Gus's WARCHEST

But that is pure conjecture. The bottom line is that it is not unreasonable to assume that our wage bill is big enough to ensure we can comfortably compete with the top six. We are getting 26,000 at home, and we have massive match day revenue streams compared to our rivals.

Gus Poyet has been talking up his wish to manage a big club. I'm cool with that, but would rather he didn't then give us silly unsubstantiated quotes like we have 13th highest wage bill.

Simster said:

But that is pure conjecture. The bottom line is that it is not unreasonable to assume that our wage bill is big enough to ensure we can comfortably compete with the top six. We are getting 26,000 at home, and we have massive match day revenue streams compared to our rivals.

Gus Poyet has been talking up his wish to manage a big club. I'm cool with that, but would rather he didn't then give us silly unsubstantiated quotes like we have 13th highest wage bill.

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Agree to a point. Our match revenues are excellent, but our TV revenues (including parachute payments) and commercial income (majority of deals were signed when we were in League 1 and should have fortunately unwound by the end of this season) are poor compared to other clubs at the top of this league.

Forest, Leicester, Cardiff and Blackburn have foreign owners who are putting money into their clubs this season gambling on getting into the Premier League BEFORE FFP comes into play. Tony Bloom is a gambler, but not when it comes to the Albion's long term financial stability.

Shirley it's how the resources are managed not how much money is shelled out (e.g. Swansea, Reading)?

Mellotron said:

Anyone still think we're underachieving in terms of money spent to our league position?

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I've never thought that, but I do think that we're underachieving in terms of the quality of the squad. This is backed up by the fact that we are so often palpably better than the opposition we play. We can all probably identify 15+ points we really should have won this season, but late goals and profligacy in front of goal have cost us.

DJ Leon said:

I've never thought that, but I do think that we're underachieving in terms of the quality of the squad.

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Everyone says that, but all championship squads are better than they used to be because of so many foreign players in the prem. And anyway, who are our stars? Buckley, Bridcutt, Orlandi (CMS?) - but on the most part our squad is made up of lower-league players at the top of their ability - El-Abd, Dicker, Calderon (CMS?) - young players still learning the game - Barnes, Lua Lua, Dunk - foreign imports still adjusting to the championship - Bruno, Lopez, Ulloa - and players who were once at the top of the tree but have dropped down a level for regular football - Vicente, Kuszczak, Upson, Bridge. We're not the finished article by a long-shot.

DJ Leon said:

This is backed up by the fact that we are so often palpably better than the opposition we play. We can all probably identify 15+ points we really should have won this season, but late goals and profligacy in front of goal have cost us.

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We'd be a clear second with those points. That would be overachieving IMO and if its just down to football luck that will even itself out in the rest of the season. Last year we got loads of last-minute goals and finished 10th, this year we've conceded loads and still 8th. Improvement.

Kalimantan Gull said:

Everyone says that, but all championship squads are better than they used to be because of so many foreign players in the prem. And anyway, who are our stars? Buckley, Bridcutt, Orlandi (CMS?) - but on the most part our squad is made up of lower-league players at the top of their ability - El-Abd, Dicker, Calderon (CMS?) - young players still learning the game - Barnes, Lua Lua, Dunk - foreign imports still adjusting to the championship - Bruno, Lopez, Ulloa - and players who were once at the top of the tree but have dropped down a level for regular football - Vicente, Kuszczak, Upson, Bridge. We're not the finished article by a long-shot.



We'd be a clear second with those points. That would be overachieving IMO and if its just down to football luck that will even itself out in the rest of the season. Last year we got loads of last-minute goals and finished 10th, this year we've conceded loads and still 8th. Improvement.

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I do think we've improved, but I don't agree with your assessment of our players. I think we have some of the best players in the league. Not the finished article I agree, but I think a reasonable expectation is the play-offs. Do you think Boro and Hull have better players than us? I don't.

DJ Leon said:

I do think we've improved, but I don't agree with your assessment of our players. I think we have some of the best players in the league. Not the finished article I agree, but I think a reasonable expectation is the play-offs. Do you think Boro and Hull have better players than us? I don't.

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I honestly don't know just how good their squads are, and I suspect very few of us do, as all our focus is on the Albion (and to a lesser extent Palace).

Boro are pretty similar to us in having a decent defence, but their strikers (McDonald and Jutkiewicz) are equivalent to CMS and Barnes. In midfield they have Julio Arca and Josh McEachran, who are good. They do have some foreign players of unknown quality, all I can say for certain is that they pay more wages than we do.

Hull are in a similar position, they have an excellent midfield, (Koren, Aluko and Faye especially), but up front are not making a huge impact (Jay Simpson and Proschwitz are nothing special).

What both sides have managed to do, is despite not scoring a great number of goals (Boro 47 and Hull 40 compared to Albion's 41, (Cardiff, Palace, Leicester, Watford all have 50+)), they close out wins. This may be due to being managed by craggy defenders in Bruce and Mowbray, rather than an attacking midfield player in Gus.

Their home form is also a key feature, Boro have won 10, Hull 8 and the Albion only FIVE out of 14 games. Unless we turn home performances into results (I think only Watford have looked better than us at the Amex this season), then we won't trouble the play-offs.