Do West Brom fans question Jeremy Peace?

The transfer rumour mill is clicking through the gears after the official opening of the summer transfer window.

Chairman Jeremy Peace even provided a layer of mystery during a rare media appointment last week.

Peace stirred up debate amongst the West Brom masses when discussing onward strategy as a club.

He repeatedly suggested that West Brom are a 'mid-table Championship side who are over-achieving' and that a 14th place finish would be deemed a success for the club next season.

Those words themselves seem simple enough, yet Baggies fans have become accustomed to Peace over the last decade.

A man who has developed a reputation for being cold and not to be crossed.

On the occasions that Peace has been thrust into the media spotlight, it's been at a time of crisis or with the purpose of negotiation as a backdrop.

Make no mistake, Jeremy Peace is a Public Relations master. This is the man who sold Diomansy Kamara for £6million and Curtis Davies for £10million.

He also, only last week, confessed that he refused to sell Peter Odemwingie to Queens Park Rangers because of how it may adversely affect the way that West Brom are perceived by other clubs.

This man knows what he wants and knows how to get it.

So why would he risk his own reputation and popularity among supporters, at a time when his popularity's barely been any higher, by publicly selling such a bland vision of the club's future?

There is a valid argument, as Peace suggests, that if you took Sky money out of the equation, in the cold light of day club turnover from merchandising and commercial activities would leave us outside the elite.

But football isn't just decided by profit and loss accounts, nor are their balance sheets set in stone. And West Bromwich Albion are a proud club.

We are a team from a town with a population of 125,000- half of Wolverhampton's and an eighth of Birmingham's, yet with a history that transcends our comparative geographical catchment.

We have spent 77 of our 116 seasons, or 66 per cent of our history, in the top flight of English football.

We have won major trophies throughout that time, indeed to this day there are only six teams who have appeared in more FA Cup finals.

Even at some of the club's lowest points, when we competed in the third tier of English football, we could rely on support.

We still attracted crowds of 29,000 for a league game, we had 42,500 supporters at Wembley for a play-off final, an estimated 11,000 who travelled to Portsmouth for a relegation-decider the following season.

Ironically, these numbers are greater than those we experience today, despite the sharp contrast in fortunes. Granted there are people who won't attend every game, but those supporters are still out there somewhere.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way suggesting that any of the above qualifies West Brom for any right to compete amongst the country's elite today.

Nor am I suggesting that Peace's assertions are entirely inaccurate, as in today's world West Brom are anything but a 'big club'.

However, over-achievements have arguably been a feature throughout the club's history.

Every single supporter feels a sense of the under-stated, unassuming club that's achieved more than it probably should, it's engrained into us.

For me personally, it gives me a great sense of pride. We may well be a small fish in a big pond in today's football terms, but supporters don't like to be reminded of that by their own chairman.

This is something that won't have been lost on Jeremy Peace, he will know that his words have irked a few supporters, so what exactly is he trying to achieve?

Is he trying to downplay expectation? A succession of mid-table finishes has arguably inflated the egos of some supporters. Would finishing 14^th next season be a disaster?

No, probably not, given as Peace rightly asserts, our comparative budget to most, but why sell a vision of mediocrity, at a time we're trying to sell season tickets and recruit potential signings?

There will be accusations his comments are a softening prelude to some underwhelming transfer activity, yet the club's Premier League future is key to Peace's financial prosperity as much as it is to fans' aspirations.

He makes a healthy living out of the club and it would be much harder to justify a hefty salary if West Brom's profit margins were to diminish with relegation, or if the club was deemed to be regressing.

He will know we have to spend to continue competing at this level. Also, crucially, Peace would make much less money selling the shares of a Championship club than he would a Premier League club.

However, if selling is his intention, why put investors off by broadcasting his views on our commercial limitations?

Unless Peace spies a healthy long-term future as chairman of an over-achieving mid-table Premier League club, wishing to deter buyers along the way, then his comments seem to throw up more questions than answers.

It's difficult to decipher if the worrying air of resignation that accompanied Peace's comments were a genuine sign of frustration.

It could have been an insight into the club's medium-term future under him. His PR history suggests it may be more calculated.

In terms of financial limitations, Premier League wealth distortions, small profit margins and a reliance on an innovative academy and scouting network, we hear you loud and clear Jeremy.

Many of us, myself included, salute you on a job well done so far. But I suspect that many of us would rather hear about how we can continue to confound the critics.

How are we going to try and replace Romelu Lukaku and Peter Odemwingie? How we can continue to try to progress under your stewardship or how we can get those supporters back?

You know, the ones who fill the pubs around the ground every Saturday afternoon to watch games on TV or who can only afford to go to the odd game a season.

I'm not sure we want to contemplate an inevitable slide back towards the Championship, or where we will eventually gravitate towards in football's natural monetary order.

After all, football's an entertainment industry and not the FTSE 100, otherwise what's the point?