Have the club accepted relegation?

[Monty]

It's the maddest, stupidest, most suicidal, most supine, pathetic, miserable abnegation of responsibility in the history of the club.

*nods respectfully*

*scribbles down in notebook*

I learnt it the other day on here. H&V is good for the vocab.

[lordmcgrath5]

Can somebody with a more analytical brain than mine (or a nice Excel sheet) please explain to me how it could make better financial sense to allow to to wither and be relegated than stay up. I simply cannot cannot fathom this out given that we are on the cusp of a new number TV deal.

Trying to fathom this one out as well. I suppose you could say that as most clubs splurge most of the TV money straight to players and agents, it more or less comes in and goes straight out. Lower wages in the Championship would mean we could get rid of the  expensive old codgers and build around a team of young, hungry, up-and-coming players? Oh, hang on a minute...

I suppose if wages are lower in the Championship, they'll be lower still in League One.

Doesn't really make much sense, does it? Surely, with decent management and a wise acquisition and wages policy, you could use the daftly inflated TV money prudently.

[Mark H]

Mate has just siad to me (may not be the first in anyway) but we get to lay Millwall tonight , then twice in the league next season.....

[Mister E]

We've all made the point that spending £20m or so now to shore up this callow squad will deliver a £60m per-annum return. This is the sort of investment that is difficult to argue against.
The fact that RL appears to be ignoring this suggests to me that he's already decided to pull down the shutters and get what he can out of the club, through interest payments and management charges. Sort of what was happening at the Browns, I suspect.
What he seems to be forgetting is that relegation means a reduction in revenue and therefore a paring back of costs. And an exodus of the best players. All of which makes his asset less valuable for would-be buyers.

Am I being too simplistic, or has RL sussed out something that I haven't?

[PaulWinch again]

I can see the beginnings of asset stripping soon, although you could argue that has started by selling players and not replacing them adequately.

[eastie]

Very sad times for us fans - how depressing to see such a great club run down in this way.

[Phil from the upper holte]

It is a shocking article and to be honest nothing surprises me anymore, I wouldn't be surprised if the club turned around and said it's all our fault for being fickle or something, utter lack of respect is appauling.

it's just like all the fight has evapourated

[rutski]

i must have had a long sleep last night, apparantly we have been relegated?

[dave.woodhall]

What's Mr Woodhall's take on this? He's a Lerner fan...

Really? In what way?

[Phil from the upper holte]

That's it eastie, it's like the death of a giant

[neo_Villan]

I wonder if he's still got that tattoo on his leg?

He's had his leg amputated and replaced with a solid gold one.

Or alternatively, it was just a henna tattoo anyway.

[PaulWinch again]

That's it eastie, it's like the death of a giant

It is, it's actually physically painful. I wish the board could feel exactly what the fans are feeling and then they'd understand.

[Proposition Joe]

Can somebody with a more analytical brain than mine (or a nice Excel sheet) please explain to me how it could make better financial sense to allow to to wither and be relegated than stay up. I simply cannot cannot fathom this out given that we are on the cusp of a new number TV deal.

If spending guaranteed staying up, then yes. They've probably realised from performances that we are just about the worst team in the division, and may even have drawn up a probability curve (amount spent vs probability of staying up), and, hypothetically, realised we need 8 or 9 players to have a realistic chance of staying up. Outlay of 120m or so. Anything less spent does not increase our chances of staying up enough to warrant the risk of financial burden in the Championship.

Another way of looking at it: if every team spent 1bn pounds, three would still go down at the end.

[bob rowe]

I clearly remember the feeling of despair whn we were relegated under the old board in 1967. Never dreamt that feeling would return but here we are. At least back then relegation wasn't accepted until it was a mathematical certanty. Now, it looks as if everyone thinks we're down & we should shut up shop & go home. Well sod that,fight back. We the fans got rid of that old board by taking serious action, read Children Of The Revolution to find out how its done. This situation also underlines something else, Americans should never be allowed near football, they just don't get it. VTID!

[garyellis]

The very least that must be done is to explain the situation to the life blood of the club i.e. the fans. The business side of the club is the CEO's responsibility not the Managers. We need a clear a statement of explanation from PF ,not PL trying to explain something he plainly does not fully understand. I have already said that without sensible reinforcements we will go down and I cannot reconcile how an investment of say £10m to protect revenue of £60m is not a sensible level of risk to accept given the clubs precarious but not hopeless position. I would go as far to say that no other club in the Premier League would take the position we have regarding investment in this transfer window. What worries me even more is if and it is a big "if" we survive this season what funds will there be available come the summer? There is no point being in a lague that you cant compete in and you cannot ignore what others are doing around you that is just a nonsense. Anyway I want Faulkner to explain to us exactly what on earth is going on and justify to the life blood of the club the strategy that has been adopted.