Transfer 'targets' of late:

- David James. Would Albion really sign a goalkeeper who is pretty much as old as Dean Kiely and, crucially, didn't get on with the current Baggies goalkeeping coach when they were at Portsmouth? Albion are looking for a No2 who can maybe challenge Carson. Not for someone who earns more than any other first-team Albion player at his current club.

- Jimmy Bullard. An injury-prone 31-year-old, who earns in region of £45k and has four years left on current deal with Hull. Albion talked about investing their money 'wisely' - in the very unlikely event that the Baggies would want him in the first place.

- Tuncay. Again, a player earning way nearer to £40k. When another club asked about him some time ago they were told he wanted £60k a week before he'd consider a move. Again, out of Albion's reach.

Why don't the people who source these rumours run them past the club first? Perhaps it's because they know they're not true....

Albion's highest-ever earner in the Premier League remains Luke Moore (Kanu was on less than £20k but had various incentive related add-ons). Albion will be looking to stretch that but not by a huge amount. Certainly not double it. Some of the names being bandied around will merely raise false hope.

Who next - Messi?

The true transfer targets won't emerge for a while yet. And even then they will most likely be names of a lower profile and of a more realistic wage bracket.

AS weekends go it wasn't the busiest for Jeremy Peace.

Drinking cocktails while wearing a kiss-me-quick hat over in Dubai isn't the most conventional way for a football chairman to celebrate his club's promotion on Saturday.

Nor, for that matter, was it conventional to call a press conference the following morning for the local media - while he was still in Dubai. (Just as well it hadn't been a late Saturday night for those of us working on promotion supplements...)

Still, the statement he passed around in his absense was convincing. As were the answers given by his two fellow directors, the two men charged with looking after Albion's nuclear briefcase in the absense of the President.

The statement, or Statement to give it its due importance, was fascinating. A swerve from the norm. No more would be welcoming the likes of a Ryan Donk or, perhaps more crucially, a Borja Valero.

The interesting bits were "to be competitive in the Premier League, we need to pay market-rate wages to the right standard of players on suitable contracts and this will form a major part of our planning...this summer we will build and strengthen our squad and endeavour to keep our core players while improving and upgrading around them, but it is clearly not all about transfer fees."

Yet Peace has missed the reaction to his statement.

Both Jonas Olsson and Roberto Di Matteo have embraced this feeling. Olsson called it a "cynical" but one which belonged in every workplace in the country. He sees no problem with Peace's mantra. He endorsed it.

For instance you can't expect all members of a workforce to earn the same. Furthermore Albion are hardly going to be heading down the route of extremes. You won't, for instance, find one player earning £10k a week while the centre forward at the top earns £60k a week. It won't happen.

Tony Mowbray struggled with this concept. Using his own worst-case scenario he mentioned the examples of Finidi George and Matteo Sereni, whose arrival at Ipswich apparently unsteadied the steady ship. This is why Albion went big on transfer fees, big on untested youngsters, big on quantity, but low on wages under his stewardship. It was a brave act but one which failed Mowbray and started his sad decline.

Di Matteo, meanwhile, is pragmatic enough to appreciate that Peace's model is the way forward. He, too, endorses it. He grew up with it at Chelsea and Lazio.

As he said at Thurday's press conference: "Some will be higher than others and that's normal. You can't expect everyone to be on the same level."

He knows he needs better players in certain areas and, in some cases, more experience.

Wages, invariably, mean better players.

And dare I say it some of Albion's lower-earning players will be grateful if a top-earner scores the 15 goals that keeps the club in the division. It means nobody will have to flex down on wages.

But a word of caution. Albion fans must prepare for a patient time. The arrival of four or five players won't happen this side of the World Cup. Attention will be focused on South Africa, this side of pre-season.

Players will wait until July or August before committing, whether they are Bosmans or otherwise. Some may wait until the last day of the window, just to keep Sky's Andy Burton's phone busy while he, ahem, ignores calls from Arsene Wenger.

And the names Albion may be looking at - we can all chuck in the usual suspects from Portsmouth, James Beattie, etc - will be wanted elsewhere. Sadly, some may be wanted by clubs with more resource and spending power. It could be a summer of frustration, in so many ways. This won't necessarily be Peace's fault, or Dan Ashworth's or Di Matteo's.

The good thing is that, for once, chairman and 'manager' seem to be following the same path. Not veering off in their own respective directions.

Jeremy Peace can relax and enjoy the rest of his holiday. Not least as a blast of volcanic dust means he's probably stuck there for a few more days. It's a hard life being a Premier League football chairman...

I'LL be honest, last pre-season was a strange one.

The price of beer in Slovenia was nowhere near what it was two years previously, the Russian swimming team in our hotel hogged the narrowest of Wifi bands at the most inconvenient of times and it was all a bit too hot to be watching football, let alone playing it.

But let's not moan too much.

My gripe was with Albion. Roberto Di Matteo came in and all didn't seem well.

The players seemed down and the atmosphere seemed strained.

Firstly, footballers don't like change. I've seen it before, with every manager. Even those who were desperate for one manager to leave (going back a few years) can still end up looking miserable when the new bloke has come in. That's football.

