[Albion] What does the future hold for Thee Albion ?

[Insel affe]

We all love the Albion, and have seen them play with varying degrees of success and being looked after in various forms of stability or not over the years. Sometimes there have been great moments of emotion that you think can never be topped like Doncaster at home in the first game of the season or our victory over Wigan to gain promotion to the Premier League. We have also seen despair and desperation at the Goldstone, sold from under our feet, the god awful trip to Gillingham, will we, won’t we get planning permission….

Oh the agony, Oh the joy…

We are now in our second season in the Premier League, and it can be argued that we have progressed from last season, it seems that the club is being run with the future in mind, not rushing into massive money signings that may jeopardise the clubs bank balance in the future. All by a chairman that loves the club, and has it’s safety and future in mind it seems.

My question is now we are here in the Premier League, just how far can we go in this league ? Could we with year on year growth become a top 6 club I wonder, or are the odds stacked against a club like ours. The big six obviously command the most revenue and can attract the best players, if that is the case they will inevitably dominate the league for a very long time, and making that chance of a Leicester do what they did less, less likely. This is kind of depressing really, and the best we could ever really hope for as a club would be a domestic cup win or top six freak finish. Obviously things can change, chairmen can come and go, finances can change drastically and bring teams down to a level playing field, but as it stands a cup would be the only realistic target along with survival.

So my question is how far can we go, say in the next 25years.

What say you, my fellow Albion fans ?

 

[AmexRuislip]

I hope you're not at LGW, as you seem to have time on your hands.

I think we're going in the right direction, given who we have at the helm and where the Albion have come from, facing the depths of the lower leagues.
Going to be PL for a long while yet

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

I’ve gone for domestic cup, not that I believe we’ll actually win one, but maybe make a final again. I believe, under Bloom’s ownership, we’ll remain a Premier League constant without troubling the upper echelons.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Too early to say. I'll 'vote' for constant battle, hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I hope you're not at LGW, as you seem to have time on your hands.

I think we're going in the right direction, given who we have at the helm and where the Albion have come from, facing the depths of the lower leagues.
Going to be PL for a long while yet

 

[Insel affe]

I hope you're not at LGW, as you seem to have time on your hands.

Yeah actually I do, but I am in the office, all the building sites are closing down, and I am all caught up, so I deserve a little me time before I finally hang up my NSC boots.

 

[Goldstone1976]

25 years? Blimey.

I’d hope that TB’s ambition in that timescale would be to win the PL and maybe even a Euro cup. Obviously, we know that he’d never go balls out with another £500m in an attempt to win it in the next three years, but with sound commercial running, a well-run academy producing either cash &/or first team players, and a fair wadge of luck, it’s not totally out of the question.

In the next five years? Survival at best; wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a relegation in there too.

 

[Insel affe]

25 years? Blimey.

Oh it flies my friend, it was only 20 odd years ago we lost the Goldstone.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Less, less likely? Or more less likely?

Hair splitting season is upon us.

Yo-yo.

 

[Easy 10]

If you believe the tripe the GOONSQUAD come out with, we'll be back in the noddy leagues and bankrupt within 5 years, Bloom will walk away leaving the club with all the debts, the Amex will be sold off and converted into a venue for giant monster truck rallys, and we'll all be supporting Chelsea.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Where's the option for mid-table obscurity?

 

[nicko31]

Fight for survival, unless you are top 6 you are only 15 bad games away from the drop.

Everton nearly went down, so did Leicester the season after being Champions and so called established teams like Stoke and West Brom went last season.

That said we are well run and if things continue we should be safe for the time being.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Yeah actually I do, but I am in the office, all the building sites are closing down, and I am all caught up, so I deserve a little me time before I finally hang up my NSC boots.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Oh it flies my friend, it was only 20 odd years ago we lost the Goldstone.

When you put it like that...

 

[Bozza]

If you believe the tripe the GOONSQUAD come out with, we'll be back in the noddy leagues and bankrupt within 5 years, Bloom will walk away leaving the club with all the debts, the Amex will be sold off and converted into a venue for giant monster truck rallys, and we'll all be supporting Chelsea.

The first half of that is pretty much what's happened to Bolton who were in a very similar position to us. Bankrolled by a single very wealthy fan benefactor to reach the promise land of the Premier League, with him pumping in, and writing off, c£200m all-in before he left.

I'm not suggesting for one second we could go down the same path as Bolton, but I would imagine their fans would have long said stuff like "It's fine - Eddie's a lifelong fan so he'll make sure we're OK."

 

[Notters]

My Albion will do fine thank you very much, how about thou Albion?

 

[Notters]

I think those who've voted a constant fight for survival don't get Tony's ambition.

 

[studio150]

I'm disappointed that there isn't an option for perennial world club champions, so had to downgrade my vote to European Glory

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

In the next 25 years?

In the next decade the top cubs will get their wish for a European Super League, taking off both Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal, and eventually Chelsea, Spurs and a resurgent Leeds into European Super League 2.

Although these big teams will stay in the premier league for a bit eventually their PL sides become official 'B' sides and stop winning the league, most getting relegated. Everton, West Ham and Newcastle dominate - and continuously grumble about being denied entry to the super leagues, but the Albion rise and become very settled in the Premier League, before ultimately rising to challenge the top 3 and one day winning the title. This is followed by a glorious run through the new European Cup competition, a straight knockout cup between all the clubs in the super leagues plus domestic title winners, before bowing out to Juventus in the semi-finals.

Ok getting a bit carried away there at the end but you get the general jist

 

[Scotchegg]

1-5 Years: Mid-table consolidation years
6-10 Years: Pushing for top 6
11-15: Premier league domination ending in European glory
16-20: Founding member of the World Super League which has a fairly competitive start.
21-25: World Super League Domination
26-30: Voted as a member entity into the NWO
30-35: Strategic positioning within the Local Solar geographic region
26+ General global domination. The Earth renamed The Albion.

Meanwhile, Croydon burns in some sort of Mad Max gone wrong scenario.