WBA Transfer Window: (Summer 2015) Starting early..

aries22 · (This post was last modified: 02-04-2015, 17:45 by aries22.)

Great update, Stairs - five stars from me.
We can ship out Victor Anichebe but I don't want to be giving any more second chances to other strikers like Rickie Lambert. I think Big Vic used them all up.
We should go all out for Charlie Austin and we should keep Youssouf Mulumbu.
We could look at Ifobe of Wolves, see if he's interested in joining us, but he seemed to select Wolves carefully for his move away from Arsenal earlier this season.
We've got to get LB and RB sorted one way or another.
We should still go for Martin Olsson again, and let Graham Dorrans make his move to Norwich permanent.

betterthanbaird · 02-04-2015, 18:06

Do Norwich want Dorrans permanently? It could depend on if they get promoted aswell.

wba_1996 · 02-04-2015, 18:28

I hope we set our sights higher this window, the majority of the names being mentioned so far are less than inspiring. It will be our 6th season in a row in the PL, Carlton Cole etc. would have been decent options when we first came up but now they just smack of cheap, unambitious squad-fillers. The small club mentality has to stop if we ever want to be considered as anything more than relegation candidates.

Stairs · 05-04-2015, 00:32

Demarai Gray linked again

Stairs · 08-04-2015, 09:36

If JP sells the club for £150-200m in the next few weeks. I wonder what that might do to the funds available to TP. I doubt we'd do a City and start buying the top end talent, but we might step up a notch or two.........

**Ska'dForLife-WBA** · (This post was last modified: 08-04-2015, 13:10 by Ska'dForLife-WBA.)

The problem, as ever, is that there'll be no return on investment for the people pumping the money in. The extra money you get for finishing, say, 8th as opposed to 17th wouldn't justify the amounts you'd have to spend on players to accomplish that. The Europa League actually loses most clubs money when they participate, and the pot for winning it is laughably small (I think a couple of million last time I checked).

The ONLY way a club can make big money and get their owners a significant return on investment is by qualifying for the Champions League, which is why it's the holy grail for clubs like Southampton (and, in the past, Villa, Newcastle, Leeds, etc). It's also damn-near impossible to achieve.

Hate to rain on the parade where new ownership's concerned, but unless the new guys are devoted Albion fans prepared to burn money just to create an enjoyable/watchable team for all us supporters, I don't see their priority being anything other than remaining in the Premier League and slowly maturing their initial investment.

Stairs · 08-04-2015, 14:29

That's a pretty good summary Ska'd. It would be nice to think a medium investment could get us, Southampton style, on the edges of Chamions League. If that was possible, maybe, just maybe, A second phase of investment could break the CL monopoly.

Tom_Wba · 08-04-2015, 15:22

Going to be an interesting summer hopefully it doesn't interfere too much with our transfer business, there's no guarantee the potential new owners would want to keep Pulis in charge so whatever happens it needs to be all sorted very quickly

Dingle-Dingle · 09-04-2015, 14:24

Marseille striker Andre Pierre Gignac (29) a target @ £75K PW. BBC Text service. DD Huh

**St Charles Owl** · 10-04-2015, 05:57

(08-04-2015, 13:05)Ska Wrote: The problem, as ever, is that there'll be no return on investment for the people pumping the money in. The extra money you get for finishing, say, 8th as opposed to 17th wouldn't justify the amounts you'd have to spend on players to accomplish that. The Europa League actually loses most clubs money when they participate, and the pot for winning it is laughably small (I think a couple of million last time I checked).

The ONLY way a club can make big money and get their owners a significant return on investment is by qualifying for the Champions League, which is why it's the holy grail for clubs like Southampton (and, in the past, Villa, Newcastle, Leeds, etc). It's also damn-near impossible to achieve.

Hate to rain on the parade where new ownership's concerned, but unless the new guys are devoted Albion fans prepared to burn money just to create an enjoyable/watchable team for all us supporters, I don't see their priority being anything other than remaining in the Premier League and slowly maturing their initial investment.

Spot on Ska!! There is one exception to the return on investment in football and that is to buy a club down on its luck and get it into the prem!! We were sold a few months back and our new owner is targetting a return to the prem in two years and has promised to spend what is needed to achieve this. If we get there our income will go up from the current 20m or so to the dizzy prem heights of over 100m instantly!! Of course it will cost to get us there but please consider Peace is looking to sell you guys for 150m-200m, we were sold for 37.5m!!!!! I know we have had 15 years of hard times but the potential is there, so rather than spending big money on a team that is just about at its pinnacle spend it on one that can grow significantly for me is the better option!!

And please don't think I am having a go at WBA, I am not, but if we could emulate what you have done over the next few years then our new owner could potentially sell us for a similar amount to what Peace is looking for, that is a return on investment!! There are a number of prem teams who seem to be trying to run the club within its means, teams like Southampton, Palace, Swansea and yourselves are proving it can be done but as you say the real Holy Grail of the Champions League is a pipe dream for 3/4 of the premier league!!