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guancheblade

guancheblade

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I'm sure if we disregarded performances/results on the pitch and took a poll on whether we thought promotion this season was a good idea given the state of the squad, the lack of ambitious strategy and the financial situation we find ourselves in, I'd imagine not many would vote yes.

But it's getting pretty difficult to ignore the form book, and if we continue at this rate then like it or lump it we are in a playoff campaign at the very least. Which got me thinking about our realistic promotion chances and subsequent survival in the PL. Then this thought popped in my head...

MGW and Ndiaye are both better than any player we had the last time we went up.

Agree or disagree? If so, what does that mean for next season should we get promoted?
 



You take promotion every time id take it even if we had a team of 40 year olds all out of contract in the summer id still take it


I think this year could be shit or bust i fear if we don't go up players will get sold like bogle/ndiaye and all the loan players go back

We would be left with a bare squad with a chairman who would rather play NFL fantasy football and sells our players to fund a Belgian clubs new training ground
 
guancheblade said:
I'm sure if we disregarded performances/results on the pitch and took a poll on whether we thought promotion this season was a good idea given the state of the squad, the lack of ambitious strategy and the financial situation we find ourselves in, I'd imagine not many would vote yes.

But it's getting pretty difficult to ignore the form book, and if we continue at this rate then like it or lump it we are in a playoff campaign at the very least. Which got me thinking about our realistic promotion chances and subsequent survival in the PL. Then this thought popped in my head...

MGW and Ndiaye are both better than any player we had the last time we went up.

Agree or disagree? If so, what does that mean for next season should we get promoted?
Click to expand...


Unfortunately Gibbs White isn't our player , and Ndiaye while very good on his day is still inconsistent

I always want us to go up regardless, however I do fear without better recruitment we wouldn't last a season
 
Promotion is worth upwards of 100M, so yes. I'd hope to sign MGW if that happened without paying a ridiculous fee or spunking big money on other signings - but then Wolves might want him around their first team or to sell him for a fee our top brass should avoid.
 
As humiliating as it might be if we went up (and there's a lot of football to be played yet), becoming a Fulham/Norwich/West Brom/Watford type club is a step ahead of where we've been, outside of fluking our way to 9th in the league.

Take Palace as an example, they were skint for years and have now been in the Premier League for the past 9 or 10 years. They've done nothing but float around the mid to lower reaches of the table mind you but is probably where we'd expect or aspire to be if we got up and actually stayed up for a few seasons.
 
Why wouldn't you want to compete at the highest level?

A huge IF we somehow managed to make up ground and got promotion I'm sure we would do some things differently this time round.

Pretty sure more £ would be put into the facilities this time round.
 
First our goal keepers are weaker but this could probably be addressed through a decent loan.
We had Jack O Connell - never been adequately replaced
Bash, Billy McGoldrick Stevens Baldock Egan are older and I think mentally adversely affected by last season and therefore worse
Our midfield is basically the same personnel who in the end were not good enough I haven't got better since.
We keep waiting for McBurnie to arrive I have accepted that he won't.
Brewster & Ndiaye could be great But who knows?

I agree you take promotions if you can get them but I would worry that given the above the club would end up spending a lot of money and paying higher wages. Given our recent recruitment I think this has the potential to be disastrous long term as it blocks the path for youngsters to come through. If we took a sensible long term approach and didn't do this It would be good for the club.

The reality of the PL was emmmmmm Good when you are doing and well and are able to compete Depressing and boring when you can't. However it would make us more saleable.

Lastly I hate VAR and the diving prima donnas that play in the PL so I won't be too unhappy if we miss out
 
Badger Blade said:
As humiliating as it might be if we went up (and there's a lot of football to be played yet), becoming a Fulham/Norwich/West Brom/Watford type club is a step ahead of where we've been, outside of fluking our way to 9th in the league.

Take Palace as an example, they were skint for years and have now been in the Premier League for the past 9 or 10 years. They've done nothing but float around the mid to lower reaches of the table mind you but is probably where we'd expect or aspire to be if we got up and actually stayed up for a few seasons.
Click to expand...
Good call on Palace. Since promotion in 2013 their PL finishes are: 11th, 10th, 15th, 14th, 11th, 12th, 14th & 14th and they're currently 13th. They've created a model where they generally beat the bottom 5 or 6 but lose to the top 5 or 6. They are aided by their academy's catchment but they recruit well and should be considered something for us to aim for.
 
I'd certainly take promotion but would pretty well do a Norwich and not spend money on players. Get a few loans in but by and large stick with what we've got. I think we have players who could perform at that level; Ndaiye, Bogle, Brewster, plus some of the original squad like Bash, Egan, Baldock. Jebbo might be OK? I would spend the PL money on the club infrastructure. New training ground, new Academy with Cat 1 status, and a decent scouting network, in particular covering foreign players. One of our big problems with promotion before was that the footballing part of the club got miles ahead of the rest of it and we didn't get the infrastructure to catch up. We all know that what stuffed us was terrible recruitment where we paid well over the odds for players from the Championship who then were unable to make the step up and also failed to recruit to cover the various different areas, defence midfield etc.. If we came straight back down w would be well placed to win promotion back from the Championship and with the right infrastructure in place could hopefully at least manage to do a Palace (although I have to say that just being stuck in the middle of the PL season in season out would be very boring!).
 



Yewsman said:
I'd certainly take promotion but would pretty well do a Norwich and not spend money on players.
Click to expand...

