It'll be impossible to establish ourselves straight away regardless. The best thing to do would be to aim for promotion and spend the money wisely. If we take this "slow but steady" approach we'll end up like Derby or someone.
How terrible. I'd much rather end up like Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton, Bradford, Preston, Southampton, Leeds, Norwich or Leicester did, by falling into Division 3 (or even 4, in the case of one).
Percy/TWF is the archetypal plastic fan, wants to spend ridiculous sums unnecessarily, probably doesn't remember that this time last year we were nearly out of business because his good mates did just that, and nearly sent us through the trapdoor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/26/hull-city-administration-relegation We got lucky surviving that........
One of the lowest spending clubs last season was Swansea, who not only got promoted, but did it playing the best football in the league. Boro, Cardiff and Leicester all threw a lot of money at getting promotion, but failed, of the bigger spenders only QPR were successful. West Ham are in a mess, £100m in debt and they're going to throw everything at getting straight back up, as the new fair play rules that are coming in would prevent them from doing what they're doing now. The players they are bringing in are obviously replacements for the ones they're losing(ie Nolan for Parker), so they'll still be weaker than last season, though they were already massive favourites to win the league. I hope it starts badly for them, the fans get on their backs and the whole thing turns to ****.
I think a lot of people just don't understand Percy's/TWF's perceptions. He's said himself that he doesn't remember the dark days and, to be fair, because he's so young he probably only remembers the KC era. This is why he's not happy with "our lack of ambition". Think of it this way. Most gamblers have had a short period when all their bets are romping home. Imagine that this happens when you start gambling. You would believe, in your experience, that this is how gambling always is. If you then start to make only average wins you will start to feel angry and blame all manner of people for your "bad luck". A wiser man would understand that you can't keep winning big. This is where Percy/TWF is coming from. He hasn't the wisdom (yet) to understand real life implications to do with the club. I remember being his age at uni. I was just as naive and believed my own arguments. On youth's side they do have lots of passion, which can get them into trouble. I wouldn't risk huge sums again, the club has learned from the bad experience it had with Bartlett, Duffen and Brown. Experience and wisdom are really useful things, more useful even than high intelligence. IMO
You'd hope for West Ham's sake that this pulls offs, they're not in a clever position financially anyway so could be in the **** next summer if they don't go up. It does show ambition to go up, but they're taking a huge risk in doing so and set themselves up for a fall if they don't go up. After experiencing the consequences of what happens when you spend beyond your means can anyone blame the club for being rather cautious in terms of money. Like i said on another thread recently, if we go up next season or in 5 seasons time, does it really matter as long as we have a club to support that is financially stable.
Man Utd are in £700m. Doesnât stop them spending big this season. You have to speculate to accumulate the long term rewards are great. I think you will find 99% of clubs are in debt.
Everyone said that about Boro and Leicester last season, things don't always go according to plan. They're not exactly the same type of player, but I'm pretty sure Nolan is being brought in as Parker's replacement.
I agree with the OP, West Ham are going about things nicely at the moment. They can afford to of course because they've lost Obinna and Upson's massive wages, Ba's will follow and maybe Dyer and then they'll sell Parker, Green and possibly Cole for an awful lot of money. That would still leave them with some cracking talent like Tomkins, Noble, Piquionne, Stanislas, O'Neil, Collison, Hines, etc. They can afford to speculate for a little while because they get much bigger gates than we do and they have the safety net of owning expensive property in London. Not to mention that they HAVE to speculate a little because they need to be back in the PL inside two years playing in that new stadium. I think they'll go up easily. I'm impressed with Birmingham's recruitment so far too. And I think getting shot of McLeish won't harm them either. IMO, West Ham will win the league and Birmingham and Forest will easily finish top 6. Won't judge Leicester yet because they've done nothing so far. The rest is wide open at the moment.
So all the other teams next season are just playing for one play-off / promotion spot next season and run the risk of relegation. Now that's gambling!
They are just my predictions and in that case yes they are. Howver we all know the championship is a close league, the teams that came up this year are also very strong. I see the gap between bottom of the plays offs and start of the relegation zone being even closer than this year.
Now that I do agree with. In that respect I love being in the Championship, it really is unpredictable - who would have backed Swansea for automatic this time last year, or Sheff U for relegation. I find it difficult to predict our fortunes next season, never mind all the other clubs.
