The fact is our decline started in the 2017/18 season and maybe even before that - Lai took over in July 2016. The people appointed to run the club - Williams, Goodman and Hammond - made so many bad decisions ...... the worst of which was appointing Pardew. When you look at the squad we had that season there is no way we should have been relegated. Then we compounded things by the sentimental decision to appoint Darren Moore .... a manager so clearly out of his depth. We almost scraped into the Prem via the play-offs ..... with a squad that should have walked into the automatics. Then Bilic arrived and gave us all a lift and hope .... with the squad he assembled we probably exceeded expectations last season to gain promotion. But underneath it all has been a core that has been rotting for some time .... and now it’s laid out for all to see..... Big Sam ... whether you like him or loathe him ..... has no hope of keeping the club in the Prem .....We can blame Lai the owner for lack of investment but I suspect if you weigh things up we have spent a lot of money on players over the past 2-3 seasons .... but ultimately for me it comes down to making really bad decisions both on the playing and managerial side .... Peace for all his faults - and am not defending him - kept us in the Prem for many years by at least getting most of the big decisions right ..... although appointing Pepe Mel and Alan Irvine wasn’t two of them ... but he quickly saw the error of his ways ...