I think some of the reaction to our progress this situation has bordered on the hysterical

and especially from some reasoned, level-headed supporters I know... which has surprised me, given that they've usually been the first to jump down the throats of the moaners.

We have seemingly become frustrated, because progress hasn't been as rapid as it clearly was from September 2009 up until the end of last season. But then again, how can it be? We are at the pinnacle of English professional football. Yes, where we finish in the Top 20 is of interest and concern, but given the 56 league places we'd ripped through to arrive as a mid-table Premier League team in just 33 months is nothing, and never will be, short of astonishing.

Now I apologise if I'm repeating something I've posted before, but broadening things out a little bit, and looking at the Premier League as a whole, I believe it's currently undergoing a bigger transformation than it has in its previous 21 years.

Firstly, just a reminder of how the EPL looked at the turn of the millennium... User Posted Link You will notice that there's no Bolton, no Blackburn, no Wolves, no Birmingham, no Wigan, no Fulham, no Portsmouth. Seven clubs that have been main-stays (established teams you could argue) of the Premier League over the past decade.) Despite the vast amounts of money coming into the game, they've spent way above what their business models could afford reasonably afford. They have gambled everything on staying in the Premier League. For all bar two teams above, that has failed for them.

Wigan and Fulham continue to survive, but for how long? Aston Villa are clinging on by their fingertips for a second season, but for how much longer? Newcastle? And so the list could go on.

I believe that over the last ten years, so many "established" Premier League clubs have gambled on staying where they are, that they are now seeing the fruitless realisation that just trying to keep up with the "BIG" clubs can't be done. It has damaged them massively... in some cases (Portsmouth) irreparably.

There is a changing of the guard in English football's top order. From the "yoyo clubs" of the last decade... WBA and West Ham... to Norwich, Swansea, Southampton, Reading... to maybe perhaps next year... Cardiff and Leicester and one other.

Throwing money at it, unless it's of Chelsea or Manchester City proportions is not going to keep you up, let alone have you challenging for Top 6 and European honours... that much is clear. So mid-table ambition has to be the long-term focus for newly arrived Prem teams, with the hope of a little luck and a fair wind that in time to come they will be upper mid-table, debt-free and perhaps actually making a small operating profit.

That should be enough to guarantee a legacy for our future generations to enjoy everything about the same club we've supported for generations.

Posted By: Jim Nasium on February 4th 2013 at 12:14:53

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