[Albion] Number of seasons in the Premier League - is our expectation simply unrealistic?

[nwgull]

Our restrictive wage structure is always going to leave us struggling every year to stay in the Premier.

On the other hand it also protects us from signing players on £100K a week that we’d be lumbered with if we got relegated. See Sunderland and more recently Stoke.

 

[One Love]

On the other hand it also protects us from signing players on £100K a week that we’d be lumbered with if we got relegated. See Sunderland and more recently Stoke.

You misunderstand me, I'm not knocking it.

Just an observation.

 

[Commander]

Because TB is an Albion fan, I don't think he treats the Albion with the same level of hard-nosed objectivity that he probably treats his core business activities. Nothing wrong with being a nice guy but it was naive in the extreme to give Potter - and probably his entire entourage also - a FIVE YEAR contract extension when he'd not been here more than a couple of months. That's not the actions of a hard-nosed businessman, that's the actions of a fan reacting to a couple of very decent early season performances

I keep hearing about how Bloom has made the biggest mistake in our history for giving Potter a 6 year contract. He was already on a 4 year one, so he got an extra 2 years. Say he’s on £2 million a year, that means if we want to get rid of him it will cost us an extra £4 million. That’s less than a quarter of what Jahanbakhsh cost. A 3rd of what Locardia cost. It’s even less than Duffy cost in the Championship. It’s annoying, but it’s hardly the end of the world.


Can people not do simple maths? It’s like when we are linked with a half decent Asian player and people say ‘He’ll pay for his transfer fee in shirt sales’. Oh right, we’re going to sell 1 million extra shirts are we?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Bollocks. Analysis of football matches is how he continues to make his millions. And I don’t know many self-made multi millionaires who got where they were by being too nice and naive.

HIs grandfather and uncle were/are on the board, and a rich family. Yes, he has built up his own fortune but he's not exactly a rags to riches story.

 

[Weststander]

We are being unrealistic if we don't believe that we will be one of a dozen teams that could, for a number of reasons, end up scrapping for survival. Villa, West Brom, Fulham, Stoke, recent examples of teams that had been relatively successful or established and have fallen through the trap door, whilst Bournemouth, Watford, West Ham are all examples that not many would have tipped to be in the do-do this season. This is why I don't get the vitriol when we struggle, as though we are being done a disservice somehow. My perception, and it is not backed up by facts so may be way off, is that the clubs that are commonly viewed as "well-run" by the wider world, can cope reasonably well with the drop and compete well in the Championship.. no guarantees of course, and in time with no promotion we would have to cut our cloth accordingly but with assets that we might be able to sell to give us the best possible chance for longer-term success.

The Albion's Championship annual business model, after stripping out ad hoc promotion costs, is:

Income £29m
Costs -£59m We have a very high cost base.
Loss -£30m

Parachute income would briefly raise income, but 75% of the squad would be on huge PL contracts.

It's not a financial model to exult. The club may be commended by writers possibly because; the Lancing and Falmer facilities are amazing, we have no bank debt, we're welcoming to visiting fans and others, our ascent from near oblivion, and we seem to stay out of controversies and repeat sackings?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I don’t believe that for a second. You don’t become a billionaire by being well-meaning, naive and nice. There is one shrewd ******* in there somewhere.

For sure. Apart from when it comes to the Albion. Seems to believe in treating people fairly. Which, sadly, would make him just about in minority of one in the PL. Fair enough, his club, his rules, and we all currently benefit from it. But can't see that level of niceness establishing us as a top ten PL club

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I don’t believe that for a second. You don’t become a billionaire by being well-meaning, naive and nice. There is one shrewd ******* in there somewhere.

Which is why he is called the Lizard. Cold blooded.

 

[nwgull]

Because TB is an Albion fan, I don't think he treats the Albion with the same level of hard-nosed objectivity that he probably treats his core business activities. Nothing wrong with being a nice guy but it was naive in the extreme to give Potter - and probably his entire entourage also - a FIVE YEAR contract extension when he'd not been here more than a couple of months. That's not the actions of a hard-nosed businessman, that's the actions of a fan reacting to a couple of very decent early season performances

The fact that he’s an Albion fan means that, unlike foreign millionaires with no emotional investment in the club, he’s not going to put the future of the club at risk by paying rediculous wages with no relegation clauses.

Villa, for example, will be ****ed if they get relegated.

 

[Icy Gull]

Is there a single Albion fan that deep down really believed that we wouldn’t be in relegation trouble with a very good chance of getting relegated in every one of the three seasons that we have been here?

I find it surprising that people are getting so angsty about us quite possibly going down eventually in our third season.

The fact that we have yet to be in the bottom three at all in three seasons (apart from very very early season) is pretty damned impressive imo. (i may be wrong on this but I don’t recall it if we have)

FWIW I think we’ll get a fourth season but I am really struggling to see where our next point is coming from let alone wins!

 

[nwgull]

HIs grandfather and uncle were/are on the board, and a rich family. Yes, he has built up his own fortune but he's not exactly a rags to riches story.

