Net spend is NOT relevant at all. If you sell £100 million quids worth of talent, and buy £100 million, you have spent £100 million. You can only field 11 players, with 25 squad players, so if another club spends £100 million and gets nothing back, why does that mean they have done better? They will have to let go of players to get others in, they obviously are just massively upgrading in terms of the market, we should theoretically be standing still. We aren't, we have sold players and replaced them with crap. Factoring in wages, transfer fees etc, and leaving income out of it, we will have spent more than Wolves, Fulham, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Brighton etc since Rafa joined the club. We will have. We spent most of it in the championship, but it doesn't matter, we spent it. It's not as much as we would want, as much as we were promised, but we have spent money. £15 million on Murphy, £10 million on Mutu, £3 million on D.Murphy, £6 million on Atsu all look like a waste of funds really. We aren't competing with most of the league with the funds available, It's bloody hard for a manager here, I have no doubt, but what I'm saying is this is Rafa's squad and they don't look as good as teams who will have spent similar amounts over the time he has been here. Now Rafa has used the media brilliantly to get the fans on Ashley's back, frothing at the mouth when we had all relaxed a bit into a state of accepting, but don't let that fool you into thinking Rafa is not part of assembling this squad which we all think isn't good enough. He's made errors with the little money we have. Now I'm not saying we should all get on his back, or that he hasn't done a decent or good job, just that he isn't trying to steer a rudderless oil tanker away from the rocks, to some extent he's had an input into the navigation here. A lot of these players have been brought here to fit his style. They weren't top of his wishlist, but they were on his list and they are playing **** under his brand. I feel a lot of fans have swallowed his media rhetoric and were primed to do so by years of hating Ashley. I also think Hughton did a better job for the club, by doing the same exact job, but by not being so devisive with the fanbase.
I'll put it like this for net spend. Would you rather own a company which turnsover £5 million a year, makes £500k and puts £500k or £450k into the company... Or a business that turns over £400k, makes £40K and invests £80K? The second has the higher net spend, so must be that one right? I know to an extent It's a strawman argument, I just hate this net spend bollocks we have begun to spout.
Lol what? Murphy? When Cardiff bought his brother this year, for more money, it was seen as smart planning for relegation (having a stronger team in the champ). We do it and he is STILL today being held up and scrutinised as our big money purchase. Also don't get why you've added figures on to both his and Muto's transfer? Daryl Murphy was sold for how much? His goals were vital towards promotions so odd point to add there mate. So what we have is 6mill on Atsu. Ok not much crack, yet he cost 6 mill for ****s sake. I don't get why I keep seeing fans acting like Rafa should literally get every transfer right. Name me a manager that has. Also who has spent similar amounts that also inherited a decimated team inherently used to losing the majority of games they played? You need to be adding this or it's irrelevant. What nutter says we must mention 3 years worth of spend but not any of the net spend? Oh yeah, Pouch! Problem with WOR Houghton is he was manager for season and a half, not 2 and a bit years, and evidently was helped by the camaraderie created from Nolan/Barton/Harper/Butt etc. etc.
We’ll have to disagree. If you sell players collectively valued at £150M and buy players collectively valued at £100M you may have spent £100M but you will very rarely improve the team. Not saying it’s impossible but it’s very unlikely. However, if you sell no-one and spend £100M then you are more than likely, but again not guaranteed, to have improved the team. With the first example you have a net spend of -£50M and with the latter you have a net spend of £100M but both have spent £100M. For me it’s obvious but net spend is relevant. Some of the players Rafa has bought do leave a lot to be desired but then you have to look at the constraints on how much we seem prepared to pay for any individual player and the apparent wages limit. That does put a significant cramp on who you can buy and who will sign for you. Ask Rafa.
I'm not saying he should get every transfer right, I'm simply pointing out he is not completely out of the loop in terms of being a factor for the team we have. I'm not saying he's a terrible manager or any of that negative ****e, I'm just trying to temper some of this delusional view that we are the worst done to fans in the league, that Rafa has a squad he doesn't want and that he is above criticism. The league we are in comprises about 6 teams, I think the talent available to these teams is round about the same level, or close at least. I think we are probably in the bottom three of this group, because I think other clubs have spent the money slightly better, and it will take every ounce of class in Rafa to get us out of it this year. I don't think we have the worst squad, so the challenge will be about finishing ahead of a couple of others.
He was bought as a back-up striker and seemed a poor purchase to me initially, he didn't really play until January. He then came in and scored iirc winning goals in back to back games twice (5 goals in 15 games in total). Each time he was dropped for the main men when they were fit and available. He came to do a job and to my mind he did it without complaint. I doubt we'd have won the league without him, though probably would have got promoted anyway.
Who's been done worse to in this league? Hardly delusional. And no he's not above criticism, but when there's complaints players are **** you only have to point to the money paid.
