we sell players then there’s money to spend on replacements without Lai needing to put money in.  If we don’t sell players then there’s no need to buy replacements and so Lai won’t need to put money in.  If we sell Rondon for £15m  and use £8m of it to cover the reduced parachute funding then we’ve still got £7m of that left to spend without Lai putting in extra money.  We won’t miss Rondon as we don’t have him now. We can still pay the current wages without selling anybody else.

Why is this so complicated to understand?  It is the following season when we’d be having to sell to hugely reduce the wage bill.

TheJacko2000

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #27 on: February 09, 2019, 10:49:21 PM »
We can't be sure of that though. I think we know he's not going to give his own money to Darren to spend but other than that we can still hope that the club hierarchy wants us to stay in the upper reaches of the Championship with a chance of going back up and that would include some sort of reinvestment in replacements.


Agree we can't be sure, but we can probaby surmise it to be true.


If we sell players then there’s money to spend on replacements without Lai needing to put money in.  If we don’t sell players then there’s no need to buy replacements and so Lai won’t need to put money in.  If we sell Rondon for £15m  and use £8m of it to cover the reduced parachute funding then we’ve still got £7m of that left to spend without Lai putting in extra money.  We won’t miss Rondon as we don’t have him now. We can still pay the current wages without selling anybody else.

Why is this so complicated to understand?  It is the following season when we’d be having to sell to hugely reduce the wage bill.


I don't think we'll be in any financial danger. I just don't think we'll re-invest transfer fees into the playing squad.
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overseas baggie

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #28 on: February 09, 2019, 10:56:55 PM »

Agree we can't be sure, but we can probaby surmise it to be true.



I don't think we'll be in any financial danger. I just don't think we'll re-invest transfer fees into the playing squad.

We’ll find out if and when the time comes.  In the meantime there’s no need and no point in panicking.

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #29 on: February 09, 2019, 11:03:06 PM »
We’ll find out if and when the time comes.  In the meantime there’s no need and no point in panicking.


Who's panicking?
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geoff

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #30 on: February 10, 2019, 12:37:31 AM »
If we don't go up i would 100% keep the management team together has i be-leave that they could put together a younger squad to play fast free 1 & 2 touch football & another season would help achieve that & help big Dave to. Having said that i think we will win automatic promotion this season, just hope big Dave keeps learning his trade has he is doing now.

Adder

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #31 on: February 10, 2019, 09:14:46 AM »
If we don't go up i would 100% keep the management team together has i be-leave that they could put together a younger squad to play fast free 1 & 2 touch football & another season would help achieve that & help big Dave to. Having said that i think we will win automatic promotion this season, just hope big Dave keeps learning his trade has he is doing now.
Yes agreed re keeping the management team together if possible - (Jones is in demand and could be in further demand in the summer). It's enjoyable to watch and evolving a younger squad should make us more suited to playing this way.

Lai has said he wants the club to be self financing. That's the way we operated under Peace anyway, as far as I know. Peace used to take some stick but there are far worse ways to run a football club. Under him we developed the academy and improved the training facilities.
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Standaman

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #32 on: February 10, 2019, 11:49:18 AM »
The TV income for this season and the following 3 years the final one is the standard payment under the current Championship deal.

Year 1 £42m
Year 2 £34m
Year 3 £17m
Year 4 £7.6m

These numbers will be what dictates the club's strategy. I take self sustaining to mean the club spends what it earns and if it don't earn it then it don't spend it. This is entirely reasonable and football would be a better and sainer if that applied equally to all football clubs.

The key here is while we could afford to keep the current wage bill next year and the sale of Rondon alone could plug the gap what we cannot do is commit to paying those wages the following year and the year after. At some point we have to start paying Championship level wages.

The other dynamic is that the club cannot afford to let players leave on frees if a player can generate a fee and we cannot afford to offer them an extention on existing terms (we can't) then we need to sell. This summer is probably the optimum point for selling on those players that came down with us while they still have time on their contracts. Equally a lot of those players are of an age where if they don't get a Premier League contract in the next couple of seasons they won't be getting one. The club needs to sell and the players want to leave.

