Our Business Model

[baggieal]

Football used to be a sport, now it's all about money.
Albion and Burnley have 2 things in common both are founder members and we have earned not brought our place at the top table.
Man city chief is moaning that the Germans take their young players and sell the back 10 fold, he wants the ELF to be full of B teams.
https://www.skysports.com/football/n...ferran-soriano

Totally agree Soulman! Too much greed with clubs and players earning fortunes and giving very little back to the community. Fans are secondary and not valued!!! Even now in a pandemic clubs are bleating about fans being back in stadiums with one thing on their minds - money! Personally, I would look at sensibly allowing back fans to all clubs apart from the Premier and Championship and if these clubs bleat - perhaps players wages can be cut/subsidize any financial shortfall!

This is one of my biggest hates of Lai - does not give two s hits for the supporters. Well there's a lot of businesses bigger than WBAFC where owners value those who work for them, shareholders and loyal customers. I get valued more at Marks & Spencer than at West Brom!!!!! The Football business model like Airlines/Tour Operators has not changed for years and only cared about profits! Do I feel sorry for any of them now? No not at all!

[WBA123]

Glad you don't run my company 123. Nobody is asking Lai to throw large sums of money at the club but to give us half a chance of staying in the league. This squad is no better than the one promoted albeit two assets are now there from loan deals but we have weaknesses all over the pitch! Pointless being competitive if you don't want to compete at the top! So in a nutshell, I don't expect to gamble but to have a person as shrewd as Bielsa and shore up the weaknesses. I went to Leeds and albeit we lost one nil - we played them off the park. Would we play Leeds off the park now? I doubt it very much so you can see the frustration. Take Pulis - horrible football but we had a damn good defense to his credit - why is our defense poor now? We had Gayle and Jay Rod in the championship but we all know they are miles better than the three nags! Who takes the responsibility for this? Not just in the championship but now four games in - all of a sudden the three are not good enough!! The fans saw this in most of last seasons games!

Frustration too at players who clearly are out of their depth/no good who should have been moved on at the end of the season. Take Zohore on 50 grand a week - would you be shunted elsewhere? So if you don't blame Zohore then what idiot negotiated his contract when the Cardiff supporters said he was s hite before he came to us. I hope the % increase in wages goes down by a huge % if we go back in the championship, but then the assets like Periera and Diangana will be sold.

The club is in a mess and this squad is far inferior and lacks quality from the last time we were in the Premier. Quantum Leaps are needed in life - were Villa any better than us in the championship or were Leeds. Look at them now - as much as I hate to say it - where's our Watkins, Grealish and Barkley!!!

It goes back to the old saying in life - you get what you pay for! Other owners are committed and are passionate about their clubs which is lovely to see. Harrogate will succeed as their owner is not only shrewd with the money - he loves their club too! Lai loves us as much as dog turd on his shoes!

I'm not saying we aren't one of the weakest teams in the league - we are. I guess my point is, if we spend an extra £10m this year it will be a drop in the ocean. If we have an extra £10m to spend next year in the Championship then we will have a lot more financial muscle than most other teams.

I would rather we don't overspend, even by £10m. Because if we do and go down, I'm not sure we would be in a position to come up again. We could quite easily go into oblivion if we go down potless. If we scramble enough points to stay up then great, if we don't then we can come again.

It seems odd to me, that you say you get what you pay for but then criticise Zohore being on £50k per week. It's fairly evident to me that that saying doesn't really apply in football. Leicester paid £400k for Mahrez and £1m for Vardy. Man Utd paid £80m for Maguire and £100m for Pogba.

We need to spend our cash wisely. Austin in particular scored some priceless goals last year which could have been the difference between us coming up or staying down. Does that mean he was worth the cash we paid? You've got to say he was. We know he won't cut it in the prem anymore so lets move him on. I don't see the issue with what we've done there to be honest.

We need to follow the Leicester from a few years ago model, or even similar to what Brentford do now - quality players at bargain prices. They are definitely out there. Our best players in the last decade or so have been the players who we signed for little or no money, like McCauley and Mulumbu. Our larger signings are typically the opposite, such as Burke.

So I'm not wrapped up in the 'we need to spend money' argument. We need to buy rough diamonds who can be polished. Periera and Diangana are good signings. And as long as the club is financially well run then I'll be happy, because I don't want us ever to do a Wigan or Bolton.

[Leicesterbaggie]

You make some very good points 123 but what you must realise is that when we got the Gareth McCauleys and Youssef Mulumbus we had a certain Dan Ashworth, and there lies the rub. Sadly we haven't now got someone of that ability. Brentford obviously do and that is why they keep unearthing these gems.