Author Topic: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership  (Read 12757 times)

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Norfolk Baggie

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It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« on: October 06, 2020, 10:41:41 AM »
At the end of the premiership window it is now apparent to me that we have no aim to maintain our premiership status.  We have two players of genuine premiership status (Diangana and Pareira), and all of the rest try hard, but will struggle at this level.  Compared to other clubs locally (Villa and Wolves) our transfers mean our squad is significantly poorer, and the teams promoted with us (Leeds and Fulham), have made some great purchases.  Tactically this looks deliberate, i.e. we do not wish to invest and we are accepting being relegation as more or less inevitable.  I hope I am wrong, but I cannot see three teams worse than us, and I cannot see where the points will come from.  This year has the potential to be very painful indeed when we play Villa and Wolves.  If we do go down I would be surprised if Diangana and Pareira stay with us.  Perhaps I am feeling gloomy in this weather, but could does anyone feel more optimistic than me?

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2020, 11:01:19 AM »
I agree 100%

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2020, 11:03:24 AM »
At the end of the premiership window it is now apparent to me that we have no aim to maintain our premiership status.  We have two players of genuine premiership status (Diangana and Pareira), and all of the rest try hard, but will struggle at this level.  Compared to other clubs locally (Villa and Wolves) our transfers mean our squad is significantly poorer, and the teams promoted with us (Leeds and Fulham), have made some great purchases.  Tactically this looks deliberate, i.e. we do not wish to invest and we are accepting being relegation as more or less inevitable.  I hope I am wrong, but I cannot see three teams worse than us, and I cannot see where the points will come from.  This year has the potential to be very painful indeed when we play Villa and Wolves.  If we do go down I would be surprised if Diangana and Pareira stay with us.  Perhaps I am feeling gloomy in this weather, but could does anyone feel more optimistic than me?
Totally agree. Jenkins knew what was coming didn't he?
Bilic could make it less painful with the way we set up but we are going to get some right stuffings the way we are going.

mini gaardsoe

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2020, 11:04:26 AM »
Have to wonder why, when pretty much accepting relegation, that we didn't try in the cup. Could be sitting on a home quarter final now. Ridiculous.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2020, 11:06:20 AM »
I agree, we've waved the white flag already.  If you look at through other fan's eyes - we've resigned the players that got us promoted, and not really brought anyone additional in. 

The worst thing about it is that we'll lose Periera and\or Diangana if we go down.  We'll get to see them in a struggling side this season and then I can't see us holding onto them when some big money comes in.  If we replace them, I can't see us buying better players so if we got promoted again we're just back to where we are now.

It makes a mockery of the club's "Bilic has 2 season to get promoted" plan.  We clearly didn't have anything in place to push on.  We got promoted a season early so our financial position should be WAY better this year than it would be if we got promoted next year.  Yet we still seem to have no funds.

Mr Cynical

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2020, 11:06:58 AM »
For 20 years we have been waiting for all these over-investing football clubs around us (in the league) to go bust and take advantage of the financial mayhem.  It hasn't happened.

Now we are pinning our hopes on the covid crisis impacting clubs while we are holding ourselves back to remain finacially stabe.

When you see that wulfs have had a net investment of £131m (loans and new shares in the last few years) and vile have had £333m (in the form of loans and new shares over the last 10 years) whilst Peace took out £27m, and a £4m loan (that shifted to Lai and hasn't come back to the club)... our problem is the ownership.  Peace said that he couldn't invest to take the club forward and would only sell to someone that could.  They he sold to someone who said the club had to be self-sufficient... and we have moved backward (and Peace has moved offshore).

As an aside - I can't believe how lucky vile have been.  Days from going bust under their Hong Kong owner Dr Tony, then saved from relegation by the only recorded failing of the goal line technology system.  They really annoy me.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2020, 11:07:38 AM »
At the end of the premiership window it is now apparent to me that we have no aim to maintain our premiership status.  We have two players of genuine premiership status (Diangana and Pareira), and all of the rest try hard, but will struggle at this level.  Compared to other clubs locally (Villa and Wolves) our transfers mean our squad is significantly poorer, and the teams promoted with us (Leeds and Fulham), have made some great purchases.  Tactically this looks deliberate, i.e. we do not wish to invest and we are accepting being relegation as more or less inevitable.  I hope I am wrong, but I cannot see three teams worse than us, and I cannot see where the points will come from.  This year has the potential to be very painful indeed when we play Villa and Wolves.  If we do go down I would be surprised if Diangana and Pareira stay with us.  Perhaps I am feeling gloomy in this weather, but could does anyone feel more optimistic than me?