Looking at the contracts only 3 players are contracted to 2022 Johnstone, Hegazi and Field. Everyone else has two years or less on their contracts a lot with big wages and no sensible offer could be turned down.

We do need to secure our better youngsters on long-term deals particularly Harper and we do need to make every penny we do have count. It is a tough job for the DoF and the Management team but there is no need to be too dispondent if we don't make it back this this year.
 


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zippyandbungle

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #33 on: February 10, 2019, 11:53:07 AM »
Yes agreed re keeping the management team together if possible - (Jones is in demand and could be in further demand in the summer). It's enjoyable to watch and evolving a younger squad should make us more suited to playing this way.

Lai has said he wants the club to be self financing. That's the way we operated under Peace anyway, as far as I know. Peace used to take some stick but there are far worse ways to run a football club. Under him we developed the academy and improved the training facilities.
Jones was in demand.....Luton, to my knowledge the only club that asked ?
If we don't go up surely (with this squad) that is failure? So I'm not sure it will be as cut and dry as keeping DM, in fact I think he is in a difficult position and would not be totally surprised that if we got up through the play offs , he would be replaced anyway

Not saying I want or would do this, but I can see why the owners would
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overseas baggie

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #34 on: February 10, 2019, 12:12:11 PM »
Jones was in demand.....Luton, to my knowledge the only club that asked ?
If we don't go up surely (with this squad) that is failure? So I'm not sure it will be as cut and dry as keeping DM, in fact I think he is in a difficult position and would not be totally surprised that if we got up through the play offs , he would be replaced anyway

Not saying I want or would do this, but I can see why the owners would

I truly despair.

It would be insane to get rid of DM. The job that he has done in stabilising and galvanizing the club over the past 12 months after the sh*tstorm that had developed, plus his massive future role in bringing this superb crop of youngsters through, means that he’ll be going nowhere even if we failed to reach the playoffs.

It’s true that he is learning on the job, and that his in-game management must improve, but the best way to learn is by experience, and the only way to get experience is to get experience! Yes, we could have appointed a more experienced manager, but not one who could be doing what DM is doing to rebuild the club, which was essential.




overseas baggie

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #35 on: February 10, 2019, 12:25:42 PM »
The TV income for this season and the following 3 years the final one is the standard payment under the current Championship deal.

Year 1 £42m
Year 2 £34m
Year 3 £17m
Year 4 £7.6m

These numbers will be what dictates the club's strategy. I take self sustaining to mean the club spends what it earns and if it don't earn it then it don't spend it. This is entirely reasonable and football would be a better and sainer if that applied equally to all football clubs.

The key here is while we could afford to keep the current wage bill next year and the sale of Rondon alone could plug the gap what we cannot do is commit to paying those wages the following year and the year after. At some point we have to start paying Championship level wages.

The other dynamic is that the club cannot afford to let players leave on frees if a player can generate a fee and we cannot afford to offer them an extention on existing terms (we can't) then we need to sell. This summer is probably the optimum point for selling on those players that came down with us while they still have time on their contracts. Equally a lot of those players are of an age where if they don't get a Premier League contract in the next couple of seasons they won't be getting one. The club needs to sell and the players want to leave.

Looking at the contracts only 3 players are contracted to 2022 Johnstone, Hegazi and Field. Everyone else has two years or less on their contracts a lot with big wages and no sensible offer could be turned down.

We do need to secure our better youngsters on long-term deals particularly Harper and we do need to make every penny we do have count. It is a tough job for the DoF and the Management team but there is no need to be too dispondent if we don't make it back this this year.

Some excellent points there, but a few questions.

After the relegation flexdowns on the wage contracts, surely the whole squad is now on Championship-level wages, albeit at the top end of the scale? Or are you saying that we’d still have far too many at the top end of that scale once the parachute payments really drop away after 2019/2020?  I fully agree with you that we can’t afford to be left with too many high earners who we can’t afford to pay if we haven’t gone up by the end of next season.  The balancing act to get us up next year (if required) will be to retain enough quality to ensure that we are strong, whilst selling some. 