In the case of last summer, Di Matteo had, after all, taken over a newly-relegated side on the first day of pre-season training.

The players were used to losing and he was replacing a popular manager. Mowbray was an intense man, who cared little for the attritional aspects of football but embraced freedom of expression. Every footballer north of centre-half loved Tony Mowbray. And even those at the back were, with one or two exceptions, encouraged to bring the ball out like some kind of modern-day Liberos.

I felt sorry for Di Matteo.

Yet slowly the mood in Slovenia lifted. Ptuj didn't seem too expensive after all, I got to respect the efforts of my Russian friends and slowly, but surely, a smile returned to the faces of two-dozen footballers.

So here we are now.

Albion should be promoted soon. Probably this Saturday at Doncaster, possibly next Saturday. But they owe a lot to Di Matteo.

Forget the myth about relegated football teams being favourites for promotion.

Newcastle and, hopefully, Albion buck a trend.

Leeds, Reading, Norwich, Southampton, Barnsley and many others have proven that what goes down doesn't always come back up.

Albion have been fortunate. Others less so. (Albion's tendency to be a yo-yo club is a discussion for another time...)

Gary Megson had done it twice, Tony Mowbray did it after needing to shed the club of the self-indulgent prima donnas left over by Bryan Robson's regime.

Di Matteo has had to do it with a relatively young side. One full of half-fit players, at times.

Yet the spirit this Albion side has shown has been second to none. Try to think of a bad patch? There have been none. Lose one, they generally bounce back. Albion's ability to come back from going a goal down has been outstanding. No set-back has been too great for them this season. There has been no wallowing in self-pity.

Only Chelsea have scored more goals - thanks to their victory over Villa. No other team has scored in every game of 2010. Albion have 98 goals this season. Even their defensive record isn't bad. And they're only a few points shy of taking the record haul of points for a season.

And then what of Roberto Di Matteo's best team? Good question. In all probability I doubt we've yet seen it. Have Bednar, Miller, Morrison, Barnes or Brunt all been fit at the same time? I doubt it.

The style of football isn't over-indulgent, but it isn't direct either.

Di Matteo veers to the left of Mowbray but nowhere near Megson's brand of football or the style adopted during Robson's final year in charge at The Hawthorns.

This promotion isn't as dramatic as the first. It's not as clinical as the second. It's not as carefree as the third.

But in many respects it ticks all of the boxes. And while Albion will need some cosmetic pre-Premier League surgery this summer, I hazard a guess that they'll be in decent shape next season.

Jeremy Peace's guide to football chairmanship is being read by more and more financial people in the game. The spending culture so common a few years ago is in decline to all but a few.

I expect Albion to go for a bit more experience next season.

Yet I still get the feeling that for all of his achievments, Di Matteo isn't being lauded as much as he should.

When Megson took over Albion he'd already built up a decent portfolio with previous clubs. He was a trouble-shooter who achieved way beyond expectation. Bryan Robson had taken Middlesbrough to three cup finals but relegated them and Bradford. Tony Mowbray had three years of SPL experience when he pitched up at B71. He rejected offers from Ipswich and Wolves before arriving at Albion.

Di Matteo still has nowhere near the level of experience that Mowbray had when he took over at Albion. Still, one near miss with MK Dons and a (probable) promotion with Albion is not bad by anyone's standards.

He will make errors of judgements. Some of his signings will fail miserably. He will be hit and miss at times. But he's young. He's learning. Tony Mowbray proved how much point and worth there was in pontificating about long-term projects. One job offer, one fall-out with the board, one bad patch of results can change the dynamics of a football manager's career. England's version of Villareal was swiftly left behind. Loyalty points are of no value in football.

RDM is doing well so far.

The Albion boss and his coaching staff should take a big chunk of credit if, when, the Baggies finally have a P stamped next to their name in the League table.

So when you celebrate promotion - celebrate the players' contributions, but also those of Di Matteo and those who stand alongside him on the touchline.

All of this has been achieved against the backdrop of increasing pressure and growing expectation. Albion fans have grown accustomed to not just wanting promotion, but demanding it.

It's no surprise Roberto Di Matteo looked pleased with himself at the pre-match press conference on Thursday. So he should.

You'll have done your own maths.

But, in case you haven't, here goes.

If Albion beat Watford on Bank Holiday Monday then they will be promoted if Forest fail to beat Cardiff in their later kick-off.

Should Albion draw then they will stll be assured of a top flight return if Forest lose to Cardiff.

That latter scenario, and one where Albion win/Forest draw, would leave the East Midlanders with a mathematical chance of promotion. But it would require a 17-goal swing during the final four games. It's possible, but highly unlikely.

If notthing is decided then we go onto next weekend, when Albion visit Doncaster and Forest host Ipswich.

So that's where we are.

Albion have previously been promoted at The Hawthorns (2002), Oldham (1976), in a Monday kick-off against Southampton (2008) and even as they warmed-up for a game against Bradford (2004, when Sunderland's failure to win an early kick-off against Wigan put Albion up).

Tomorrow they could, in theory, be promoted on the coach somewhere on the M6 or M1 if all goes to plan.

If that happens then surely not even road-works or Bank Holiday traffic could ruin that journey home?