We needed to invest in the youth team and sign youth players because Cellino had run it into the ground and pulled all funding. It's no different than signing a load of local lads - you never expect them to all work out and turn in to stars a la Phillips. We now have Category One academy status. That's a win for me. Nketiah is a cracking striker and he will be brilliant. He's in and around the Arsenal team now - for all their problems, they have Lacazette and Aubameyang, both very very good Premier League strikers and Nketiah is still getting game time. Bielsa just preferred Bamford (rightly or wrongly, that's another discussion) - how is that Orta's fault? On paper it looked like a cracking bit of business, £7m for Roofe with a year left on his contract and Nketiah on loan. Didn't work out but it's not Orta's fault. Augustin had no prior major injury concerns when he joined. How was anyone realistically supposed to know he wouldn't be fit enough for Bielsa's team? Without the player being there, you can't know for certain. It was a risk and it backfired, but if we'd signed him in the summer permanently having never seen him, and the same thing happened, what's the difference? You say Radz got lucky with Bielsa, and to an extent I understand your point, but he had the balls to go for Bielsa and paid the going rate to bring him in. He'd tried Christiansen and Heckingbottom and learnt his lesson, so he pulled his finger out and got it sorted. Those players upped their game because of Bielsa, certainly. But Bielsa was only in the job because of Radz, Kinnear, and Orta. Are they flawless? Absolutely not, just like the players haven't been, and nor has Bielsa (although he's been damn close to it). Are they the best ownership team we've had since we fell out of the Premier League? Without a doubt.
To be fair to them, luck or not they delivered Bielsa, got the Academy to category one status, got promotion and brought a real structure to the club. And, having watched Bielsa, El Loco the point is well made that he doesn't stay anywhere unless he trusts the owners / directors completely. Whatever we think, Bielsa walked in and told Radz / Orta he would get us up with the squad he had.
Champions 8 minutes injury time. This season it's others who have bottled it. This is what i have wanted all season.
