Matt Maher: West Brom failings are coming at a big cost to Shilen Patel
A common joke in football circles, which goes something like this:
“Has anyone ever told you the quickest way to become a millionaire?
"It’s easy. First, you start with a billion pounds. Then, you buy a football club.”
Like all jokes, it contains a fair helping of truth, as Shilen Patel is finding out.
Patel’s exact worth and that of his Bilkul Football Group remains unconfirmed, yet it is fair to say the two years spent in charge of Albion have been a fair dent in the pocket.
Rough estimates put the owner’s investment (either delivered so far or committed to deliver) at around £80million, a figure which includes around £2m-per-month to cover the club’s day-to-day running costs when he first succeeded Guochuan Lai.
It is a colossal sum which, to this point, has brought very little in the way of reward.
Quite the opposite, in fact. From a position where Albion were fighting for promotion to the Premier League, they are now battling to avoid League One.
Outlining the figures is not with the intention of generating sympathy for Patel. No matter who might have been at fault for poor managerial appointments and player signings, he is the man at the top, ultimately responsible for the chaos of the last 14 months.
What the numbers do provide, however, is some insight into the level of financial commitment and why the owner will be more desperate than anyone for the Baggies to avoid the drop.
After two years under a heavy PSR cloud, this summer was sold as the moment things would get easier. Playing in the third tier was obviously not part of the plan.
What can be done now, with just 12 matches left to play, is limited.
The big decisions, by and large, have already been made. Sacking Eric Ramsay was the one remaining, obvious call available to the owner.
Who replaces him is less clear. The ideal scenario, from Albion’s perspective, would be for James Morrison to conjure enough of a tune from this unbalanced squad to get over the safety line.
Otherwise, the list of managerial candidates to parachute in at this late stage isn’t lengthy.
It may not be until the summer Patel can properly start putting the lessons of the past two years into practice.
For now he, along with every Albion fan, will be keeping his fingers crossed they are doing so in the Championship.
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