[Albion] Are you OK with TB’s long term ambitions for the Albion?

[jasetheace]

Yes.. but we must commit to the cups

 

[Stat Brother]

Yes.. but we must commit to the cups

Duffy already is.

 

[spence]

Interesting that the Wolves chairman is aiming for top 10 finish in the Premier league and TB ambition is just to stay up.

 

[el punal]

I've written about this on here before and I'm sure some people think I'm miserable.

I would love us to stay up for the foreseeable future and, financially, that's where we have to be The money TB has invested only makes sense if we're in the Premier League and pushing to become a global brand. But for me to be content we have to be evolving positively every season. Not just competitive in the cup but pushing for finals. Not just hanging on to 17th or 16th by the tips of our fingers but, eventually, pushing for Europe. Not by one miracle season, a la Leicester, but by constant little tweaks and improvements. The good news is I think that's where the club are too.

There are a couple of "buts" though. Firstly, the thing I really don't want is for that position in the table to be achieved with negative football and the small club attitude that's dogged us a bit this season. I thought we'd got over the initial awe of being here and then I hear people suggesting that we should maybe have a banner tomorrow wishing luck to Liverpool in the Champions League. No. F*** off. If we're here long term then we deserve to be on merit and there should be no tugging of the forelock. Some points away from home would be nice too.

Secondly I offer exactly what my Cardiff mate Sam said about Stoke this season. "Relegation will do them good. Shake the place up a bit, give them a chance to be the big boys again". If we do end up stagnating then I think a season or two in the Championship would similarly do us the power of good.

Some fair points here. Our first season in the Premier League was always going to produce “negative”, safety first football. A case of needs must in order to survive. Well we’ve done that with a bit to spare. My view on it is that when Chris Hughton came to the Albion his task was to ensure that the club did not get relegated to League One, we didn’t. He rebuilt the team in the summer for a tilt at promotion which, of course, we achieved second time around. I would like to think the same strategy is used for our tenure in the Premier League - here’s hoping!

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

I’ve spotted your obscure link to Elvis Costello’s brilliant Riot Act and claim my prize

What a magnificent, sprawling epic of an album Get Happy was. If my memory doesn't deceive me, EC and Nick Lowe crammed so many tracks onto it that there were serious doubts as to whether it would play loud enough because the grooves were so close together (and before the pedants start, yes I'm aware that there is only one groove on each side of a vinyl album but you know what I mean).

 

[AmexRuislip]

What TB has done for his/our club, is every fans dream, an owner/fan to have basically bank rolled the club, to get it to a standard, where others can only admire what has been done.
I agree with a lot of what's been said on here about, us as a club, that has fought it's way up through the 'pecking order' to the PL.
I want us to stay in the PL, playing reasonably attractive footy, whilst still commanding a certain respect.
As [MENTION=616]Guinness Boy[/MENTION] has already said.....if we stagnate then Championship will do us no harm.
I've got lots of footy supporting mates, in and around social and work areas, who support the likes of QPR, Brentford, Wycombe Wandrerers etc...
who all have said over one thing and another about how well the Albion have done, not really jealousy, but a kind of admiration.
They're not 'can I have your shirt' fans, but all weather fans

 

[Spanish Seagulls]

Forever is quite a long time.

Forever means approx 4 seasons in football.

 

[Hampster Gull]

For a few years, absolutely. Forever....no. It’s a sport for me, at some point you push onwards

 

[Perkino]

At the start of the season I would have said my aim was to stay up for 3 seasons and then turn into a premier league certainty like Everton, West Brom, Southampton, Stoke and the like. Considering all of those sides have spent time in the relegation zone and sacked their managers during this season I now realise how fooled I had been about these clubs being at another level to us.

Tony is correct there are 2 levels. The 6 who will fight for a top 4 finish and then the remaining 14 teams

 

[Nixonator]

Based on what?

Twice in the last month, TB has said that he thinks the goal will be to stay up “forever”. He’s also said he hopes for a(nother) good cup run and would like to hope that we can finish higher up the league - but a goal of avoiding relegation “forever” does not carry the same cost implications as incrementally improving our strength over a decade.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when he talked of 'forever' was it not based on the first goal of any club outside the top 6 being survival, or words to that effect?

He obviously believes that the top 6 is now locked down and that not even another Man City type spending spree could allow a club to break into it consistently. I imagine he believes the only next step is another breakaway before anyone else could challenge their monopoly.

With that said, he is lumping us in with the other 13 clubs in the PL which is not excluding the possibility of incrementally improving and having a season like Burnley, which has to be the realistic dream, anything else is pie in the sky to suggest from a businessman even if he is a fan at heart.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Not what was widely reported in the media who all said it was for Toure

That's the media for you. Brighton players clapped Man City onto the pitch before the game, then lined up for the usual handshakes. Toure didn't get any special treatment until after the game finished.
He came back onto the pitch to applause from all the Man City fans and one or two Brighton. Completely separate times.

 

[Diablo]

I'd hope that within the next billion or so years we win the league.

Forget the billion years....Think a Billion pounds would help.

 

[seagulls4ever]

I've written about this on here before and I'm sure some people think I'm miserable.

