What concerns me the most, is the expectation that in 3-4 years time the academy will be churning out players that will be good enough for the first team. Even allowing for loan spells etc, we would be lucky to produce 1 player every couple of years that is of Premier League standard. It may save us some money, but it will need to be mixed with investment and shrewd buying for us to continue to stay in the Premier League.

Other clubs have larger financial clout. If we can't match it then eventually we will go down. The only thing I can see stopping us going down in the next couple of seasons is if the big 6/7 get their breakaway league and then 6/7 teams come up from the Championship.

I'm not sure it is the expectation, at least not from me it isn't. A first team player every 3/4 years is probably good enough. Don't think that would be much worse than any other team in the league.

As you said investment and shrewd buying is going to be the thing that does it for us. What has hamstrung us in reason years is that we generate next to zero transfer fee on players.

We have seen a stark transition away from buying old players, to building for the future. And we are now in the position where you'd assume that Anderson, Richards, Guéhi, Olise, Eze, Doucore and obviously Mitchell are worth more than what we paid for them.

With the above + Ahmanda, we have the base of a team that are all yet to reach their prime.

With a couple of other young additions in the summer the foundations will be there, and so we wont always feel like we need complete overhauls every window.

Our last period in the second-tier I remember the club pumping singing through the Tannoy system to try and create an atmosphere and hoping Alan Lee would punch someone just to add some excitement. Some of the football during the wilderness years under the likes of Taylor and Burley was awful.

I have periods where I hate what the modern PL stands for with billionaires treating clubs as toys or just as investments, entitled players and this idea that anyone who isn't the big 6 are somehow disposable. I watched the Wrexham v Sheffield United FA Cup first game and it was everything football should be: passion, excitement, blood and guts football. But, I don't think us returning to the Championship would improve things. I do however think that the investment in the academy might mean we might be better insulated against collapse if we did go down, as players like Rak-Sakyi, Phillips, O'Brien, Balmer and Ozoh might thrive at that level.

Great comment and aligns with my view.

I feel a lot of people have forgotten just how much fun football can be, when you produce your own, get a taste of success and feel like a community.

Said it before, we should lock in an acadamy, focus on a style of play that stems the entire DNA of our club and see where that gets us, but sticking to it at al costs.

No point selling your soul if you are forever in purgatory

Do you think PV knows what the DNA of our club is?

I Know what i think the DNA is my Opinion, Hard Work, Loyalty, Comradeship, Aggression, No primadonna´s, delopeing players whether bought or youngsters, having the underdog attitude, that to me is our DNA