Strandedtidus_mi2Elm Park Kid You do have to acknowledge just how insane the Championship is and the levels of spending involved. There is no 'sensible' way of turning a club like Reading into promotion candidates. Either you throw a ton of money over a few seasons and hope you get promoted before FFP hits or you basically just roll the dice by signing untested players.
Anyone who says that there is a guaranteed 'smart' way of doing it is basically saying that everyone involved in Championship football are idiots who choose to waste hundreds of millions of pounds. Ok, our wage to revenue is ridiculous, but our wages themselves are perfectly reasonable and our losses are nothing special in the league. And sure, there are examples of clubs who get promoted without the crazy salaries, but, like I said, it's just a gamble which teams manage that and which get relegated.
Brentford have literally just been promoted through good scouting, sensible signings and knowing when to sell up.
Which is absolutely the model, the "problem" is if/when more clubs move to follow it, then you likely have a lot more clubs uncovering similar players, so the pool of players who are good enough and available at a decent price gets smaller as there are more vultures circling - it also becomes harder to sell on to bigger clubs at high fees as there is a bigger pool for them to choose from across the board.
A club has to find a way to do something just that little bit different, it may as simple as focussing on a region that no-one else is - which may well see us focus on the smaller South American leagues this summer hence the rumour about the Columbian guy. Of course that then leads to some fans bemoaning those signing as cheapskate or lacking ambition but it will always be thus,
Brentford have spent years and years getting their approach right, and fair play to them. They do it, they do it very well and have committed to it. Its very simple to say follow the Brentford model, but it really aint that simple. Brentford have actually spent an absolute wedge in the last few years, but have been able to cover and more by making very good sales
Many other clubs have successfully bought their way to promotion to be fair.
i actually think where we are now is about right. Look to pick up some good loans, players with sell on value, whilst looking for good free transfers. Done that for a few years to be honest, just the big millstone of the Gourlay years been hanging over us. The awful accounts are a hangover of those years rather than our current approach