Norwich made £2m, yes just a measly £2m, from their disastrous 2019-20 season despite barely signing anyone.

We, on the other hand, recorded a £19m profit that season which we blew, and more besides, during that summer.

No workaday, middling club makes money out of the PL. You can only hope you've still got some decent players when you get relegated or can, at least, afford some reasonable Division 2 level replacements.

If we were to go up by some miracle, we would be - at least - one of the 6 best teams in the Championship, but we'd be almost certain to suffer another year of national humiliation with the small consolation that a return to being amongst the Championship's least paying clubs could be staved off for a couple more years.

On balance, I may take it though.
 
FallowfieldBlade said:
You take promotion every time id take it even if we had a team of 40 year olds all out of contract in the summer id still take it


I think this year could be shit or bust i fear if we don't go up players will get sold like bogle/ndiaye and all the loan players go back

We would be left with a bare squad with a chairman who would rather play NFL fantasy football and sells our players to fund a Belgian clubs new training ground
Click to expand...
Isn't the stadium mainly being funded by a School/local authorities in the area, rather than the clubs money? I'm sure ive seen Beerschot confirm this in their media.
 
You thought last season was bad enough? Go up again and it’s clear that we cannot manage transfers of a club in the premier league with the present owner.

So if we go up it risks being even worse than last season!

At best he’s going to be trousering the cash for a year and hoping we yo-yo. More likely he isn’t that lucky and we end up fucked…as we will be if we do t go up this season
 
Kev Gee said:
Why wouldn't you want to compete at the highest level?

A huge IF we somehow managed to make up ground and got promotion I'm sure we would do some things differently this time round.

Pretty sure more £ would be put into the facilities this time round.
Click to expand...

You would also hope that after the recent experience lessons have been learnt and wont happen again.

Grizzly blade said:
So if we go up it risks being even worse than last season!
Click to expand...

I dont think it can be much worse probably about level.
 
gordoncharles said:
Norwich made £2m, yes just a measly £2m, from their disastrous 2019-20 season despite barely signing anyone.

We, on the other hand, recorded a £19m profit that season which we blew, and more besides, during that summer.

No workaday, middling club makes money out of the PL. You can only hope you've still got some decent players when you get relegated or can, at least, afford some reasonable Division 2 level replacements.

If we were to go up by some miracle, we would be - at least - one of the 6 best teams in the Championship, but we'd be almost certain to suffer another year of national humiliation with the small consolation that a return to being amongst the Championship's least paying clubs could be staved off for a couple more years.

On balance, I may take it though.
Click to expand...
I thought Norwich spent the TV money to pay off their debts?

If you go up and don't buy anyone (and we've already payed for the necessary ground improvements) you'll make like £75 million. Some of that goes into wages, but otherwise....
 
Go up, take the money. Spend most of infrastructure (training ground and stadium), pay off a few debts or pay off expensive contracts, and take a few additional players on a short term basis through season long loans to supplement our young lads. Might be enough to stay up, might not, but worse case scenario is that you are back in the championship, fresh parachute payments to come for 2 years, blank canvas playees wise to go with the younger lads who will be all the better for a season pitting their wits against top PL players, debt seviced, training facilities in place, stadium improved.

There would be absolutely no excuse next time if we went up again and didn't learn our lesson. Take the money and spend on the club infrastructure rather than huge player salaries.

Still, all pie in thr sky just yet. We have to threaten the play off positions first come May.
 
robbiez666 said:
I thought Norwich spent the TV money to pay off their debts?

If you go up and don't buy anyone (and we've already payed for the necessary ground improvements) you'll make like £75 million. Some of that goes into wages, but otherwise....
Click to expand...

No, not really.

Norwich already had large structural losses arising from their wage bill from their previous brief PL sojourns - the time when they were boasting how sustainable their model was. Their wage bill had been around £50m per year.

So, although, their promotion enabled them to pay the wages, that still went up in 2019/20 to £89m, because players will have promotion clauses - and good luck attempting to sign new players for a PL season on Championship salaries. That's going to be a non-starter.
 
I'll give you 150 million reasons why it's a good idea! (the money for being in the Prem, sponsorships, increased crowds, a year's parachute payments at this year's levels etc). It is also the only chance we have of keeping our best young players in the medium to long term. We'd also be able to afford to replace our aging players- - once we were likely relegated - with quality younger Championship level replacements. It would completely obviate the need for short term decisions re sales and squad building. We'd also have the finance to completely revamp the facilities if they chose to go in that direction. Anybody that wouldn't want this is frankly deluded.

There are zero benefits to staying at this level. If you have a mega wealthy backer that can finance you with large incremental investments in youth, whilst regularly bringing through your own players, ok, you have an argument. These clubs are very few and far between. Football unicorns: oft heard about but rarely - if ever - seen to the point of mythology. Brentford are a complete anomaly and those that went before broke a plethora of rules that weren't correctly enforced. They usually fail, are picked over by the vultures, and sink under the yoke of FFP or other associated financial problems.
 
We've begged, stolen and borrowed a budget of about £130m to get through this season.

Guaranteed income for next year is only what we bring in through commercial revenue and player sales.

If we don't get promoted this season, everything must go
 



I've never been to a game and not wanted the win, so promotion or not, are both the same imposters. Play well with good football- great, play Basset ball - then not so good- as the neck pain is distracting ! Just win every game and dont worry about who the opposition are.
 
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