Tony's Plan - The Original One......

It must have been nearly 6 years ago I was taking my seat against Wycombe (having just witnessed Slades last game in charge against Hartlepool) and we were all sitting there wearing our new 'Hola Gus' T Shirts. The new 22,000 stadium was rapidly becoming a reality, next week we were to beat a fancied Southampton side on their own patch.

Despite our precarious position, flirting with relegation from league one, there was a buzz of optimism. We knew Tony's vision was one day the Premiership (his 5 year plan had not then been made clear) but the task at hand was survival. Which happened, and as we know following by league one champions the following year.

At this time, what league we played football in was not so important. The fact that we were shortly to have our own 22,000 seater stadium was what mattered. There were even mutterings that we might even attract 15,000 ! Crazy people!

But here is where I get to my point. Tony obviously was (hopefully not is) not crazy. He knew the people would come. He also knew of other revenue streams and what the club would cost to run. Importantly he would not have been naive to the cost of players or their salaries.

So where did it go wrong?

Being a championship club with 15,000 punters through the door, we would have been very average. Maybe a bit better than average as our prices are a bit higher than average , but as we know we did a little better than this, yet we still can't compete.

• Averages gates are over 10,000 higher per match than initially voiced
• We are told the corporate side of things are flying, including non match day event (such as the well timed message for Christmas yesterday)
• We have been told on numerous occasions how many pies and pints we eat and how this helps the club
• We have bought more shirts than ever before
• We have earned a lot of money from a few great cup runs which included the visits of major prem teams
• We have had additional revenue from back to back play off campaigns.
• The TV people like us, so we get more TV money than many others (barring the mighty Leeds, of course)
• We successfully won that cash from Spurs for the young lad who went there.
• We make extra revenue from booking fees and by our supporters calling 0844 numbers to buy their tickets

The other side of the argument is the academy and ground has to be paid for. Well, we are bloody lucky, but this is not news to us or Tony.

What has been news are our ambitions
Those ambitions need funding
If those funds are not there now, well they simply never will be.

The club is enjoying revenue way above the figure that would have initially been penned say 6 years ago, but the ambitions are the same, yet we seem further away than ever from achieving them.

Luckily for me I am on holiday until the transfer window has closed. I will be there each and every game from September. I'm hoping once I'm back in blighty that we have a squad that can compete.

I have certainly suffered greater hardships than this as an Albion fan. But in the past those hardships were clear to understand. Now I just don't get it. The 5 years is nearly up and we are losing keys signings to Bournemouth and the likes of Rotherham might looked better placed to achieve our goal before us!

Good post.

It is becoming more apparent that our 's..t or bust ' season for promotion was the one Gus f....d up had we got promotion then FFP wouldnt have been a issue as if is now.

Good post, except Wycombe was after saints away

It started to go wrong at that game against that lot up the road. Gus, the players and the club had the perfect opportunity to realise their ambition and they blew it. We had not hit the ceiling, if anything we had stuck our head and shoulders firmly through it and, for whatever reason, were then decapitated. We had not looked like losing for weeks and suddenly, we played like a bunch of losers. That for me was the major the turning point in that plan.

Anyway, onwards I say. The funds are there - I don't believe there is a funding problem, more an issue with being able to spend it at the moment!

upthealbion1970 said:

Good post, except Wycombe was after saints away

Click to expand...

You are of course correct. Saints was Gus's first game?

But of course he t shirts had to wait until the home game

kingcole said:

• Averages gates are over 10,000 higher per match than initially voiced
• We are told the corporate side of things are flying, including non match day event (such as the well timed message for Christmas yesterday)
• We have been told on numerous occasions how many pies and pints we eat and how this helps the club
• We have bought more shirts than ever before
• We have earned a lot of money from a few great cup runs which included the visits of major prem teams
• We have had additional revenue from back to back play off campaigns.
• The TV people like us, so we get more TV money than many others (barring the mighty Leeds, of course)
• We successfully won that cash from Spurs for the young lad who went there.
• We make extra revenue from booking fees and by our supporters calling 0844 numbers to buy their tickets

The other side of the argument is the academy and ground has to be paid for. Well, we are bloody lucky, but this is not news to us or Tony.

What has been news are our ambitions
Those ambitions need funding
If those funds are not there now, well they simply never will be.

The club is enjoying revenue way above the figure that would have initially been penned say 6 years ago, but the ambitions are the same, yet we seem further away than ever from achieving them.

Click to expand...

According to Paul Barber, all of that, in total, doesn't amount to ONE parachute payment.