[alex_front2]

I remember how much flack Birmingham fans gave Sullivan et al. They spent more on West Ham as the stakes are bigger now. Sky money, large Olympic stadium, no running costs for new stadium, West Ham are much bigger brand than Birmingham and were biding their time to make a surge as a top London football brand. They will be on par with Arsenal and the Chesleas in terms of capacity, as will Spurs , hence they can invest heavily in players and get talent like Payet.

The big issue Birmingham have is AV relegation and that West Bromwich (aka football vomit) will be the biggest West Midlands football brand (Leicester Midlands in general, don't be fooled by Leicester's whole, "who, little old me ? " innocent schtick. They are very ambitious and their Thai owners have huge plans to turn them into a mega club. There is talk o buying an MLS club and a Chinese club and turning the whole thing into a franchise ala Man City's "City " franchise. They are just doing ambition slyly. The media is too busy writing about LVG, Wenger and Mourinho to pay to much attention to LCFC. West Bromwich and LCFC Academies will have access to the best talented young Midland players who come through and those who are at Birmingham will be picked off by them or Leicester.