[bomberbrown1968]

Phil, while we'll never know the answers to yours questions of non replacements and replacements for Chadli and McClean, they made it clear they never wanted to stay and fight. Harvey Barnes if we take him as McCleans replacement is a definite upgrade from what we've seen so far. Evans was another who didn't want to play for us and Bartley has come in his place and had looked sound up to now for me. 3 bad eggs gone and replaced by 2 who at least want to play for us.

4eva is spot on, we could easily have sold both Dawson and JRod for a hefty amount of dough and had that not been reinvested then I would have sided with the "asset stripping" theory. Instead we've kept both at least until January and also added a striker who looks like he could bag us 20+ goals this season, to at least convert some of the chances that have gone begging for the last couple of seasons.

While it's still far from rosy and we are at the mercy of injuries to key players we've made a decent start and we have at least got a few options off the bench. I'm positive in the fact that I believe we've cut our cloth to suit our means, income will go down without a doubt, it's daft to think otherwise and the fact that we've got some money for the high earning players who didn't give a chuff about us is fine by me. Moving them on is nothing like stripping our best players, it's about getting rid of bad blood and bringing hungrier players in who want to play for OUR club

[Salopbaggie]

I have no control over our owners or Jenkins, so I won't lose any sleep over their running of our club. YES it's our club - the fans, they have forgotten that.

---

Apart from the Bolton result all else is going well. Our biggest issue will be injuries and suspensions. If our youngsters do well we will be fine. Remember no club in the championship has a massive squad to choose from.

Sadly Phil, its not our club anymore, we don't matter a gram of knat's pee. The only people that matter these days are the televised media, their shareholders, advertisers and subscribers. They could not careless if you have had the same seat on a season ticket for 50 years, the couple of hundred quid a year your giving them is almost an inconvenience, because as real fans we will voice our opinion rather than repeating theirs, who people not familiar with the club will happily believe.

The sooner the big six bug off to their international super league and take their blood money with them, the better for me.

[St Charles Owl]

I have no control over our owners or Jenkins, so I won't lose any sleep over their running of our club. YES it's our club - the fans, they have forgotten that.

---

Apart from the Bolton result all else is going well. Our biggest issue will be injuries and suspensions. If our youngsters do well we will be fine. Remember no club in the championship has a massive squad to choose from.

Sadly Phil, its not our club anymore, we don't matter a gram of knat's pee.  The only people that matter these days are the televised media, their shareholders, advertisers and subscribers.  They could not careless if you have had the same seat on a season ticket for 50 years, the couple of hundred quid a year your giving them is almost an inconvenience, because as real fans we will voice our opinion rather than repeating theirs, who people not familiar with the club will happily believe.

The sooner the big six bug off to their international super league and take their blood money with them, the better for me.

Actually one of the benefits of your relegation from the PL to the Championship is that once you have used up the failure payments the PL gives you, the most important revenue the club will have will be the gate receipts. About 70% of our annual revenue comes from ticket sales, and I am sure you will see the same sort of figure as well. The benefit for you guys is the club will have to start taking more notice of the fans over issues such as what they expect and want, the style of football, the ambition etc.

Of course the downside is that to then pay for transfers/wages of incoming players, the revenue will need to be raised by the club, the TV money in the Championship is a couple of million a year, so you may see a steep increase in ticket prices if you want to compete at the top end of the division each season. After a couple of seasons of this, without the PL payments and with max losses of 39m over a rolling 3 years, you will also have to sell your best players to balance the books, then retool after a season in midtable and then have another couple of seasons where you can have a go. You see teams without parachute payments do this, we are on the first of our retooling two seasons now, Derby have just gone into the second season, Forest are in a season of spending as are L**ds.

But the upshot is, you will get some say back as without you the club will not raise the revenue it needs, whereas in the PL fans in the stadium are irrelevant as regards the income because of the tv money. I could rant all day about Profit and Sustainability, and about how unfair it actually is to a lot of the teams that are not getting free money from the PL. The playing field is not level, its geared towards the relegated clubs going straight back up and if they get their act together the well run ones will do this most seasons.

[Blue Baggie]

St CO, of course your correct about the fact of who actually owns the club on paper. Alas in my mind it still belongs to the fans no matter who has the title deeds. Your reasoning on the financial aspects are spot on, as we the fans contribution is almost insignificant compared to the media funds. As we don't have an owner who is willing to invest any cash into the club. If we don't obtain promotion within the next 2 years we will be a mid-low championship team for a long while. Our higher value players will dwindle away to help reduce costs further as the parachute payments fall to nothing.

[Baggiebob(BBB)]

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business.
When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed to find a wife with whom to share his fortune. 
One evening, at an investment meeting, he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.
"I may look like just an ordinary guy," he said to her, "but in just a few months my father will die and I will inherit £200 million".
Impressed, the woman asked for his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother

That's what has happened to our Albion, asset stripping of another kind.