A lot will come down to how quickly our youngsters develop (might we still be asking too much of them next season?) and how successful Dowling is at reinvigorating our re recruitment system after the ineptness of the past 3-4 years.  The right blend of retained experience plus outstanding youngsters plus new purchases of young exciting talent with resale potential plus Premier loanees should still see us very well placed next season.

Clearly Morrison, Brunt and Myhill would be going, and probably Barry, Hoolahan and HRK. Lots of wages saved there (probably more than £150k/week!) plus Rondon.  The Premier loanees wage bill would need to be matched with new Premier loanees, and we’d need to be paying out youngsters more.   That’s all before we actually sell any players (except Rondon). A couple of sales may well be enough.

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #36 on: February 10, 2019, 09:23:52 PM »
If we go up, then suffer another relegation from the Premier League, the Club may well sack DM, which would be terrible. Go up or stay in the Championship, there will be difficult issues. The best scenario would be for us to get promoted and then for Lai to sell up quickly to someone who is prepared to put some real money into the team. Getting rid of Lai is top of my wish list.

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #37 on: February 10, 2019, 10:02:20 PM »
I truly despair.

It would be insane to get rid of DM. The job that he has done in stabilising and galvanizing the club over the past 12 months after the sh*tstorm that had developed, plus his massive future role in bringing this superb crop of youngsters through, means that he’ll be going nowhere even if we failed to reach the playoffs.

It’s true that he is learning on the job, and that his in-game management must improve, but the best way to learn is by experience, and the only way to get experience is to get experience! Yes, we could have appointed a more experienced manager, but not one who could be doing what DM is doing to rebuild the club, which was essential.
What are you despairing at?
I said I wouldn't do it....but I think that he chairman could consider it
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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #38 on: February 10, 2019, 11:58:47 PM »
Some excellent points there, but a few questions.

After the relegation flexdowns on the wage contracts, surely the whole squad is now on Championship-level wages, albeit at the top end of the scale? Or are you saying that we’d still have far too many at the top end of that scale once the parachute payments really drop away after 2019/2020?  I fully agree with you that we can’t afford to be left with too many high earners who we can’t afford to pay if we haven’t gone up by the end of next season.  The balancing act to get us up next year (if required) will be to retain enough quality to ensure that we are strong, whilst selling some. 

A lot will come down to how quickly our youngsters develop (might we still be asking too much of them next season?) and how successful Dowling is at reinvigorating our re recruitment system after the ineptness of the past 3-4 years.  The right blend of retained experience plus outstanding youngsters plus new purchases of young exciting talent with resale potential plus Premier loanees should still see us very well placed next season.

Clearly Morrison, Brunt and Myhill would be going, and probably Barry, Hoolahan and HRK. Lots of wages saved there (probably more than £150k/week!) plus Rondon.  The Premier loanees wage bill would need to be matched with new Premier loanees, and we’d need to be paying out youngsters more.   That’s all before we actually sell any players (except Rondon). A couple of sales may well be enough.

There are two slightly different dynamics in play. There is managing the wage bill down to a Championship norm which as you say will happen as players contracts expire. To quantify this our current wage bill is reported as being £38m. I understand that Barry and Gayle our top earners on £30k a week but there is a host of players earning between £20k and 30k a week. By year 4 (season 21/22) to be sustainable the wage bill has to be less than half than it is now that implies a top earner at a stretch of £20k a week and that would have to be balanced out by a lot of players earning considerably less.

We will continue to utilise the Premier League loan market and it is important to understand it is not a cheap option in terms of wages I doubt if any of our current loanees is costing less than £20k a week in wages and some considerably more. These players or their future replacements won't get any cheaper.

The second part of this is fees. Where we have players who we might get a fee for we cannot afford not to cash in. Typically our players are on short contracts and those that are saleable are in their late 20's time is not on our side.

That does not mean everyone we might sell is sold far from it but what is absolutely certain is that this squad is quite likely to be largely broken up at the end of the season. 










