But we are the rich. We were the 22nd-biggest club in the world in 2015-16, for the second consecutive year, and almost certainly improved upon that this year. Now, we aren't the super rich, but we have the resources to aim for more than also-ran status.
So why do we let our top players go?...surely it should be Ralph and Les getting the bullet rather than Puel.
Because they were under direction from the owner to make a substantial profit and set the club up in a position where it'd be an attractive asset for the sort of prospective owner who doesn't intend to sink their fortune into the club. That's my guess, at least. Several. But that's not all that matters. Being good in football in this era is, ultimately, about talent acquisition. And most of the talent is not owned by the other clubs in England. Our purchasing power relative to most of the world's clubs has increased immeasurably, which is why we've been able to beat continental clubs to the punch for some pretty desirable talents. Van Dijk, Mane, etc weren't unknowns...they were players trailed by a great many teams. But we could stump the cash, and most could not.
Costa Hazard Kante Ozil Sanchez Ibrahimovic de Gea Alli Kane Lukaku Mane Coutinho Aguero De Bruyne Just a few reasons why we will probably finish 8th, wonder how many millions in wages there!
Yep, the finances must be going in the right direction, because 3 years previous we were 25th in the world of richest clubs. When the finances for 2016-17 and on are published I expect a significant jump up the rankings too.
Yeah, the pound's fall offsets it a bit, but we've seen a jump of over 40m in our TV revenues alone. For a sense of how much it has changed with the new deal: Arsenal had the most TV revenue last season, with 100.9m earned. Sunderland has the least this year...with 100.0m. Every PL club saw similar gains, of course. But most of the clubs we're competing with in the transfer market did not.
I think the key factor here be Bertrand; as in, he hasn't been the same player since returning from injury this season.
I do. He changed the formation to a less potent one. As far as I remember all of our best performances since the turn of the year came in that period when we played 4-2-3-1 with Redmond left, Tadić in the middle and JWP on the right wing.
From an old fans prospective I don't like the word "EXPECT"....... I'm not so sure we expect anything other than for Saints to do their best and give it a go. We would like to take the top honours by winning cups or the league. Sadly the real money is playing in Europe and that is what we really strive for as that is more in our reach. Barring miracles we are not going to be playing there this year. So I guess for that target Puel has failed. How would we have felt if we had won the league cup? Interesting thought.
Was the Hull formation a less potent one? As Someone pointed out yesterday, we played the four attacking players for 60 minutes in that game....
Seems to me like allowing mitigation for a "favourite" manager and not another. I'd say Fernandes was a hugely creative attacking player - ask James Beattie. We also had Kevin Davies too, but the manager decided he wasn't a centre forward.... I was going to add the attackingbtslents of Rory Delap too, but wanted to avoid ridicule
It will be interesting to see if that's still the case. By all accounts the atmosphere inside The Emirates makes St Mary's feel like a late eighties rave. I work in Finsbury Park, and on matchdays even when Arsenal have won it feels like someone died.
Until we needed him to rescue our FA Cup run, at home to Millwall. I loved WGS, and he got the best out of the squad, but the football was agricultural really. Plus without Niemi, Claus and Killer we'd have been in trouble. All those clean sheets didn't seem so boring then.
The big difference in that season with WGS was the improvement in fitness and the number of results we pulled out the bag with late goals because we played at full tilt until the final whistle
There are definitely signs DTLW, I agree, but what my point all along has been is that it has been distasteful and something that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Les, the players and the board should have been more patient. I'd have understood it if we were staring relegation on the face all season, but we haven't.
Are you now saying that our fitness isn't good and we don't play to the final whistle? The list goes on.
Exactly; he got pretty close to the most one could expect. Aesthetics were not particularly high on the list of concerns. I'm pretty neutral on Puel, because I think he was handed a fairly difficult set of circumstances between sales (or lack of purchases) and injuries, but I can't argue the idea that better is out there, either. We just had better be pretty certain that what we are getting is better, rather than firing Puel and then hitting the market.
