Thanks to Kane and Son. Not many other teams boast players of that quality outside of those winning or challenging for league titles. They’re our current day Carrick/ Berbatov/ Modric/ Bale, except from their perspectives they’ve foolishly stuck around for longer than they should’ve. Since 2019 they've had to carry players who on average would be playing at clubs ranked around 15th and lower - and I’m being generous with that too.
Putting aside how, for the first 10-15 minutes the Saudis were so clinical they'd get booted out of any PUBG server for aimbotting, a lot of our recent results are the culmination of how we have approached things...but not in the way the kneejerkoffs would think Case in point, since the start of March we've seen Hojbjerg's form nosedive, which plenty of people on here have been dreading would happen over the past 18 months due to the absurd amount of football we've had him play for the last three years. The warning signs were there this time last year when he had hefty icepacks on his thighs after one match in our run-in, but we persisted - even though this season we had ample opportunity to give him a rest as Sarr has been available the whole time while Skippy's been available for at least half a season, but when they do get on the pitch Sarr plays like somebody who needed more football in his legs by the business end of the season while Skippy had to play himself back into fitness after an injury layoff Which leads us to the second issue which has been blowing up in slow motion in front of us: Bentancur and Bissouma are the two midfielders whose job it is to bridge the gap between midfield and attack by moving the ball in this strange direction called "forwards" injured at the same time could be written off as "**** Happens" it also exposes a systemic issue, as we don't have a utility player who can cover either role of our midfield in the way that somebody like Nabil Bentaleb could, instead all of our midfield options play roughly the same game where they shuffle the ball out wide with safe, low-risk passes - which works when grinding out a narrow win in stoppage time, not so good when trying to break through a stubborn opponent or get back into a game (and that's before taking into account installing a system that asks CBs to pass out from the back, yet Dier and Sanchez can't reliably do that, so put further pressure on both the midfield and defence) But going back to running players into the ground, that also appears to be the case up front as well: Sonny's looked knackered for most of the season yet is still one of the first names on the teamsheet every week even though, like Hojbjerg, he's played an absurd amount of football even though we've had Gil and/or Danjuma available to give him a rest here and there. Dimilarly, Deki's looking like somebody who hasn't recovered from his injury late last year but plays anyway - which no doubt ties into the clause in his loan about him playing 45 minutes in 50% of our games (he still needs two or three 45 minute appearances to get that one locked down, by the way) and that's led to Gil demanding a loan to Sevilla while we're frankly taking the piss with Danjuma - doubly so when you consider Gil and Danjuma both offer a directness that so many of our other players don't have, presumably as Conte hadn't beaten it out of them like he did with a few more of our squad So when you have a chunk of the squad run into the ground for anything between 18 months and three years (exacerbated by the World Cup) while others barely feature, throw in a few injuries that expose a fatal flaw in the makeup of our squad which was being built to play in one specific way, we stumble into the position we are now - and that's before taking into account to explosion of individual errors which have served to undermine any green shoots we thought we were witnessing for, like, six to eight minutes before a brainfart or two dumped a buynch of weedkiller on them
I blame Conte for alot of those decisions, playing players who should be rested & rotated. Not playing Danjouma or Sarr or blooding the academy players more. In Contes defense he was brought in by Levy to win silverware at all costs so he played to win every match regardless of players form & fitness. A short term solution by Levy in th hope we could nick a trophy somewhere!
Who cares, qualifying for Europe isn`t a trophy, and (in our case) doesn`t lead on to an improved team capable of winning silverware.
I agree with Alfie's comment but Munson's.....seems like he has crawled out of a hole and being a little pissy!
It does have to be said there was a disconnect between Conte and Paratici in terms of player procurement Conte's vision has always been 12-18 months tops, and there's a demonstrable track record of that at the various clubs he's been with Paratici, on the other hand, was bringing in players with a view to a three-year plan much like we did with Jol and Poch Obviously that's not the first disconnect with Paratici and the dugout, after all we were bringing in players on that same three-year plan yet we brought in Nuno on effectively a 12-month contract, but while Nuno at least attempted rotation (albeit creating the A Squad and B Squad, which was problematic on its own) Conte was like Brave New World in football form
I don't know a single poster here that has ever said that it is. What it does show is a consistency in league performance unmatched in the clubs history and strangely it has coincided with an inability to win trophies something we used to able to do when we were struggling in the league, but as Hansen used to say anyone can win a cup its only 6 games the good sides are consistent in the league and that's the bread and butter. There is no correlation between the 2 things and it actually beggars belief that a side that can be as consistent as we have, can't win 6 games and bag a trophy. And new owners will offer no guarantee of that changing. Though I do accept some of the points raised by the likes of you and Brian that things do need to change.
Levy made a mistake and (on Paratici's advice) appointed a manager who he thought might end our trophyless run. He had little option but to sack him after his rant at the players. If we had the same amount of money as Man U or Liverpool none of that would have happened because we would have had better players and probably won something whoever was the manager.
And the reason we have Son and have not sold Kane? The rest of your post is at best arguable and actually inconsistent with your recent claims that we have quite a decent first XI.
With respect, you continue to avoid the question... Levy has left you without a manager blowing your chances of a champions league place, next season. Surely that is unacceptable? That last comment you made is also way off the mark. There's plenty of managers that have gone too clubs with money and not won trophies. You still need to coach and motivate players regardless of money spent.
Interesting points, I agree. Of course had the equivalent of Bentancur and Bissouma been injured for ManU (or any of the other 'top' teams), then injuries would have been a thing/excuse (let alone the other injuries we had). I mentioned it earlier, but if you want to play a back four, you kind of need the only players we have that can play as 'proper' full backs, who are Emerson and Davies. Both injured of course.
It was Conte that is responsible for us not having a manager as Levy had no choice in the end. After his rant I doubt we would have done much better under him anyway. It would have been entirely unacceptable to keep him in post. We've come quite close to winning trophies as we are so I think with similar management and more money we would likely have won one. But your point is correct...nothing guarantees a trophy and poor teams win one sometimes too. There isn't a 100% correlation between wealth and success.
Please feel free to educate me on THFC as to : 1. who the "other" shareholders are 2. what their collective % ownership is My understanding is that ENIC effectively own 100% of THFC (which means Lewis 70% and Levy 30% ) . But as always I can be wrong on this, and am happy to be educated otherwise by people such as you who have undertaken such a "deep" and diligent study of the financial machinations of all things THFC.
It's almost impossible to execute the strategy that you claim ENIC have though..being good enough to get into the CL most years but not good enough to win a trophy. If they are somehow managing to do that deliberately I would like to know how.
