Sadly that's the way in ALL sports ( To scale ) IMHO . £££££ / $$$$$ does not speak anymore it SHOUTS !
It's a continuation of this comparison to 2005. (I don't think it will quite stretch to WBA staying up on the final day though.)
Which of the bottom three is best placed for an immediate return? Now that their fate is all but settled, WBA can afford to play tensión-free football which might surprise their up-and-coming opponents. Now that the pressure is off, SFC might as well be released from their season-long shackles.
Depending on who we keep and sign i think we will stand a decent chance of coming straight back up. A team of McCarthy Pied Stephens Yoshida Targett Davis Hoj Redmond JWP Sims Long Should hopefully be enough to challenge for play offs.
I'd suggest that WBA and Stoke are somewhat screwed, should they both go down. They've not got many decent players between them, so it doesn't take too many to be picked off in the transfer window to leave them both without any left. They've also both got very ageing squads, have both relied quite heavily on the loan market this season (so will lose those players), and both badly lack pace and goals. I also don't see that either have the finance to have a go at buying their way back. I don't think either will be as bad as to follow Sunderland (or even Hull). But the sort of season that Villa had last year, in their first year post relegation, where they just sat in mid-table largely all season, is what I could forsee for both.
When/if we get go down ........GAO will want his money back to pay the debt.........resulting in selling....not a chance of promotion.
Pieds going in the summer regardless of our division. Yoshida hojberg and targett wont be sticking around either.
If the current bottom 3 go down i think we will be in the worst position of the three. West Brom and Stoke will probably lose 4/5 players each and their teams aren't too bad for the Championship, re-investing the money raised from selling players like Shaqiri/Butland and Evans/Rondon and both could have decent enough Championship teams. We will end up losing a lot more players I would suggest and will basically have to completely rebuild, without knowing Gaos plans it is impossible to say how we will do, could be promotion chasing or could be another relegation.
One could argue that the prices SFC´s players will fetch in the market will be quite low if the perception out there is that SFC need to sell. Quite a different matter to when finishing 6th, 7th and 8th and the players sold fetched a premium price. There is no one in the squad that is going to bring in 10m. They will be sold at the back end of the transfer window for give-away fees.
Pieds already been told he can leave - was reported months back. Yoshida as the Japan captain and international isn't going to sit in the championship. Targett has some bridge building to do with us and wants a move to Fulham if they go up. Hojberg will see himself as too good for the championship and there's interest in him from top European clubs.
That table even includes Cortese's last season. Over the past four, our net sell is closer to 13m a year.
