What is the rightful division for West Bromwich Albion?

Dec 4 2008 By Chris Lepkowski

Yo-Yo hell for Baggies!

A QUESTION – what is Albion’s rightful division?

Right now they seem to be in football’s equivalent of purgatory, somewhere between the top two divisions.

Go back four years. Albion signed Kanu, Jonathan Greening, soon-to-be-star Zoltan Gera and then record signing Rob Earnshaw.

They stayed up. Just.

Since then the club has made great strides. The training facilities have improved, the West Stand boasts some of the best facilities you’ll see in the Premier League and the club remains on a sound financial footing.

But Albion remain uncompetitive in the Premier League.

We can debate the rights and wrongs of the 4-5-1 over the 4-4-2 or manager Tony Mowbray’s other tactical quirks. That’s an issue for another day.

Yes, he’s had money to spend on players in the sense that significant transfer fees have been paid.

But their wage bill is the lowest in the division. And history shows that clubs’ salaries tend to correspond with the Premier League table come May.

Chairman Jeremy Peace, as I have pointed out before, has done a great deal of good in his six years at the club. But Albion are still keeping rigidly to their wage structure – endorsed by Mowbray – and their insistence that every player takes a pay cut in the event of relegation.

The top earner at The Hawthorns doesn’t take home much above £20,000 a week.

The Championship’s top earner is James Beattie, on £40k a week. Blues’ highest-paid player – and no it’s not Kevin Phillips – is on £30k a week.

The flex-down policy encourages sound book-keeping, but is it merely