[Albion] Top Ten team - The Albion

[Icy Gull]

Forget what you feel about GP for a moment, he’ll either stay or go but longterm do you really believe that the Albion will establish themselves as a team that spend a few years in the top 10 of the PL?

Could be next year, could be in 10 years but can you see it happening? Yes, you’d probably like it but that’s not the question.

I can’t unless we are taken over by an Oligarch or a Middle Eastern state/Chinese/Asian/US investor and I THINK I will hate it when/If TB calls it a day.

Not being Top 10 doesn’t really bother me either

Can you imagine commentators just talking about Albion and dismissing the team we are playing, in fact the reverse of what happens at the moment.

 

[Seasider78]

No I don’t think it is possible as we do not have the finances to fund a squad of the quality that could sustain a spell in the top 10. There are examples of average squads where things click and propel clubs like us up there for a season and that could be within our reach if we stay around long enough to do it.

I think a far more realistic aim is to be a side who are comfortably mid table and have the odd tilt in the cups or a run that takes you inside the top ten.

 

[Swansman]

Not impossible. I think the club could reach the level Southampton are at, perhaps not getting into the top 10 every year but frequently and the odd year off challenging for Europa League.

For a club with limited resources, I know that some "experts" around here compare the clubs budget with Wolves and Leicester but its simply not true, you have to do things in a different way though. The key to reaching top 10 will be the academy. A successful academy produces players for the first team, so you have to spend less money on players and the money spent could be focused on adding strength rather than depth to the squad. Plus successful academies bring in a lot of money from the big money sales that will unquestionably come if you can produce good English footballers.

In order for that to happen you need to have a coach that is willing to give young players a chance and a team owner that accepts things will not always be rosey, particularly at the beginning of the "academy based team" era, and ignore fans who wants results yesterday.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Yes I can. The quality outside of the top 8 isn’t that good.

I think we can be the 10th best team in the country with two or three better signings.

We play good football but lack the quality in the final third. (Which realistically, we all know).

Not getting too much into other threads but the recruitment team (IMO), have squandered our PL money on some bang average players, from ordinary leagues. That side of our ‘strategy’ is wrong.


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[Icy Gull]

Yes I can. The quality outside of the top 8 isn’t that good.

I think we can be the 10th best team in the country with two or three better signings.

We play good football but lack the quality in the final third. (Which realistically, we all know).

Not getting too much into other threads but the recruitment team (IMO), have squandered our PL money on some bang average players, from ordinary leagues. That side of our ‘strategy’ is wrong.


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Which club has had more than two or three top 10 finishes without throwing money that we can’t come close to competing with? Wolves possibly but they have seem to have first pick of any Portuguese stars at knockdown rates it seems.

I can’t see us spending what we need to attain those dizzy heights and as far as I’m aware we have absolutely nobody in the academy who looks like he might be a top 10 striker, maybe not even one who is genuine looking PL quality?

 

[blue-shifted]

We can get to the top 10. Establishing ourselves there will be much harder

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Would hope that at some point in the decade we have our day in the sun and maybe do enough to earn a couple of games in european competition against teams we never heard of. We can dream can't we?

 

[jakarta]

EPL is Moneyball and we ain't got enough of it it so not going to happen!

 

[stewart12]

without significant investment (probably from overseas) I can't see us being established in the top 10, no

 

[BNthree]

In the short term no. In the medium term I could see us occasionally being in the top 10 in the league but not as an established top 10 team. In the long term who knows?? As others have said to really compete at the top of the table needs silly money in transfer fees and wages.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Which club has had more than two or three top 10 finishes without throwing money that we can’t come close to competing with? Wolves possibly but they have seem to have first pick of any Portuguese stars at knockdown rates it seems.

I can’t see us spending what we need to attain those dizzy heights and as far as I’m aware we have absolutely nobody in the academy who looks like he might be a top 10 striker, maybe not even one who is genuine looking PL quality?

But it’s where you throw the money.

The Dutch league is an absolute nonsense.

We needed to review our wage structure, by fewer but better. That is what I call a strategy, gradual improvement. Continue to develop the younger players, but spend more wisely.


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[maltaseagull]

It's a very fine margin as GP often says.

IF we manage to stay up this season, I hope we , as GP often says, learn from this, and make sure we strengthen in the well known weak areas.

IF that happens, who knows?
I am certainly fed up with seeing us in 15th and thinking whoopee we are not 17th!

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Yes I do. I think it’s very realistic and I don’t think we’re actually that far from it now.

As we saw on Tuesday, there’s very little between the teams outside of the top 7 (Liverpool, City, United, Spurs, Chelsea, Leicester, Everton). A bit of luck and better/more clinical strikers and we could definitely make top 10. West Ham, Villa and Southampton are all in there currently and we could easily overcome them.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Would hope that at some point in the decade we have our day in the sun and maybe do enough to earn a couple of games in european competition against teams we never heard of. We can dream can't we?

Hibernian?

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Which club has had more than two or three top 10 finishes without throwing money that we can’t come close to competing with? Wolves possibly but they have seem to have first pick of any Portuguese stars at knockdown rates it seems.

I can’t see us spending what we need to attain those dizzy heights and as far as I’m aware we have absolutely nobody in the academy who looks like he might be a top 10 striker, maybe not even one who is genuine looking PL quality?

Burnley
Southampton never go particularly wild in the transfer market.

In response to the original question, I’ve said numerous times, when we’re humming our football is great to watch and that’s down to Potter, and given the right tools i.e a striker and a recognised left back, I think somewhere around 10th is achievable, even this season if we act quickly. However, if the club are going to stand pat I don’t think GP knows how to deploy a different style which would be more geared for a survival battle.
In brief, back him or sack him. If we give him an actual striker and left back I think we’ll fly, but as things stand we’re stuck in a dirty big rut.

 

[Icy Gull]

Burnley
Southampton never go particularly wild in the transfer market.

Burnley have done very well (after a relegation and not sacking the manager) but I think they have only been top 10 once and their Euro campaign dumped them in the relegation zone for most of last season. Anyway I have no ambition for us to play like Burnley thank you

Saints are a good example but I reckon their wage structure is far higher than ours looking at the players they entice.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Burnley have done very well (after a relegation and not sacking the manager) but I think they have only been top 10 once and their Euro campaign dumped them in the relegation zone for most of last season. Anyway I have no ambition for us to play like Burnley thank you

Saints are a good example but I reckon their wage structure is far higher than ours looking at the players they entice.

Burnley have finished 10th and 7th.
I agree, I have no desire to play like Burnley week in week out, but it definitely has a time and place in modern football, and it’ll no doubt see them comfortably clear of trouble once again this season.

Regarding our wage structure/budget, what is the club’s vision or strategy if the finances aren’t there to maintain any ambition in the league? Merely surviving every season can’t be the end goal and I simply can’t imagine that’s the sort of thing that Tony Bloom would be satisfied with.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Hibernian?

Could be worse. Burnley made it into Europe t'other year for some obscure reason that escapes me and everybody else now, and earned a glamour tie in... Aberdeen

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Could be worse. Burnley made it into Europe t'other year for some obscure reason that escapes me and everybody else now, and earned a glamour tie in... Aberdeen

I was struggling to quote someone I had never heard of!

 

[doogie004]

Not while this clowns in charge


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