Just further dispelling of the "buying success" myth. Best defense in the league and by far and away the most improved without question. Still we've not spent as much on the defense as most the "big 6" teams have on one player and I've left keepers out as well as Pope is half of what any of the others have spent on theirs so further savings to be had there... NUFC - Trippier - £12m, Burn - £13m, Botman - £33m, Targett - £15m - Total - £73m *I've gone with the most expensive back 4 we have recently purchased for fairness but worth noting if we went with Burn at LB and Schar in there it's more like £61m, less than half of everyone else's and less than 4 of the teams below have spent on 1 player... So let's look at the rest: Arsenal - White £52m, Saliba £27m, Gabriel £23m, Zincenko £31m - Total - £133m Chelsea - Chilwell £45m, Fofana £72m, Koulibaly £34m, Cucurella £58m - Total - £209m Liverpool - TAA £0, Konate £36m, VVD £76m, Tsimikas £11m - £123m Man C - Walker £47m, Dias £64, Laporte £58m, Cancello - £58m - Total - £227m Man U - AWB - £49m, Martinez £51m, Maguire £78m, Shaw £33m - Total - £211m Spurs - Royal £22m, Romero £45m, Sanchez £37m, Sessengon £24m - Total - £128m Still we will hear the faux outrage and befuddlement of the other teams fans moaning and complaining about "how much they've spent" but the reality is we've spent exceptionally well on an area of the team that was lacking after years of neglect in the defense and Eddie has got players like Miggy, Joe, Willock, ASM, Wilson Longstaff, hell even Murphy, who were already here, now doing the business and improving week on week. Then consider we've got £100m (of the £200m spent) worth of strikers bought in the last 12 months not playing in Wood and Isak and Targett at present.
Despite sending nearly the least, Tottenham's spending looks the worst there; their defence has massively declined since Vertonghen and Alderwiereld left. Our spending is clearly the most savvy, however we're also one of the ones who will need to spend big again soon, with Trippier at 32 and only having a few more years, whereas the other teams have mostly bought younger players to grow at the clubs. The 2 highest purchases highlight perfect example of both how well or how badly a signing can turn out - with Liverpool almost being unable to function without VVD, and with Maguire being a bungling clown now left on the bench.
Yeah it's just laughable really all this talk of money buying our current success. Look at PL transfer spend over the last 10+ years and see where we are in that league table vs the actual league table. We are massively playing catch up and as others have already said, some of our recent outlay (Isak, Targett, Wood) has barely featured recently. Bottom line is, yes we now have investment, but Eddie and the boys are simply overachieving. Suck on it. The haters should save some tears back for when we really do have a squad to challenge the big boys on a regular basis.
I imagine he doesn't give it a second thought but Ashley could have done this. As you say, we haven't spent loads really. The prices we have paid for players would be well within Ashley's means but instead of investing in decent players and a progressive manager he decided to do it on a shoe string. We could have been making the progress we are now years ago
Me and my mate were saying exactly the same thing on Sat night when we were out. £200m on players was always well within his means, christ I think he gave mclaren in excess of £100m one window iirc. We all know why it didn’t happen tho and we all know that the changes that have been made at the club outside of the playing staff would not have taken place under Ashley either….**** is rotten to his core! Also I don’t think Bruno would have fancied ice baths in wheelie bins!
Tbf we have spent over 200m in a year, it's quite a bit. And it looks like we might be about to spend more. It's only fair, my tax money goes on missles for these guys. Bout time they paid us back.
I keep having to remind myself that we've barely seen £65m of it. Very excited to get Isak fit. I need no reminding that I've seen far too much of £25m of it....
Broken record. He's only a sub these days, and that transfer got Burnley relegated, so it was justified spending. But we're talking about the defence here anyway.
Lighten up man was just a jest! We bought a new back four and a GK. Astonishingly, they've all worked.
If you go back I feel the owners have been very lucky at the same time. We could have Emery as manager and that may or may not have worked We could be stuck with Dele Alli and not Bruno We could have got DDB on loan etc etc
Think this all stems from Howe. I suspect his time studying at Atletico has convinced the owners that Howe's big picture plan will work and that the brakes can be applied in order to get the right mentalities in
I think the fact that instead of sitting around thinking poor me when he was sacked Howe looked at his own skills and abilities and decided to go and work on them makes him even more impressive, we can see the results of that and his coaching team week in and week out now.
It would have been very easy for him to stay or sulk having left - he wasn't sacked - but you're right he went on a pilgrimage across Europe watching and learning from some of the best and is clearly a superior manager to the one who departed Bournemouth having been relegated five years after bringing them up and generally progressing them well. During their relegation season they used 19 different defensive combinations due to injuries. So no back line made more than two runs outs as a "unit" for them.
I still can't get my head around how good our defence really is. Impossible to answer but have we ever had better?
