Controversial, but are we a realistic premiership club?

[Doc Lynam]

Stadium - yes
Finances (no interest bearing debt) - yes
Other facilities, superstore - yes
Management team - yes

Acadamy & training facilities - no
Playing staff - mostly, a big 'no' at the moment, if we are honest. But will radically change in the next 3 transfer windows.

Agree, but need to get our shirts into more sports stores.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Having history / big fan base is no guarantee of success any more.

It never was!

 

[banjo]

I think your larging them up a bit.

Poundland is a superstore as well..

Thats the same class as Palace

 

[Poyetry In Motion]

Crystal Palace also have a superstore but I don't think it's a plus point for them

To be fair, 'Caravans 4 U' was never going to work

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

In terms of players yes. Van Persie, Nani, Rooney, Gerrard & co would embarrass us. It would be no fun watching frequent heavy defeats.

Swansea's promoted team had about 6 class acts on big money, plus a tried and tested academy.

We're not at that level yet.

I wouldnt mind as I saw it happen at Gillingham when giants like Darlington were thumping us 4-0.

Give me losing to Arsenal 4-0 at the Amex ANYDAY.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

With the track record of some of our players having their collar felt I think we are at least a top ten prem club.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Realistic Premiership club!! Are we even a realistic football club?!?!

 

[Guinness Boy]

It never was!

I was thinking of 'success' in terms of getting and staying in the Premiership where before sides like Oldham, Swindon and Barnsley would come straight back down. However thinking back over the same period sides like Man City, Leeds and Sunderland dropped like stones.

That's a very long way of saying you're right and I could have left the 'any more' off the end of my previous paragraph!

 

[BLOCK F]

We have the potential to be a Premiership club,without a doubt.Not a mega club(the usual suspects!!)but a good steady mid-table outfit,sometimes punching above our weight and sometimes making a balls up of things;just like many other middling Premiership teams do.

 

[Dirk Gently]

....
Many of the clubs listed aren't sustained through their normal revenue streams? I mean gate receipts, club shop sales, advertising and prize money?

No club in Tiers 1-4 is sustainable through those income streams alone - without TV money every single club in the 92 would go down the pan.

 

[pasty]

We have potential to be Premiership, to compete for domestic cups, and to qualify for the mickey mouse Europa cup. But forget ever doing as Ipswich or Forest did in the past and be able to compete at the top. Mega money and mercenary footballers has finished that dream.

Sad, but true. It's a painful fact that unless a club has a mega-bucks owner nowadays, they are NEVER going to be able to compete for top honours.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

If you look at our history and where we currently sit in the overall picture, we have a long, long way to go before we can expect to establish ourselves as a premiership club. If we can have a decade of top championship or lower to mid premiership table, we could start to think about it.
At the moment we are all hope and expectation but need to be patient. Anyway, that's what supporting the albion for 50 years of ups and downs has taught me.

 

[Worthingite]

We have potential to be Premiership, to compete for domestic cups, and to qualify for the mickey mouse Europa cup. But forget ever doing as Ipswich or Forest did in the past and be able to compete at the top. Mega money and mercenary footballers has finished that dream.

To be fair, the quality of the teams in the last 16 of this years Europa League proves that it's FAR from Mickey Mouse. We'd do well to get there.

 

[arfer guinness]

To be fair, the quality of the teams in the last 16 of this years Europa League proves that it's FAR from Mickey Mouse. We'd do well to get there.

I think it was a far more attractive concept when only the champions competed in what was the European cup, the eufa cup had great teams who were runners up and high finishers in their leagues and until the Champions League was dreamt up the list of teams who won the European cup winners cup was impressive.

 

[Worthingite]

I think it was a far more attractive concept when only the champions competed in what was the European cup, the eufa cup had great teams who were runners up and high finishers in their leagues and until the Champions League was dreamt up the list of teams who won the European cup winners cup was impressive.

Oh I'm with you 100%. The CL should be for CHAMPIONS of the respective national leagues. Europa League for the rest. What made it so special this year is the number of national champions who had a shocker in the CL group stage

 

[Mellotron]

If you look at our history and where we currently sit in the overall picture, we have a long, long way to go before we can expect to establish ourselves as a premiership club. If we can have a decade of top championship or lower to mid premiership table, we could start to think about it.
At the moment we are all hope and expectation but need to be patient. Anyway, that's what supporting the albion for 50 years of ups and downs has taught me.

In what ways are the likes of West Brom, Bolton and Fulham ahead of us, bar playing squads? Genuine question.

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

No-one deserves a place in the top league until they earn a place there, making a clubs history pretty irrelevant but, right now, no I don't think so.

We've got the stadium, we've got the owner and we have the fans but we don't yet have a name as a solid Championship club, meaning adding 'names'/top players is always going to be a little bit harder for us than some other clubs in the league (Cardiff, West Ham, Brum...) and without that added quality it'll be, I think, just beyond us.

Give it 5 years though...

 

[dejavuatbtn]

In what ways are the likes of West Brom, Bolton and Fulham ahead of us, bar playing squads? Genuine question.

Historically they are miles ahead in terms of "first division" pedigree. All have significant history and have demonstrated a level of "stickability" in the top division/championship.
With the infrastructure we are developing, we will have a chance to consolidate a place in the highest division, but all need to be patient as it won't happen overnight, esecially if we want to stay there more than our previous four seasons.

 

[Mellotron]

Historically they are miles ahead in terms of "first division" pedigree. All have significant history and have demonstrated a level of "stickability" in the top division/championship.
With the infrastructure we are developing, we will have a chance to consolidate a place in the highest division, but all need to be patient as it won't happen overnight, esecially if we want to stay there more than our previous four seasons.

All sounds like management speak. "stickability" "pedigree".

What ACTUALLY do they have over us currently other than playing staff? I see no reason we couldn't be a yo-yo Prem/Champ club from 1-2 years from now onwards.

History means nothing. It has not helped Nottingham Forest, Leeds, nor "the oldest club" Notts County, has it?

Thing that matter in terms of building for success:

Playing squad
Finances
Stadium that provides income
Attendance figures that are sustainable
Infrastructure to support all of the above
A chairman with money and a brain
An academy to produce talent

 

[dejavuatbtn]

All sounds like management speak. "stickability" "pedigree".

What ACTUALLY do they have over us currently other than playing staff? I see no reason we couldn't be a yo-yo Prem/Champ club from 1-2 years from now onwards.

History means nothing. It has not helped Nottingham Forest, Leeds, nor "the oldest club" Notts County, has it?

Thing that matter in terms of building for success:

Playing squad
Finances
Stadium that provides income
Attendance figures that are sustainable
Infrastructure to support all of the above
A chairman with money and a brain
An academy to produce talent

We had a lot of this stuff last time we were up there, and we have nearly gone out of existance since then. These things are subject to change. Last time we were in the first division gates were not exactly brilliant and our chairman with money and a brain left.
Up until recently we have rightly been viewed as a third division club and unless we can have a sustained period at a higher level, we will still be viewed that way by others.