The Black Hole of the Premier League

west brom - as with almost all the other teams who've been identified as potential "strugglers" in the premier league - are having more trouble than usual making their pre-season signing targets.

while the baggies have cleverly kept together an all important core group of players, consolidated their targeted loan signings from last year, and have made some important new acquisitions in specific and identifiable defensive positions - including a second goalie, they have been unable to get any interest from suitable strikers at premiership level; and - if i'm to take the current postings in various online discussion forums as any indication - the supporters are beyond impatient. take a look at the shattering negativity of some of the more recent posts and subsequent discussions on BBC 606, for example.

there is a wide-held belief that it's all down to chairman, jeremy peace, not making an adequate amount of money available for transfers and player wages. i don't think it's quite that simple. for sure, JP has requisites, hard-line precedents, and a measured limit on what can be spent. but much of mr. peace's caution derives from the fact that the baggies simply don't have a rich owner, benefactor, corporate interest, or any other source of benevolent, interested, and ambitious money with which to strengthen the squad. therefore, it's got to be done in a measured and careful manner, with managable goals, that will ensure that the club is always at least competitive for a place in the top-flight, and does not go the way of leeds, sheffield wedneday, sheffield united, charlton, norwich, southampton, portsmouth and hull (to name just a few) who have all run afoul of what can happen to a club when it spends premier league money and doesn't live up to top-flight competitive requirements.

hull city, for example, played two seasons in the premiership before being relegated, but spent something more like three seasons worth of money in doing so. while the parachute payments will help with the club's debt, they will lose much of their squad and may eventually end up in a relegation battle at the wrong end of the championship. no matter what other criticisms you may have - and with JP as chairman - you will never see this at west bromwich albion.

as always, teams like manchester united, liverpool, arsenal, tottenham, manchester city and chelsea have a definite edge in attracting players. while this has long been true, it hasn't always been about the money! in the past, and for young footballers looking to get into their national sides or just expand their professional opportunities, these were traditionally clubs where one went to fulfill their aspirations.

but with the focus now shifting ever towards the financial considerations as the bottom line, sportsmanship and its attendant aspirations have been banished to an antiquated afterthought. coupled with the structure of the premier league, both financially and in terms of the number of player personnel that a team can now employ - the gap in between the top-half of the premiership and that of the bottom-half is finally and glaringly evident in a way it never quite has been before. the dream is more than over. it has been trashed and forgotten. even everton, the team that holds the record for the number of consecutive years in the english top flight - and a club that has always held its own with the other top sides, both on and off the pitch, - is now a second grade team with apparently limited resource; while the likes of wigan, west brom, and bolton are now treated as decidedly undesirable destinations to look for a career move.

nobody, it seems, is signing anybody.

indeed, the situation is so bad that roberto di matteo has now stated in an interview with BBC WM that he doubts there will be anymore signings between now and the beginning of the season. personally, i found it to be a bit out of character for di matteo, who usually does not discuss internal football politics with the press, and took it as a statement to the supporters demonstrating that this is the way things are at the moment and that he's as frustrated as they are. the all important required striker is just not there, and there's probably not much point in worrying about it until september or the right opportunity presents itself.

i think the baggies can take heart at the recent resurgence of midlands football in the premier league. with the relative and recent successes of wolves, birmingham, stoke city, and a squad that includes ishmael miller, roman bednar, simon cox, graham dorrans, chris brunt and a series of new defensive signings, i feel that things could be starting out a whole lot worse for the albion than they are.