And that brings us nicely back to the ownership issue.

Harris and Blitzer are guided by Parish and he - at least outwardly - doesn't seem to think we are facing a relegation battle. So I think you're right, H and B won't sanction any spending.

While Textor is still something of an unknown quantity, he does have a reasonable amount of football knowledge, and maybe he has a more informed view of his own.

Old, Ungifted and White

No 'arguably' about it - we are there. Only a strong football regulator and proper financial constraints can change things. Even then the big 6/7 will probably go off to some form of revised European (World?) Super League and they will want to buy the best players the rest of us produce for silly prices and then what do we do to maintain a reasonably level playing field?

The dream of competing went years ago, its an entertainment business now. After 10 years in the Premier, which was the dream for many years, has now bored many fans and want to push on a try and go higher. The examples of Charlton and Stoke, who tried to push on, ending in disaster and now languish in the obscurity of the lower leagues.
The top teams consider ending up in the top 4 as success, but only one wins the league. It enables them to enter the Champions league with little chance of winning, just gaining more money.
I can understand why the likes of our owners dont throw millions at buying more players, just to gain one or 2 places higher, the returns aren't worth the outlay. They are businessmen, not fools to throw away money.
That is the realism of where we are now.

Look it’s as simple as this in my view - football and the salaries being paid has lost all sense of “real world” reality..!!

An example we’re rumoured to be in for Lucas Moura - Spurs obviously don’t want him/deem him to be surplus to requirements - but he still wants £150K a week..!! That equates to what a CEO of a small sized firm earns in a year - working all the hours that god sends..!!

Look at Reidewald in our squad earning a purported £50K a week - nowhere near a starting position - yet he’s raking in £2.6M p.a.on a 4 year contract so c.£10M - he’ll never have to “work” again - for doing absolutely nothing..!!

So where’s Reidewalds incentive to train harder and get into the starting XI - there is none - he’s quite happy picking up his £50K a week for doing naff all except turning up for training. We’d all sign up for some of that..!!

Spin it around and say yeah you can earn that but it’s appearance and performance related, otherwise it’s £5K a week - would make him think..!!

I know that would never work unless a similar model was adopted across the league - but my point is - that football and associated salaries has lost all touch with reality.

Clubs are paying huge transfer fees and salaries for even the most average of players and that’s the cause of the position where even the most prudent of teams are paying out minimum of 85% of revenue in salaries.

Whilst as as supporters are still stepping in p@ss at half-time to go for a leak..!!

That’s why I’m saying things have got to change and our beautiful game has lost all grip of reality..!!

COYP

Really, that would be a disaster for this football club, how can we possibly fund updating the stadium and the academy if we are a championship club, the lost revenue from not being in the EPL would be catastrophic and our home attendance would sink to 12-15k average at best.

Both Brighton, Brentford and more recently Fulham have shown that with good leadership and adequate funding you can pick up the players to compete in the EPL and these clubs net spends have been very modest as are their wage bills (Fulham 37.6mil,BH&A 30mil & Brentford 15.8mil compared to CP59.4mil).

The academy, alone could not statically produce enough players to fund the playing strength or on any selling revenue to sustain a financially secure club for the future. These days you have to have a worldwide network sourcing talent for you which is something that we have never really excelled at.

The current investors purchased in to a football club, they would have or should have known that your players age, get ill or injured like us all and the ongoing future of the club will require succession planning and investment year on year. Maybe the problem is that SP has made too many mistakes on wages, past transfers and most of all the choice of investors who unlike him maybe more interested in the real estate that is the football stadium as that investment will only grow in value whatever happens to the football club!

For thise that are pining for the days of Championship football - When you see reports of clubs in the PL paying 70 / 80% & more of their turnover on players salaries, its worth looking deeper at the league below, the situation is worse for clubs in the Championship, investing to levels beyond their means, many paying 90% of turnover and more, in the hope of getting out of it -

The Championship model that we remember (clubs playing competitive football & living within their means) is gone -