I’m fully aware of his heritage. However, the money he’s made has been different level. There’s no way Ray and Harry could’ve funded the 200m+ that Tony has.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The fact that he’s an Albion fan means that, unlike foreign millionaires with no emotional investment in the club, he’s not going to put the future of the club at risk by paying rediculous wages with no relegation clauses.

Villa, for example, will be ****ed if they get relegated.

And we won't? That ST waiting list will disappear overnight for starters, as will all those PL financial spin-offs. And the cherry-picking of our very small number of PL-standard players will ensure that we're not bouncing back into the PL anytime soon

 

[Thunder Bolt]

And we won't? That ST waiting list will disappear overnight for starters, as will a huge number of the PL financial spin-offs. And the cherry-picking of our very small number of PL-standard players will ensure that we're not bouncing back into the PL anytime soon

That's a very gloomy outlook. I don't think the waiting list will disappear. We may lose a player or two but looking at other yo yo clubs, like Burnley, Newcastle, West Ham, Southampton, it doesn't seem as though they lose half a team when they get relegated.

 

[Icy Gull]

And we won't? That ST waiting list will disappear overnight for starters, as will all those PL financial spin-offs. And the cherry-picking of our very small number of PL-standard players will ensure that we're not bouncing back into the PL anytime soon

Dunk aside which PL clubs would want our players? Remember they are all below par, NSC has been drumming this into me since we got here

I do think that we will lose a shedload of ST holders and can’t see there being a waiting list if we do go down though

 

[Live by the sea]

HIs grandfather and uncle were/are on the board, and a rich family. Yes, he has built up his own fortune but he's not exactly a rags to riches story.

Disagree, Tony does not come from a rich family , he comes from a hard working family who have done ok but lots of children come from a family who might have made two or three million but to go from 2 to 3 million to high hundreds of millions possibly a billion plus takes a very special person with an exceptional mind and ability.

Lots of people do well for themselves, 1.5 million pound house, flash car, several 5 star holidays a year, kids in top private schools etc but that is a million miles away from the success Tony has achieved. Tony is in the top 1% in the world.....Brighton are extremely lucky to have him. He is also a very down to earth nice guy:

 

[Icy Gull]

Disagree, Tony does not come from a rich family , he comes from a hard working family who have done ok but lots of children come from a family who might have made two or three million but to go from 2 to 3 million to high hundreds of millions possibly a billion plus takes a very special person with an exceptional mind and ability.

Lots of people do ok for themselves, 2 million pound house, flash car, several 5 star holidays a year, kids in top private schools etc but that is a million miles away from the success Tony has achieved. Tony is in the top 1% in the world.....Brighton are extremely lucky to have him. He is also a very down to earth nice guy:

And it is ONLY because of him that we have been able to live the dream/nightmare of being at the top table for three years.

 

[Weststander]

I don’t think Ashley put his hand too far into his pocket as Newcastle’s net transfer spend in summer 2016 was actually negative. Wijnaldum, Janmaat, Townsend and Sissoko all went to PL clubs for reported fees that would’ve brought in over 75m alone.

Player sales raised £70m but were receivable up to 4 years from the transaction dates, £41m was spent in new fees in summer 2016, but Ashley upped player wages from £75m by £37m to £112m in 2016/17 (benchmark that against our £40m).

After transfer activity and everything else they made a loss £47m.

Partly met by £15m from Ashley and £10m from their bank.

I think he invested incredibly heavily to get them back immediately. Is £112m the highest Championship wages bill in history?

Summer 2016 signings of Atsu, Clark, Diame, Gayle, Hayden, Ritchie and Yedlin improved an already quality Championship squad.

 

[Weststander]

Disagree, Tony does not come from a rich family , he comes from a hard working family who have done ok but lots of children come from a family who might have made two or three million but to go from 2 to 3 million to high hundreds of millions possibly a billion plus takes a very special person with an exceptional mind and ability.

Lots of people do well for themselves, 1.5 million pound house, flash car, several 5 star holidays a year, kids in top private schools etc but that is a million miles away from the success Tony has achieved. Tony is in the top 1% in the world.....Brighton are extremely lucky to have him. He is also a very down to earth nice guy:

Ray Bloom is a very successful and wealthy guy. Is he TB's father or uncle?

 

[Icy Gull]

Ray Bloom is a very successful and wealthy guy. Is he TB's father or uncle?

Is he the one who was around when the Three Bar stewards ran the club? If so I always thought of him as Nero

 

[nwgull]

And we won't? That ST waiting list will disappear overnight for starters, as will all those PL financial spin-offs. And the cherry-picking of our very small number of PL-standard players will ensure that we're not bouncing back into the PL anytime soon

Can you not see the difference between us, who have one of the lower wage bills in the league (probably with relegation clauses) and Villa, who have players on 100K a week, have spent 140m in transfer fees and may well breach the FFP limits this season unless they come up with some ground sale loophole?

 

[Weststander]

Is he the one who was around when the Three Bar stewards ran the club? If so I always thought of him as Nero

Born 1946, so in his 40's then. Ray was appointed to the Board by DK.

Wasn't the Bloom on the Board in 80's and early 90's an older guy? Could be wrong.