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overseas baggie

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #39 on: February 11, 2019, 06:55:48 AM »
What are you despairing at?
I said I wouldn't do it....but I think that he chairman could consider it

I despair at the mere thought of it, after what DM has achieved and is currently achieving. I appreciate that you wouldn’t do it, but there are quite a few out there who have the knives out for DM for whatever reason. Probably the same sorts who would welcome the likes of Mark Hughes as manager!

overseas baggie

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #40 on: February 11, 2019, 07:03:20 AM »
There are two slightly different dynamics in play. There is managing the wage bill down to a Championship norm which as you say will happen as players contracts expire. To quantify this our current wage bill is reported as being £38m. I understand that Barry and Gayle our top earners on £30k a week but there is a host of players earning between £20k and 30k a week. By year 4 (season 21/22) to be sustainable the wage bill has to be less than half than it is now that implies a top earner at a stretch of £20k a week and that would have to be balanced out by a lot of players earning considerably less.

We will continue to utilise the Premier League loan market and it is important to understand it is not a cheap option in terms of wages I doubt if any of our current loanees is costing less than £20k a week in wages and some considerably more. These players or their future replacements won't get any cheaper.

The second part of this is fees. Where we have players who we might get a fee for we cannot afford not to cash in. Typically our players are on short contracts and those that are saleable are in their late 20's time is not on our side.

That does not mean everyone we might sell is sold far from it but what is absolutely certain is that this squad is quite likely to be largely broken up at the end of the season.

Yes that all makes sense.  All a question of balance.  I just hope that we can get rid of the “right” ones and don’t get left with the “wrong” ones.  I also hope that if we do generate decent player sales money then we buy wisely in the market. We need to find the equivalents of Dack and Lolley 18 months ago before they became what they are worth today after Forest and Blackburn bought them.   Loanee wages can be managed season by season and of course there is a cap on only having 5 in the squad on match day. Am sure we would use all those up in 2019/20 (if we don’t go up) but could probably only afford one of them on 2020/21 if we are still down.

But let’s get up and eradicate the conundrums!

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #41 on: February 11, 2019, 07:04:35 AM »
If we go up, then suffer another relegation from the Premier League, the Club may well sack DM, which would be terrible. Go up or stay in the Championship, there will be difficult issues. The best scenario would be for us to get promoted and then for Lai to sell up quickly to someone who is prepared to put some real money into the team. Getting rid of Lai is top of my wish list.

Hard to disagree re Lai.  And selling after being promoted has to be his one way out.

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #42 on: February 11, 2019, 09:16:02 AM »
I still think we will be in a strong position if we don't go up, as we have a lot of sellable assets. The likes of Rondon, Rodriguez, Dawson, Gibbs, Livermore, Hegazi, Phillips will all command a price, so that fits the self sufficiency model.
Yes, they will have to be replaced, and yes it will be with younger, cheaper options, but that doesn't necessarily mean worse. We don't have to sell them all though, dependant on contracts, we only sell if it's right for the club.
We don't have a lot of expensive deadwood draining the wage bill, like the Villa did, so our destiny should still be in our own hands and I'd be more than happy to let Moore and Jones oversee this transition. Better that than someone like Moyes, Hughes or Allardyce anyway.

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #43 on: February 11, 2019, 10:21:58 AM »
It would all depend on the owners plans in the summer.

Holgate, Tosin, Montero, Johansen, Murphy, Gayle would all be going back to their clubs.

Mears, Hoolahan will be out of contract.

Brunt, Morrison, Myhill should be leaving in the summer regardless of the division.
Barry hasn't got much longer left.

Dawson, Hegazi, Gibbs, Livermore, Rodriguez, Phillips, Rondon would all go for a reasonable sum of money, but it would depend what was done with that money.

