WHEN Gary Megson cried poverty this week, claiming Wanderers were spending three times as much as Albion on players' wages, he ommitted to point out one salient financial point.

In his 14 months in charge at The Hawthorns, the Baggies boss has spent £5.8 million on the transfer market - almost three times the amount Sam Allardyce has been able to spend in his 18 months at the Reebok!

Like Allardyce, he has been forced to sell some of the best talent he inherited when he stepped into the relegation breach last season, following the departure of Denis Smith. But unlike the Bolton boss, he has been given a huge chunk to re-invest - and boy, has he re-invested!

Derek McInnes, Jason Roberts, Ruel Fox, Russell Hoult, Michael Appleton ... all for substantial fees. He was even able to splash £500,000 to bring Phil Gilchrist from Leicester on transfer deadline day, knowing he needed an experienced, steadying influence at the back.

Meanwhile, Wanderers were making ends meet with short-term contracts and loan deals - having emptied their transfer chest last summer with the £2 million invested in Per Frandsen and Michael Ricketts.

But, in fairness, Megson has accumulated points and respectability after speculating with the Baggies' cash, generated by the sales of Enzo Maresca (£4.3 million to Juventus) and Kevin Kilbane (£2.5 million to Sunderland) and a staggering £3 million windfall from Ugo Ehiogu's transfer from Aston Villa to Middlesbrough!

When he arrived at The Hawthorns in March last year, Albion were deep in relegation trouble - hotly tipped to go down.

But they managed to scrape together just enough points to avoid the drop at the expense of their near-neighbours, Walsall - largley thanks to two ex-Wanderers - Richard Sneekes and Bob Taylor who scored eight goals between them - including one each in the 2-0 victory over Champions Charlton on the last day of the season.

Of all the cash he's splashed, the £100,000 Megson paid Wanderers to take Baggies legend Taylor back to his spiritual home will go down as arguably the most significant signing of his managerial career.

Taylor's five goals in the last eight games kept Albion in Division One and, as the intervening months have shown, provided the launchpad for a quite remarkable turn of fortune.

Among the bookies' favourites to go down this season, they seemed to be justifying their low rating when they started poorly. As early as the second Saturday, when Wanderers won 2-0 there, Megson was facing hostile questions about his management - just five months after taking the job!

But it was felt at the time - certainly by those who could step back and take stock - that Wanderers had been fortunate to catch them so early in the season before new £2 million striker Jason Roberts (how Allardyce would have loved to have had the cash to sign him!) had time to strike up a relationship with Lee Hughes.

Isaiah Rankin and Gareth Farrelly scored the Bolton goals that afternoon but, by the time the festive season arrived, Albion were a different kettle of fish. Lee Hughes was grateful to a Robbie Elliott mistake for the only goal of a tight Reebok encounter but Megson's Baggies had developed into a team worthy of respect.

Hughes (22) and Roberts (16) would end the season as one of the most feared striking partnerships in the division with Taylor always around to send on as substitute or as an able deputy to cover for injury or a sudden loss of form.

Megson has played down his team's prospects of clinching promotion from a sixth placed finish - 13 points below Wanderers in the final reckoning. "It's been an achievement to get in the top six," he says taking a realistic overview of the situation.

"Bolton will be most people's favourites, I'm sure, because they have been vying for automatic promotion all season. But we haven't got a fear of any team in this division, what we've got is a healthy respect for all of them."

After Albion's transformation in just over a year, the feeling should be mutual. Megson spending spree

zsparks Baggies boom 'Bolton will be most people's favourites'