And the coaching/backroom/academy staff have been beefed up. Believe Darnbourgh has a staff of five or six under him alone, and they don't come cheap.
I'm as gutted as the next fan about dropping into league one, more so about the lost opportunities and the way the PL days and money has been squandered, because it has.
But look at it like this. We are rebuilding with a relatively new manager and football and the finances are changing by the day. We were getting gates under 10,000 before the lockdown, the lowest in the Championship, and the public had obviously fell out of love with the club.
League 1 could be a fresh start, more games, more victories ( hopefully) and a chance to regroup, build up the fanbase and start again.
That could be the twisted logic of the club at the moment. Its not mine,
I think we have gone down without a fight and the club has been mishandled, meaning this relegation could so easily have been avoided.
So I do not think it is a case of asset stripping at all just poor rank bad management of a football club.