How Patient?

So, with DC gone and a new billionaire owner now in charge, what comes next for the club?

1. Relegation to League One is now almost certain.

2. The new owner will finally be able to invest properly in the stadium, training ground, and overall infrastructure.

3. With modern facilities and a stronger structure behind the scenes, SWFC could start attracting better youth prospects — though any real benefit from that will take years.

4. Even in League One, we’ll need to strengthen the squad if we want to push for promotion. The question is: how much can we invest without falling foul of FFP?

5. Once back in the Championship, further investment in the squad will be needed just to avoid another relegation battle.

6. If the goal becomes pushing for the play-offs, then even more spending will be required. Championship squad values can exceed £90m, so the gap is huge.

7. How do we realistically compete with the top Championship sides when the financial gulf — especially for clubs receiving parachute payments — is so large?

8. How long will it take for us to genuinely challenge at the top end of the Championship again? That would likely require developing quality players in-house or finding bargain signings with high upside — both risky and long-term approaches.

Wednesday fans have already waited 25 years without Premier League football, but it could easily take another five years or more unless FFP rules change.

And the biggest unknown of all: how patient will our new billionaire owners be? Will they take a long-term approach, or will they go “full Wolves” and spend aggressively at the right moment, accepting the risk of fines to chase promotion?

A few teams have managed back to back, Ipswich being the last. I think given the scale of the rebuild, the genuine target will be 3/4 years for the prem. However, as you say, patience is not the virtue of a billionaire, so maybe we could see spendaggedon on another scale!

2 hours ago, Maddogbob said:

I just want a competitive team at the level they are playing at.

That's the trap we've always fallen into. 
 

getting the infrastructure right results in a better team. 
without it just getting a few decent players in isn't sustainable. 
 

as proved by the elephant man. 

11 minutes ago, kingsidney said:

That's the trap we've always fallen into. 
 

getting the infrastructure right results in a better team. 
without it just getting a few decent players in isn't sustainable. 
 

as proved by the elephant man. 

Getting the infrastructure right will result in a competitive team.

Ita gonna take 3 -5 years to get back to where we were last year on the pitch and caught up with the clubs around us off it.

After that it's anyones guess.

6 hours ago, JackOwl1867 said:

I honestly don't care about the PL, I haven't for a long time.  

I understand the sentiment and why people sometimes thing like this, but unless your ambitions are to ultimately compete at the highest level amongst the elite, then what’s the point?

It would be like an England fan watching the qualifiers but not being interested about the World Cup 

The OP lists most of the flaws of the game at present, it seems detached from the actual sport.

Until the unfairness of the system is addressed from top to bottom then all I'm interested in is a team, a fan base and community with togetherness, a beautiful old ground that we can be proud of, and that we win as many games as we lose, so I can at least enjoy the football on the field.

6 hours ago, JackOwl1867 said:

I honestly don't care about the PL, I haven't for a long time.  

I say this plenty too. Its a strange one because whats our end goal otherwise? Guess its not a problem to worry about for a while yet!

Ultimately, whether we like it or not, the Prem is where the money is. Yes, the dynamics are tough - hard to be competitive and barely any 3pm Saturday games - but you only have to look at our neighbours to see what that money does for a club’s infrastructure. They’ve now got a better ground, better training facilities and stronger squad assets than us, simply because they’ve had spells in the Prem and they’re good at producing and selling players. Thirty years ago we were the bigger club with the better ground. The Prem isn’t the promised land, but it’s become a necessity if you want to grow.

Morning all, are we all well this morning?  Got a good feeling about the result today!

Really not fussed about the PL and it's 'look at me' and "we are the best' status. I'd just love to be in the mix for players with teams in the Championship and those players wanting to join us. That means competing with a number of teams dropping from the PL but with new owners and a clear identity this is eminently possible.