“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Something needs to change, either Poch and the players buck their ideas up or a change in personnel needs to be made and unfortunately, we can’t sack members of the squad for poor performances.
Tbh the only certainty I have is thst sacking Pochettino is a mistake but I can not come up with any solutions. Top 4 is a minimal requirement and we are miles away in performance snd consistency terms of getting there.
I don’t particularly like the idea of him being sacked/ leaving but it’s hard not to have the thought cross my mind now. We’re becoming very stale. He seemingly has no fresh ideas. He’s playing players he wanted to sell whilst dropping players who want to stay. He can’t be surprised most of these players aren’t giving their all. Similar to what I said earlier, he needs to change (as do players), or we need to change him.
I`ve been saying for years that Enic are what hold us back from taking the final step to silverware, they are a business first and a football club second. One paltry league cup under their watch tells us everything about where their priorities lie. Record profits, regular CL, refinancing of stadium debt, record revenues etc and they still can not show enough ambition in the transfer market. Poch has worked wonders and proved over many years he is a top class coach, and so deserved to be backed properly. Instead, he got a couple of years of letting the squad stagnate from Levy and when it came to buying new players last summer, all we got was replacements for departures, no squad strengthening at all. Levy needs to make £200m available this January and next summer for a new top class RB, LB, CB, CM and another striker.
The one certain thing over the next five years, is that the club will continue to be owned by ENIC. Joe Lewis has coveted ownership of an NFL franchise for a very long time. He's as close as he's ever been. Whilst it remains possible, they will remain our owners. Even if they were to sell up, and they won't, there's no guarantee that it'd change anything. Kroenke's as rich as Croesus but he's not spending his own cash. New owners do not mean better owners, just different So, our main hope is that ENIC continue to spend what we can generate for ourselves but tnow mostly on playing talent. It needs to be remembered that we've spent nearly £500m out of income in just over the last decade on income nerly half of what it is currently. So more money and stadium repayment at an annual level of £30m per annum will put us in a far better position. Getting in a recruiter of top young talent would be top of my list of things to do. We're not going to outbid City or United or Barcelona or Real Madrid for talent. However, we need to be getting players like Ndombele and Lo Celso before Lyon and Betis do. I'd also like us to compete more to get in players like Troy Parrott. Recruiting in our own back yard is laudable but are we getting the most of our Academy? As to the current situation, either we play a system that suits our current squad better or we will be looking for new management....just not that twat Mourinho...please?
I’ve mooted it before...if we are not going to spend money in the transfer market then why not hunt the best scouts in the world...I’m sure even the best is on a reasonable wage affordable to us. Is this impossible to achieve? Money talks...I bet it isn’t...but is anyone serious about Chapter 2?
They probably think silverware will be a by product of the club being financially stronger and more competitive. It's hard for fans to have the same long term view and be prepared to share the desire to be disciplined and wait. I actually hope Utd would adopt a similar approach, rein in the quick fix spending and have a structured 5+ year plan to get back to the top.
Many of the fans thought trophies were going to be a by product of the squad maturing, this was when we were chasing Lesta What are we waiting for now?
The stadium needs to pay for itself. It will take a few years for the club to be able to spend. Look what happened with Arsenal.
Don’t have the figures but from what I know we are paying peanut rates to pay for the stadium and certainly not enough to be sabotaging our transfer window and best team in decades...unless of course you don’t actually care so long as there is enough in the tank to scrape 4th all the time
Actually not so. We've decided to pay off the debt over 30 years, at a cost of about £32m a season. That's a LOT smaller percentage our annual income than Arsenal have been paying on their stadium and should mostly be payable out of additional income from other sports/events. I'm pretty sure that we're not paying anything major for a at least a decade, so for now, we're more or less unencumbered by our debt.
Gooner here in peace... good thread and some valid points made. your situation just reminds me of what Arsenal went through with our new stadium, promises of being able to compete financially, the stadium cost won’t affect the football side .... blah blah. what did we actually get: no money in kitty for transfers; had to sell our best players; replace cheaply; unable to compete with transfer cost or wages; must adhere to FFP; and end up with Arsenal becoming uncompetitive for titles. I feel your pain, as at the end of the day it’s the fans that pay and suffer
That will be a benefit in the relative short term, but the club has had to meet some part of the initial capital costs from resources and it looks as though there will be a period in which the club is financially hamstrung by the costs.
The club are delaying repayments because they can borrow at an effective 2.7% fixed over a period of 30 years. I'm sure that the owners are expecting revenues and profits to grow at a much faster rate during that time, thereby reducing the cost in real terms. This will only increase as the non-football element of the stadium picks up. Arsenal had the misfortune to borrow at a bad time, which made interest payments too high to delay repayment for any meaningful time. Hence the fire sale. Effectively, we're spending money that no other clubs earn with the NFL, concerts and rugby deals, whilst pulling in the largest match day income in the PL and probably world football. The football income won't be needed to pay off the stadium. It's seeing both sides of the equation, not just the cost, the club have created numerous other future revenue streams including the 1600 houses/flats we're developing, supermarket lease revenue, hotel, etc. Joe Lewis/Daniel Lewis had a much better idea of what to build and how to fund it than Arsenal and the lessons have been put to good effect. The 2 schemes are chalk and cheese.
That's pretty much standard for a one-off build of this nature. The club avoided a fixed price contract as they wanted to have total control on quality. We weren't going to get the NFL franchise by chucking up something second rate. I've heard that you are soon to undergo significant additional works to make up for the cost saving finishes you went for a decade ago. Better to get it right first time. The final cost was always going to be relevant to the additional income it could generate (and the cost of borrowing).I don't think that there's anything for us to worry about on that score.
The additional costs of the new stadium are about 40m a year and the additional income is in the range 60 to 100m depending on naming rights and third party events. This creates cash for transfers etc. The only possible constraint on expenditure would be convenants on the loans preventing further borrowing for transfers. But that is the effectively banned by ffp rules anyway.
And that is why its it shocking to see no transfers the 2 previous windows and not much of an outlay this season. You would think after 80m incomes from the cl, record sums from the pl and reasonable wages at the club, you would be able to outlay some money especially let alone all this future income. Poch football pressing requires young athletic and hungry players. This team has been at it non stop for the best part of 5 years of course they are going to be getting old or maybe knackered from it.
Pretty sure money spent on stadium and stadium loans doesnt count against ffp? Similar with training grounds. Its money spent on transfers and wages (barring your club doesnt go into debt it cannot pay)