It's all a state of mind really.

When you look at Birmingham this season, or West Ham before that, they 100% believed they were in the wrong division when they went down, and they spent so they could have a real big chance of going back up (particularly in Brum's case - they're nailed on now).

We pussy-footed around the likes of McSheffrey, they stuck their necks out and overpaid on what was seen as market value at that point, but boy how they're now reaping the benefits.

Just goes to show that in a flat league a bit of quality goes a long way. But you've got to take a chance, and there is a risk of disaster if it goes horribly wrong.

At the end of the day, though, we never really believed we were a Prem club, even when we were in the bloody Prem, and that's why we've bought so many Champ/League 1 level players - the sort of dross no Prem manager in his right mind would let young, promising loanees out to play with.

It's quite sad really, but hopefully in a few years we'll have forgotten all about this promotion nonsense and be back to settling happily for mid-table mediocrity!!

Posted By: Greeny, Dec 27, 11:48:39