Leeds will be fine as they have spent wisely, recruited players who fit their system and have one of the games great coaches.

Fulham have gone with their usual scattergun approach, if you throw enough pooh at the wall some might stick. They will be down there with us.

Wolves are backed by Mendes enabling them to bring in his clients for bargain prices and flog high after a couple of seasons and Villa are willing to throw serious $$ at it. Both are still half a billion quid away from being real challengers for a the top 6.

Diangana and Pereira are next seasons transfer budget. Lai has made it clear that no money that isn't generated by the club will be spent, so hopefully the £40m we get for those two next summer is invested wisely but somehow I doubt it.

Football is just an owners game, who's got the most cash and the inclination to spend it. Certainly not us.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2020, 11:26:10 AM »
What is surprising me is how little the local media seem to be reporting on the lack of a 'go' by the club.

In years gone by they'd have been all over this but this year there's almost as much silence as there is from the club.

Apathy really has set in and that's a huge worry.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2020, 11:47:51 AM »
We are trying to cover all bases and being sensible,boring but sensible.
What is the point of playing football?
Its to win matches.
Which of our players play to lose?
If they give 100% every game can you fault them?
I think the plan is to stay in this league if possible,keep our p/l sheet neutral then spend more next season on better players,when we'll have a more solid base to work from,both playing wise and business wise.
We might not like it or agree but we won't crash and burn like other clubs have.
By the way, we don't sell our best players if we go down we build the team around them!

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2020, 12:38:42 PM »
how much do we each have to chip in to buy Lai out?  ???
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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2020, 01:11:20 PM »
What is surprising me is how little the local media seem to be reporting on the lack of a 'go' by the club.

In years gone by they'd have been all over this but this year there's almost as much silence as there is from the club.

Apathy really has set in and that's a huge worry.

The local rags can't afford to upset the applecart by asking difficult questions now, they might lose their access; combine that with having to write clickbait stories to get the advertising revenue, and there is no way they're holding anybody to account.

Decent investigative journalism is dead.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2020, 01:13:29 PM »
how much do we each have to chip in to buy Lai out?  ???

£5,000.00 each if we can find 40,000 of us, that's £200m. I'd rather spend it on myself mind.

We just have to hope we can beat Burnley in our next match, scrap 17th this season, then next summer we should have the budget we needed this summer and a few our our championship players who are surplus to requirements like Austin, Phillips and Zohore off the wage bill. Every season at least four teams deserve to be relegated but only three go down. With our goalkeeper I think we have no chance but I'll still cheer us on.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2020, 01:26:40 PM »
Diangana and Pereira are next seasons transfer budget. Lai has made it clear that no money that isn't generated by the club will be spent, so hopefully the £40m we get for those two next summer is invested wisely but somehow I doubt it.

This is my fear.

We will sell the likes of Diagana and Pereira to fund the next few years but the quality of replacement will be significantly poorer.

In effect we will end up with more Zohore's and Andre Gray's and whoever else is on Dowling's british based spreadsheet.
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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2020, 01:30:35 PM »
A win against Burnley and all will be well with the world again.

Joking aside we've got our work cut out to stay in this division this year.
The really annoying thing for me is that the club have deliberately made noises that they were after certain players just to keep the fan base quiet for a little longer.
Before anybody says anything, I'm well aware that the club have said nothing directly concerning transfers but the snippets from the likes of Nixon and Percy have been deliberately leaked in my opinion.
Bilic said he wanted another two maybe three players, maybe he's been sold a pup like the rest of us.
Sad thing is that the club should have had a good go at the Caraboa Cup, instead we capitulated.
Dowling said that the targets we were after were not even on the radar  ::) looks like they've crashed and burnt to me.
We really are in a hole
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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2020, 03:45:18 PM »
What is surprising me is how little the local media seem to be reporting on the lack of a 'go' by the club.

In years gone by they'd have been all over this but this year there's almost as much silence as there is from the club.

Apathy really has set in and that's a huge worry.