Another week, another goal and still joint top scorer. Up there with Hazard, Aguero, Lukaku and Mane at present. At this rate he will outscored Rondon and Joselu PB season tallys before Halloween rolls around... If Rafa isn't good enough to coach a player to play to his style or tweak his tactics to suit a good player instead of bringing in dross players to do so (not that Rondon or Joselu offer anything more than Mitro in any department) why is he lauded? Really don't get the fans obsession with Rafa, yeah he comes out with all the right soundbites but he's not done anything other than what was expected of him, bar staying on when we were relegated, and managed to dismantle a half decent squad and turn it to ****e with HIS transfers this year.
So is everyone brainwashed into thinking a good footballer goes for £10-15m? Sure, you can find bargains for less, but it's not 2005. You're looking at £25-30m for a solid Premier League player. Especially 1 who scores goals
Imo mitro should of been kept and a manager, any manager should of coached, helped and guided this raw talent... The lads still young ffs he's got ten tears in him. He keeps knocking them in and the big boys will come calling Chelsea have already been mentioned in the press lately In rafa I think the fans are grumbling I go with ten lads and believe me we're not all hanging out of rafas arse. Boring, negative play dare I say has been whispered .. In the grand scheme of things it's all a bit boring.. The mitro thing, Ashley rafa, transfers and actually going up there to watch its ****in tedious and stagnant
If you owned a company why would you want it to have a high spend. Mike wants his Company to have the lowest net apend possible.
Watching MOTD and I can’t help but think are we cursed when it comes to recruitment. We spent £12m on Murphy, big potential but yet to prove it(May do so yet). Leicester buy Maddison, also from Norwich, a player with similar potential for a similar fee I presume?? Maddison will be an England international by the end of the season if not the end of the year. Why can’t we get the best out of these young lads, Mitrovic, Mbabu and Thauvin spring to mind too, why are we inept at developing young talent. Lascelles is the only player I can think in recent times that has developed in to premier league quality.
On a side note, anyone notice that Wolves are being managed by Osama Bin Laden, thought the yanks took care of him?
Arsenal fans are shelling out at least double, sometimes quadruple our ticket prices. Tottenham fans paid out a lot more than normal on the premise they would be at a new stadium, they aren't, and they signed nobody at all. Cardiff have basically told their fans they are going down. Huddersfield have not spent much more than us and they had a much worse squad to begin with. Man Utd are still inflicting Jose on their fans. Southampton needed to rip up their squad and start again. Basically they lost their best player and signed Ings. Class. If you look around, we aren't the only ones a bit miffed with how things are going. Grass is always greener I suppose, but the only instability or cause for resentment at this club this season has been caused by Rafa. Cabaye, Ba, Cisse, Ben Arfa, Tiote, Lejeune were not £20mil signings. The amount of money doesn't always dictate the quality. Obviously continuously scouring the market for these players is difficult, we have discussed this at length, but the salient fact remains Rafa wanted these players, or he would have walked. Mike has not changed the way he has run the club. If the supposed lies about transfer fees are accurate, why hasn't Rafa got the backbone to resign as Keegan did before him? If it was in his contract as an agreement, why not sue? Why was he stupid enough to think that he would get what other managers did not? Do you think Rafa loves Geordies so much he would sacrifice his morals, his reputation and a substantial compensation to save us? Nahhhhhh.... Ashley is 100% the reason the club has not got back to challenging for a position more befitting the size of our fanbase. The lack of investment has crippled the squad when we were on the cusp of getting close. However, and you might find it controversial, but a lack of investment was not the reason for our first or second relegations. It would have helped to have brought in more players, but there were undoubtedly other things dragging the squad down at those points, and the fans peaked in resentment at those times. We had a talented bunch on paper on both occasions, or players that should have had us further up the table at the very least, and we invested the money that was available poorly. Judging from the apparent training ground bust-ups, the bizarre reported friction between the manager, Shelvey, Lascelles, Ritchie etc, I think we again have issues behind the scenes. I also think everyone seemed to agree we have a better squad than last season, based on the numbers brought in. A couple of the signings have been very good, but some of them look bizarre... And again the fans are at peak resentment... When we go down again, Ashley will give the next manager more funds to ensure we get back to the premier league. Hopefully the next manager learns from Rafa's mistakes, and invests in players who will not require immediate replacement when they reach the premier league again, because they aren't getting unlimited funds. This is for the analogy of growth, because fans want growth not profit or substantial dividends.
Maybe Ashley expected 10th last season but it was well above what the vast majority of us expected. He’s not above criticism. I wouldn’t have sold Mitro. I wonder at some of his substitutions. But saying the players are HIS transfers ignores the reality of our transfer policy and constraints. They’re his players but only because he’s not allowed the one’s he really wants and would likely try and get if he was at those mammoth Clubs Brighton and Huddersfield.
You think Brighton and Huddersfield have signed better quality players than us? I don't. They have the exact same constraints, but our net spend is lower only because they have got less when selling their existing players. We shop in the exact same space as those two. They have to spend slightly more on a player than we might have to, because for whatever reason we seem to have a lingering appeal as a historically bigger club, but they are not blowing us out the water. Would you honestly prefer Brighton's squad? Huddersfield's? Do you think Rafa would have them challenging for Europe or something? This is the chip on the shoulder Rafa has perpetrated through the media. Well played, but tearing us apart.
