It isn't at all clear who planned it though. After that farcical manager hunt in which we completely snookered ourselves and hired Nuno only for the inevitable **** to hit the expectant fan a few months later, the club was so toxic that I feel we almost defaulted to another big CV name to provide a much needed bounce after two years of abject misery, and what can I say? It clearly worked...for a period. Which of Paratici or Levy pushed hardest for Conte is anyone's guess, but I'd put my money on the Italian who for all his talent and ability does tend to stick to what he knows rather than venturing to pastures new. The 18 month contract is also anyone's guess but here my money is on Levy who probably had severe doubts from the start (IF he learned ANYTHING from Jose's reign) that Conte would be a good match for a club with our ethos and approach. We took a desperate gamble at a time when fans were on the brink of burning down the shiny new stadium, and now it's backfiring as many of us predicted it would UNLESS the club started behaving like City and Chelsea in the market, which we haven't and won't. This month will reveal Levy's hand, I feel. If he is serious about backing Conte, we will meet Porro's release clause and be done with it. If he isn't, I expect we'll either go for a cheaper alternative or faff about and sign no-one, with Levy somewhat justifiably probably wondering to himself what a progressive coach could do with Djed Spence in that same position...and I don't make him entirely wrong in that by the way.
As I said whilst the stadium was being built... "When it's finished, we're going to have to decide what sort of club we want to be,,," That decision remains delayed.
At some point in your stadium build i asked a question on said thread. Who will get the money from events held there, THFC or ENIC. Not sure i ever got an answer but given yjay little seems to have changed in your spending i assume ENIC.
Levy taking the piss as per. Now that they've triggered his contract extension and already have his replacement, they are under zero pressure to sell. I'd expect £25m minimum as a fee. So yeah, we can wait another 25 games for Son to rediscover his form, or we can sign a PL proven alternative who is versatile enough to play anywhere down that flank and even more centrally.
There hasn't been much extra income from the stadium yet because of the pandemic. ENIC have not taken any money out of the club
Lump an extra £30m on top of Trossard’s price and get Mitoma, he looks fantastic. Probably already amongst the top 5 dribblers in the league and creates multiple chances per game that any half decent striker would finish. Apparently he wrote a thesis on dribbling and strapped a camera to his head to review the best ways of beating an opponent.
I was reflecting on this today. It's really worrying how many players have regressed on last season. Forget arguments of how good or bad they were to begin with, I'm just looking at individual performances. Son, Romero, Dier, Royal and Kane all look significantly worse than they did a year ago.
I think it's part missing players and part poor coaching. Kulusevski and Bentancur turned us around last season and we've frequently missed at least one. Kane and Son having their roles changed probably accounts for most of the rest of it.
Nonsense, Levy pays himself around £8m a year for a start, plus bonuses, and what about all the property development they are doing.
He should be paid fack all for the horrendous job he has done over the last 23 years, there is no way every penny the club earns is put back into the team either, so where has all that money gone? Anybody else doing such an awful job of building a successful football team deserves to have been sacked years ago, but then again, he returns profits every year so Lewis will think he is doing a marvellous job. Those are facts as well.
I think the money has gone into the stadium, and a **** load of terrible transfers such as Ndombele £53m plus, Lo Celso £42m plus, Sessegnon £33m, Clarke £10m, Janssen £19m, Soldado £26m, Chiriches £8m, Capoue £8m, Paulinho £17m, Njie £8.5m, Stambouli £4.6m, Aurier £23m, Nkoudou £7m, Bergwijn £26m, Reguilon £30m, Doherty £15m, Rondon £8m... That's almost £340m in just 10 years...and that's without Sissoko £32m, Lamela £32m and Sanchez £42. Put those in and thats nearly £450m in 10 years on Transfers that weren't great. Money has been spent...but a lot badly
£60m Richarlison, £25m Emerson, £13m Doherty… it’s a like a list of horror movies but in transfer fees. Oh for a £3.5m Trippier, a £12m Alderweireld or a £22m Son.
In the 10 years before ENIC bought us our average league position was 11th and our best was 7th. In the last ten years our average position was 4.5th and our worst was 7th. The only other club in the world who have made such an improvement is Manchester City. In the same period we've reached the Champions League final, qualified for Europe for more than 10 consecutive years for the first time ever, and built one of the best stadiums and one of the best training grounds in the world. You think this is horrendous!