That's because the likes of Joe Masi for the express and star have fell into the journalist trap of becoming a fan and not doing the job properly some of the stuff that plank comes out with on social media sounds like it comes from the club. Madeley back in the day and Lepkowski would of been all over this.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #15 on: October 06, 2020, 03:58:43 PM »
That's because the likes of Joe Masi for the express and star have fell into the journalist trap of becoming a fan and not doing the job properly some of the stuff that plank comes out with on social media sounds like it comes from the club. Madeley back in the day and Lepkowski would of been all over this.

Don't be so sure. Lepkowski had his nose firmly up the behind of Mr Lai last night on twitter.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #16 on: October 06, 2020, 04:14:49 PM »
Yes, it's clear - the good old - judge the actions not the words spring to mind.  It's very clear that we just wanted a piece of the 5bn TV money pie that runs from 2019 to 2022 and promotion last year saw to it - job done in the board's view. Their actions show they're no committed to trying to stay up this year.

Next job in the their eyes will be trying to get us back up again next year or the year after to take a bite from the next TV deal. Boring ain't it but it is what it is.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #17 on: October 06, 2020, 04:18:42 PM »
I said before this season and before the budget was halved that Lai won't give a toss this season. He just wants us to be in the PL for the new deal in a few years time when every players value increases and so does every club. Then he might just get his money back and **** off. This year is about collecting revenue.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #18 on: October 06, 2020, 04:27:43 PM »
Oh please behave, give the team and the club a chance to grow and develop in the Premier League, if we are bottom by mid November, then yes, fans have every reason to feel miserable, but for now, watch, accept and hope.
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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #19 on: October 06, 2020, 04:37:55 PM »
Don't be so sure. Lepkowski had his nose firmly up the behind of Mr Lai last night on twitter.

I’ve just read those posts on Twitter after seeing them in your post. What utter garbage Lepkowski has written about Lai!

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #20 on: October 06, 2020, 04:49:38 PM »
Oh please behave, give the team and the club a chance to grow and develop in the Premier League, if we are bottom by mid November, then yes, fans have every reason to feel miserable, but for now, watch, accept and hope.

An excellent post John but afraid it will fall on deaf ears.
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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #21 on: October 06, 2020, 04:55:05 PM »
Oh please behave, give the team and the club a chance to grow and develop in the Premier League, if we are bottom by mid November, then yes, fans have every reason to feel miserable, but for now, watch, accept and hope.

You sum up my feelings exactly, a good and sensible post
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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #22 on: October 06, 2020, 05:05:40 PM »
I’ve just read those posts on Twitter after seeing them in your post. What utter garbage Lepkowski has written about Lai!

He's right in the sense that Lai's men have underperformed but he doesn't even query why Lai hasn't sacked any of his staff so in the end it makes no sense.

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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #23 on: October 06, 2020, 05:08:50 PM »
I’ve just read those posts on Twitter after seeing them in your post. What utter garbage Lepkowski has written about Lai!

What part of the Lepkowski commentary do you think is garbage?
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Re: It is now clear we are not aiming to stay in the premiership
« Reply #24 on: October 06, 2020, 05:14:06 PM »
For anyone interested or wondering, here are Chris Lepkowski's Tweets They make sense to me at least

If you're pinning blame on Lai for lack of spending at WBA then your target is misplaced. He has done exactly as he said he would 4 yrs ago. The issue lies with how that budget was allocated, and where it was spent? And that falls to those employed on his watch.

Bilic wanted a striker (or 2) ages ago. Also wanted a new goalkeeper (Grbić) & is pursuing Grant, who hasn't played a single minute of 20/21 football. Gray hasn't played any football either. Deeney does slightly better - an 89th min sub (last month). All 3 would need to catch up

But, on the flip side, *if* WBA go down they do so without being in any great hock, with saleable assets and going into a Championship where their budget should be greater than most clubs combined. They *should* stand a chance. Best case scenario they stay up anyway - all is good

Final questions are whether a bit more financial muscle towards wages would make a difference? The Premier League 20/21 is bonkers. All bets seem off. And it feels like WBA are on the outside looking in. As for Lai? As you were since '16. He said this would be his Modus Operandi

Of course the biggest problem is that WBA have pretty much got every major strategic decision wrong since '14. Papered over cracks, trying to fast-peddle back to where they were a couple of years before. And that alone requires a period of recovery. This is STILL that period.

Ironically, the one thing they got right was the appointment of Bilic. And he did a great job last season. But when it comes to judging results it is inevitable the manager becomes the fall guy. Always. Players, directors can weather the storm. Managers rarely do.
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