I would love us to stay up for the foreseeable future and, financially, that's where we have to be The money TB has invested only makes sense if we're in the Premier League and pushing to become a global brand. But for me to be content we have to be evolving positively every season. Not just competitive in the cup but pushing for finals. Not just hanging on to 17th or 16th by the tips of our fingers but, eventually, pushing for Europe. Not by one miracle season, a la Leicester, but by constant little tweaks and improvements. The good news is I think that's where the club are too.

There are a couple of "buts" though. Firstly, the thing I really don't want is for that position in the table to be achieved with negative football and the small club attitude that's dogged us a bit this season. I thought we'd got over the initial awe of being here and then I hear people suggesting that we should maybe have a banner tomorrow wishing luck to Liverpool in the Champions League. No. F*** off. If we're here long term then we deserve to be on merit and there should be no tugging of the forelock. Some points away from home would be nice too.

Secondly I offer exactly what my Cardiff mate Sam said about Stoke this season. "Relegation will do them good. Shake the place up a bit, give them a chance to be the big boys again". If we do end up stagnating then I think a season or two in the Championship would similarly do us the power of good.

Based on what?

Twice in the last month, TB has said that he thinks the goal will be to stay up “forever”. He’s also said he hopes for a(nother) good cup run and would like to hope that we can finish higher up the league - but a goal of avoiding relegation “forever” does not carry the same cost implications as incrementally improving our strength over a decade.

Your representation of the situation has changed slightly since the 'TB fans forum' thread, where you said this:

The current 5 year plan involves simply staying in the PL, for the foreseeable future, and possibly forever. We’d hope for a decent cup run at some point (like this season), and even hold out hope for a possibility of European football (like Burnley this season). However, realistically, the goal has to simply be “stay in the PL”.

It seems to me that TB is simply being pragmatic since the main aim of most PL teams is to stay up. We'd require some serious investment to become a team which could think otherwise.

However, from what I've seen since TB took over the club, there's been incremental improvements to the club each year (if not on the pitch, then off it). Based on what I've seen from the club so far, I'd expect that to be the case going forward as well. But I don't think TB's ever going to chuck obscene amounts of money around - he's said he wants the club to be self sustainable. Instead, he's trying to improve the club in a more careful and prudent way with the long-term in mind - investments in things like the academy and in the scouting department. If they can be done well, then they can become an additional source of income for the club. Unlikely to get value like Gross again any time soon - but he must be worth 10x what we paid for him.

 

[seagulls4ever]

I thought the guard of honour was for Man City winning the championship, not Toure. Our team had left the pitch when he came out for his presentation.

I didn't see it but I'm glad you've clarified the situation. Absolutely no reason why we should have given Toure a 'guard of honour', and it would have been pretty tinpot to have done so.

He would have loved it though - if you can recall, he considered leaving City a few years ago when he felt his birthday wasn't appropriately acknowledged.

 

[Aveacarlin']

Yes. I'm good with it. It's completely realistic. The bedwetting community on here probably won't be though.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[seagulls4ever]

Here's what CG said about a Sky Sports interview after the game last week:

When asked how the club was going forward he stated that for the next few years the aim will be to stay in the division and no higher targets will be set.

He also said that the higher we finish the better and if we could emulate Burnley - if they make Europe (of this season) in the not too distant future or even get to a cup final he would be very pleased. But he emphasised again, the aim near term would be to remain in the Premier League.

https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?363942-Tony-Bloom-Feet-on-the-ground

All sounds very sensible to me.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Tony is just calming down the expectation so we don't lose our minds.

 

[Weststander]

Your representation of the situation has changed slightly since the 'TB fans forum' thread, where you said this:



It seems to me that TB is simply being pragmatic since the main aim of most PL teams is to stay up. We'd require some serious investment to become a team which could think otherwise.

However, from what I've seen since TB took over the club, there's been incremental improvements to the club each year (if not on the pitch, then off it). Based on what I've seen from the club so far, I'd expect that to be the case going forward as well. But I don't think TB's ever going to chuck obscene amounts of money around - he's said he wants the club to be self sustainable. Instead, he's trying to improve the club in a more careful and prudent way with the long-term in mind - investments in things like the academy and in the scouting department. If they can be done well, then they can become an additional source of income for the club. Unlikely to get value like Gross again any time soon - but he must be worth 10x what we paid for him.

Good post.

I reckon the recruitment team will come up with more great value signings from overseas, who'll succeed in the PL.

In contrast to Everton and Leicester, for example, who will lazily keep blowing £100m's in fees and wages on allegedly 'finished' articles, and coming a cropper. No doubt Allardyce is aiming to sign Yaya Toure on huge wages, wages out of our league.

 

[LowKarate]

That is completely unacceptable! After 5 years, we should roll the dice, splurge big and probably bankrupt ourselves.

No, wait.. that's how to destroy the club and take us back to League One.

On reflection, I am completely, utterly 110%ly supportive of Tony's plan.

Bill Shankly's 'bastion of invincibility' Liverpool was not built rashly.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Interesting that the Wolves chairman is aiming for top 10 finish in the Premier league and TB ambition is just to stay up.

If they get to 10 then fair play to them. I think it's going to be harder for them than people imagine. Jeff Shi is just playing to the gallery.