The play off final was 14 years ago. We've since been relegated to league one, got promoted and then once again have a bloated squad, on big wages and little sell on value (which Pearson is trying to sort out). We need to learn from our mistakes, especially SL, that's more of the point of his post I believe.
We've wasted a lot of money over the past 26, we haven't had a clear strategy on player recruitment, style etc since we were in League One with Cotts and Burt. It's been hit and hope tactics from SL, rather than a culture, style and plan running throughout the club over a long period, like Brentford for example.