The team with all those out would look like this:

Johnstone

Wilson
Fitzwater
Bartley
Townsend

Barry
Field
Harper

Leko
HRK
Edwards

That squad would need some serious additions to challenge for promotion.
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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #44 on: February 11, 2019, 10:51:48 AM »
I still think we will be in a strong position if we don't go up, as we have a lot of sellable assets. The likes of Rondon, Rodriguez, Dawson, Gibbs, Livermore, Hegazi, Phillips will all command a price, so that fits the self sufficiency model.
Yes, they will have to be replaced, and yes it will be with younger, cheaper options, but that doesn't necessarily mean worse. We don't have to sell them all though, dependant on contracts, we only sell if it's right for the club.
We don't have a lot of expensive deadwood draining the wage bill, like the Villa did, so our destiny should still be in our own hands and I'd be more than happy to let Moore and Jones oversee this transition. Better that than someone like Moyes, Hughes or Allardyce anyway.

Either iehter for me.....

If we do go up it will be interesting to see what Darren Moore can do with those players mentioned above in the PL.  No doubt we would struggle as most of these players do sit in the zone of "too good for the Championship, not quite good enough to impact the PL" but hopefully we could continue to play the right way and not in the desperate, strangulating way we did at the end under TP and then Pardew.   We would need to utilise the loan market again as purse strings will be tight at PL level, however it would allow us to keep the majority of players we want and cherry pick from the best of the younger players in the lower divisions and B list abroad, which will set us up to challenge again if we do go down. 

If we don't go up this year then the new recruitment team will really need to start earning their money as the squad will likely go through the complete over-hall that will be due sooner or later anyway. We should be there or there abouts this year, so these players should be trading at the mid-top end of their price range so there will be some money to re-invest and wages should be easier to meet for players outside of the PL experience bracket.   Another year in the division will also tell us just how good our Academy graduates are - the warning is that none of the previous graduates who flew the coop have actually gone on to show themselves as top players yet.   But what if some of those players had come through as a group?  Might it have made a difference?   

My best days as a fan have been dependent on being proud of the team no matter what division.  Yes, the mid table PL years gave real highlights - Uncle Roy's occasional number on one of the big boys were great at the time and those early golden months of Clarke's tenure taking us near the top 6 and ending with the Beast's goals in Fergies 5-5 swan song. However, i've got equally fond memories outside of the PL, including Ossies ridiculous footballing principles on the way to Wembley in the old div 2, SGM making a quality signing for every position we were weak and setting up teams to score first then defend a lead in the Champ, TM's team without any defenders that got us promoted with some great football and came straight back down in a blaze of glory.  Rose tinted possibly......but i have no rose tint associated with just playing to survive and giving up at 40 points.

   

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #45 on: February 11, 2019, 11:19:06 AM »
Not sure if this is the right topic but obviously we dont know what Lai's intentions really are.

However, the season we got relegated we had the 7th highest net spend in the premier league, the january window before that we spent £10m on Livermore (unheard of at Albion in January) we broke our transfer records and were paying players over £100k a week so i think we have spent a lot of money for our position, we obviously didnt spend it wisely though.

I am not sure what people expect when they say real money, look at now established premier league clubs - Burnley, Watford, Brighton, Bournemouth to give examples, all doing in the premier league what we were doing for years before them and they spent a lot of money to get to the level they are now and where we were, they havent achieved anything that we didnt, in fact us finishing 8th was better than a lot of what they have done (I know finishing 8th isnt a celebration but with how football is, nowadays thats our realistic aim as rubbish as that is)

Now because the last two seasons the incomes have been better because of the tv money, so the transfer fees and wages have increased, the same as if we went up i think we probably wont be far off signing our first £20m player (certainly 2nd season if we stayed up) because thats how we were heading anyway, signing Ideye, Livermore, Rondon, Chadli for big fees. We may see more players on £100k a week, again thats where we were heading by big wages for Fletcher, Evans then Greg and Sturridge.

Personally i would rather not go that route but thats the way money in football is heading and i think its a myth that we didnt spend good money, we did for our resources, we just didnt spend it well.

Club owners of similar size to us tend to spend their own money in getting clubs the premier league, but once they get promoted they will use mainly the incomes they receive from being in the premier league and then take a return on their investment, pretty much what we did for years until we got relegated. This season we kept most of our big names, especially at this level (and with that comes big wages) instead of having a mass firesale when that would of been the quick way for Lai to recoup his money, if we dont go up that will probably happen.

