[Albion] How would you react to us staying up but with our lowest ever PL points total?

[MJsGhost]

We didn't spend much on fees but I'd guess we're now spending way more on wages. Lallana, Welback, Veltman all in on decent wages, I'd guess. Big new deals for White, Dunk and Lamptey too.

Way more?

I doubt White is on more (or at least much more) than Duffy is/was on (still our player I know & I don't think Celtic pay 100% of his wage) and I also doubt Lamptey is on much more than Montoya was, even with Tariq's new deal.

Mooy, Stephens, Bernardo, Ryan would all have been on a reasonable whack, which is now saved.

But yes, Lallana, Wellbeck and Veltman must all be on decent wages (hopefully elements of pay per game for Wellbeck & Lallana!).

My gut feel is that the overall wage bill, although higher, won't be significantly higher and will still be one of lowest in the league (bottom third fo' shizzle). Once we are able to permanently clear out some of the surplus/dead wood (Izzy, AliJ, Duffy, Locadia, Propper*), it should be pretty lean as Zeqiri, Moder, Karbo, Khadra etc must be relatively low earners.

*Harsh on Davy, but looking at the cost (fairly high wages?) of keeping him compared to the benefit (not a regular/particularly influential) and also the fact that he might have a reasonable re-sale value, leads me to think we should sell him and clear a spot for someone like Moder, or Molumby (next season).

 

[Audax]

Simple question: how do you think you’d react to the scenario of us staying up, but with our lowest ever PL points tally?

Happy we did enough to stay up. Hopeful that it drives home to whoever makes the recruitment decisions that we need more firepower up front. Whether that's new recruits, or specialist coaching for existing players, I don't really care: we quite clearly need to be converting our chances more often.

We should have had Fulham buried. The only positive to come out of it is that a handful of matches ago we would have conceded late and gifted Fulham an extra 2 points. Putting Sanchez between the sticks seems to have put the confidence back in the defensive line at least.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Every season in the Premier League will be a struggle for a club like ours. Just surviving is a success in itself. I'd be delighted.

 

[Goldstone1976]

"Thank the f*** for that."

 

[Shooting Star]

Delighted. Bit of a strange question.

In my mind, it's a question that interested me because a) from current projections it's the most likely scenario to happen, and b) I doubt the club went into the season looking to stay up by the lowest possible total. I imagine that instead they hoped to make progress from last year, as indicated by club PR.

The responses on this thread are very interesting as they seem to suggest that for whatever reason (be it COVID/pros and cons of playing style under GP/convinced we're going down/club like us etc) that four years on, the majority of fans (on NSC at least) are still fairly content for Albion's goal to be survival. Not a criticism, just an interesting observation.

 

[rippleman]

Who cares how many points we get as long as we stay up?

We are all indebted to Mr Chairman for his huge investment and we need to stay up so that investment is protected.

 

[rippleman]

In my mind, it's a question that interested me because a) from current projections it's the most likely scenario to happen, and b) I doubt the club went into the season looking to stay up by the lowest possible total. I imagine that instead they hoped to make progress from last year, as indicated by club PR.

The responses on this thread are very interesting as they seem to suggest that for whatever reason (be it COVID/pros and cons of playing style under GP/convinced we're going down/club like us etc) that four years on, the majority of fans (on NSC at least) are still fairly content for Albion's goal to be survival. Not a criticism, just an interesting observation.

Absolutely survival. At all / any cost

(Although I would expect the manager to provide an explanation of why we have the lowest ever points total - should that transpire - with the strongest, most expensive squad in the club's history - not to me, but to Mr Chairman)

 

[nicko31]

Who cares as long as we stay up, every season is different...

 

[SimpKingpin]

Haven’t read the whole thread but I’m sure Covid affected our spending power, and our overall goals as a club this season.

Some clubs seemed immune to this depending on spending power of owner(s).
Villa is a great example.
(This isn’t a slight on Bloom btw. He’s given so much.)

But definitely think there was a point, just after we missed out on Nunez and it was more and more clear that fans were not going to come back (at least, in a profitable / sustainable fashion) that we changed our goals for the season.

I think that’s understandable.

Re. Potter, I believe he will continue to progress attractive possession style football at the beginning of each season but mix in some counter attacking football as the season progresses (when appropriate), if results aren’t going to plan. Per last year and this year. The project will go on.

This year I’ll happily take survival. The world has been turned upside down by the pandemic. It’s affected each club differently. So for now, my expectations have had to adjust. I’m ok with that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Skaville]

Did you wake up on Thursday morning thinking wow we really passed the ball around midfield well last night or just pissed off we couldn’t beat hapless Fulham?

I thought both. Hope that helps

 

[PeterOut]

Bizarre question, in my view - staying up is the most important thing, and a long, long, long long way from worrying about the finishing position. .

Finishing 17th with our lowest or highest ever points total, or finishing 14th or 15th with fewer points than last year matters not one jot - especially considering the impact on finances from lack of crowds and postponement of payment of TV money, the difficulty (post- Brexit) of signing players from Europe in the January window, the fact that we are bringing in many new younger and less experienced players, the fact that all are still adjusting to the new style of 'total football', with multiple line-ups and formations even within the same game, etc, etc, etc.

Let's get through the season, stay in the PL, and push on from a much more solid foundation next year without worrying about meaningless comparisons about whether we score more or less, got more / fewer points, finished higher / lower than the season before - the two seasons are so different, comparisons are pretty much futile.

(Yes, I know that some of the factors above are also true for other teams.)

 

[jessiejames]

Stupid question, but happy and glad that I've always been Potter in.

 

[Shooting Star]

Stupid question, but happy and glad that I've always been Potter in.

Apart from it being hypothetical, how is it a stupid question, when CH was sacked after just about steering us to survival with 36 points? As the posts to this thread already show, the majority have said they'd feel delighted with survival, whereas some have expressed frustration that we would have significantly regressed from last year.

 

[Albion in the north]

I would think that is a great result. We have integrated a lot of younger players in to our squad and team, are playing some great football, survived in a very surreal season and the only way is up from here.

 

[Sirnormangall]

I’d be delighted with that and I’d want to keep Potter.

 

[OzMike]

With relief.

 

[Invicta]

I'd be very pleased for Tony Bloom who has spent millions on this club.

Says it all. 100 %

 

[Winker]

I'd be happy that we'd stayed up but p*ssed off that we hadn't progressed after 4 years.

 

[BN41Albion]

'thank **** for that, now can we please invest in the bloody goal scoring department.'

 

[Weststander]

Happy and looking forward to next season with an even better squad for GP to work with.

I have a head for numbers, but have no interest in or knowledge of past points tallies, so wouldn’t waste my time comparing. No doubt an anti-Potter obsessive would start a thread on the matter, which I’d ignore.