That gets settled after 38 games. You could also consider the derby game as an indicator.
Its not set in stone or records until all 38 games are played, but as we had to endure it during our time in the championship, it only feels right to use it now, "the table does not lie" and as such we are the 10th best team in the League system, where as your currently 15th, that will no doubt change between now and the end of the season, but as things stand, we are the no1 team in wales, you are no 2, Newport are no 3, and Wrexham are no 4. And that is fact, sorry couldn't help but do a Daiswan there
Back to the thread I think the question was how much longer will the low capacity work for. No one here says it's not working just that most bigger clubs have larger grounds and therefore larger match day revenue to accompany it.
No one can argue you've had a great couple of years, the question is can it get any better for a club of that size or have you already peaked? Can you sustain year on year euro qualification? Can you keep pulling Michu type rabbits from the hat?
I could say we have already gotten better this year, as we are still sitting mid-table, 1 place short of our final standing last season. This time last season after 12 games we were sitting on 16 points, 1 more than we are now, whilst this season we have also had to play a further 6 competitive games.
So not only are we on course with our hopeful mid-table (yet top half) positional expectations. We are also closing in on qualifying for the knock out stages of the Europa league. So would say yes, we have already bettered last season.
You've just smashed your transfer record for Bony, I think that shows the direction ML would like to take the club and also how he sees the route to sustained success.
To move onto your point about wages, with sustained success you'll have 2 choices, pay a lot more or sell up and start again. The first option blows your careful budgeting (which I am a keen advocate of in business) out the window, the 2nd is a VERY difficult way (maybe impossible) to sustain the success.
Yes there is the point of growing wage bills, but when you are the lowest in the league and finish 11th, then there is no rush to go out and increase that wage bill substantially, just look at QPR on how NOT to run a football club by spending stupidly trying to buy success. A way that has proven to be useless on a number of occasions. Its all about living within your means and also about running the club correctly, now our way is just one of a number of ways you can correctly run a club. We have no debt, we have no sugar daddy, yet we are still here competing with the best, and have done for the past 2 years, we are now in the Europa league, which goes to show what can be done by running a club in the right way. Is it sustainable, we don't know, of course as success grows, so will our wage bill, and fee's paid out to new players, but at the same time, whilst we are not running into debt over it, then there is nothing to really worry about.
I know somewhere in this thread someone claimed we sold Allen to bring in cash, however we had no choice with Allen, as Liverpool met his buy out clause, we wanted to keep Allen, however we didn't exactly sniff at the £15m we gained form his sale. We are not a selling club, we will not sell our main assests unless its out of our hands, such as the Allen case. If we were in it for the money, we would have looked to have sold Ash during the summer, but instead basically set his price high enough so Arsenal would not bother, same as we set Michu's price high enough that people won't bother, why? Because we are not a club who sells our biggest assets.
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