Wolves may be one of the exceptions to most clubs outside the top 6, their owners are saying the right stuff and they have a system that is working with Mendes, so far so good, but the time to judge them will be in a few years when the players they currently have - Neves, Jota, Jonny, etc , they likely will be sold, ie - Fosun and Mendes get returns on their investments.

If Wolves break into the top 4 or go on to become a football giant then fair play to them but i think the reality is they will become an established premier league club (ie - Albion upto 2017-2018, Watford, Burnley, etc) and they have just gone a different route to become that via the Mendes link, they may do well in the cups which is something i do think Albion have badly let themselves down with over the years.

Sadly i dont think many billionaires will be rushing to buy the Albion and waste money, if Lai goes we will likely get owners who will come and in and do what Peace did, Lai himself has done and majority of other premier league clubs outside the top 6 do.

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #46 on: February 11, 2019, 11:21:18 AM »
If we go up, then suffer another relegation from the Premier League, the Club may well sack DM, which would be terrible. Go up or stay in the Championship, there will be difficult issues. The best scenario would be for us to get promoted and then for Lai to sell up quickly to someone who is prepared to put some real money into the team. Getting rid of Lai is top of my wish list.

We have been awaiting our sugar daddy for a long time.....but this just seems very unlikely to me.  We have a proud and solid history but have not won a trophy for 50 years.  We do not have the big city (or one club city) location or potential growth in fan base to attract real money, and we would need a BIG spender not a Randy Seal or potential bankrupt to come in.  Unless you were a fan, why would anybody be prepared to put real money into the team when even a spend of £100 million plus does not guarantee success.    From Places 13 down anyone could go, even the likes of Palace who did spend big at one point (can you imagine the Albion spurting £35million on Benteke) and obs Fulham.    Watford and Wolves have done well without spending big, but their success is based around some very shady international relationships between multiple clubs and agents rather than up front investment.

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #47 on: February 11, 2019, 12:43:46 PM »
Now don’t get me wrong - I’m desperate for us to win every game and get promoted. But what if we don’t? .................

I predict a mass outbreak of whining, wailing, hand wringing and teeth gnashing as the Albion's Tw@tter and Facefk accounts go into meltdown. As for this and other forums I'd advise staying away from them for a while before marking all posts as read once you've logged back in. Here to help  ;D .
It doesn't matter how many resources you have.
If you don't know how to use them, they will never be enough.
Oh, and always remember to defecate on those Vile chaps in claret and spew.

Jeremy Roland Peace

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #48 on: February 11, 2019, 01:02:05 PM »
one of our best seasons in recent times was the season after we failed to go up, sold most of the existing squad and rebuilt the team that gave us excitment and enjoyment pretty much every week of the following season.

overseas baggie

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Re: If we don’t go up
« Reply #49 on: February 11, 2019, 02:14:38 PM »
It would all depend on the owners plans in the summer.

Holgate, Tosin, Montero, Johansen, Murphy, Gayle would all be going back to their clubs.

Mears, Hoolahan will be out of contract.

Brunt, Morrison, Myhill should be leaving in the summer regardless of the division.
Barry hasn't got much longer left.

Dawson, Hegazi, Gibbs, Livermore, Rodriguez, Phillips, Rondon would all go for a reasonable sum of money, but it would depend what was done with that money.

The team with all those out would look like this:

Johnstone

Wilson
Fitzwater
Bartley
Townsend

Barry
Field
Harper

Leko
HRK
Edwards

That squad would need some serious additions to challenge for promotion.


Well if you sold those 7 (you forgot Burke by the way) then there’s c£80m of transfer fees to fund the squad enhancement.  Spend £50m of it on young hungry new signings plus £8m-£10m on wages for next season’s loanees and there’s still maybe a spare £20m to put towards the following season’s drop in funding.

With good scouting and good development of our youngsters we’d be in good shape.