Most baffling take I've heard from the Lunatic Fringe this window: Levy signed off on bidding £60m for Gibbs-White as he knew it would fail, so would have a reason to not spend money For a sport played on grass, a worryingly large section of our fanbase really should consider touching it occasionally
That’s probably a bit of a stretch (although nothing would surprise me). However, if we got wind of what the release clause was, it does strike me as a little stupid to offer the exact figure, which is supposedly what we did. Like just round it up to the nearest mill to maybe not look completely obvious!
Most of the fanbase oscillates at random between wanting us to have a better record at delivering stronger signings (better implementation of plan A) and better Plan Bs. Our squad consists of insufficient very good players, a plethora of players just below the standard we need and a bunch of promising youngsters. I still think the best plan would be to sell all the sub standard players, buy the best five players we can get with the proceeds and fill out the squad with youngsters. But we keep being linked with players like Wissa who are just more of the same.
We won't be able to implement Plan A unless we significantly raise our wage ceiling. This is an obvious and almost indisputable point. We cannot hope to sign players who will instantly improve us when 5-6 teams in the PL alone currently pay much more than we do. So we're stuck in Plan B, which is to strengthen the overall average of the entire squad. I see Kudus as an expensive example of this. We're looking to the youngsters to deliver on Plan A, but they need time and to be surrounded by players they can learn from in order to get there.
What plan, there isn`t one, that much is clear, most things are reactive rather than proactive. I see we are rumoured to be now looking at left backs after Udogie`s injury, we should have been looking at left backs in any case and moving Davies on. We are still short all over the pitch, GK, LB, DM, CF, WF for starters.
The only question I am asking is whether the squad is currently good enough to finish at least PL 11th + win the FA cup, while avoiding utter humiliation in every game in the CL group stage.
Why do you think we have a wage ceiling? It's much more likely that the very best players choose to join someone else for reasons other than wages.
Every club has a wage ceiling. The rules (and financial planning) require it. Ours is currently the 8th highest in the league, which means we are at least below par. We have cleared out most of our highest earners over the past 2 years and if Son goes this summer, that's all of them. You and I have discussed this at length elsewhere. Under PSR rules, we could comfortably raise our ceiling to Liverpool's level (pre their summer splurge) without breaking sweat. All we'd need to do is deduct £25m pa from the transfer kitty so that loan covenants are met. So yes, while I agree that there are definitely other factors at play regarding how top players choose their next move, it seems madness to suggest that we should continue to put ourselves at a significant disadvantage for no reason whatsoever. Not utilising on our ability to pay more is like qualifying for the Champions League but then withdrawing from the competition before the season starts.
The cycle can only be attempted to be broken by increasing the wage ceiling because we can’t buy in trophies to convince top tier players to join us…that’s why it’s an ‘over to you Mr Levy’ scenario, as it has been for a few years now. I don’t mind that we aren’t going daft with wages but we aren’t countering it by being smart with recruitment strategy, we’re all over the place as usual because they just don’t want it enough, those calling the shots upstairs. As usual we will start the season undercooked and definitely lacking in quality to challenge for the league and/or Champions League like Mr Levy is fantasising about what a Del Boy
Spitballing here: Stefan Ortega's available, so if Kinsky does get a loan he ticks the boxes for a useful understudy
I think he is a similar level to Vicario, and would be a very good addition, but I doubt it will happen.
Our very poor record on developing our own talent just compounds our problem. We're having to buy in the vast majority of our squad...and have done for a number of years. So, we pay significant fees for so-so talents, who we can't shift, whilst earning bugger all in transfer fees for our own CG players. We compound that by overpaying for players like Solanke and Maddison. All the other clubs that we're competing with have decent academies, so they're looking at buying in fewer players, most at a level above the majority of our purchases. The whole structure has been rotten for years. It's either years of consistent quality, hard work or a **** load of money to sort it out. Levy thinks he can pay coaches a King's ransom to turn **** into gold...and it hasn't and won't work.
To me having a salary ceiling means having a policy of not paying more than a certain salary irrespective of player quality. I dont think we have that...we just are not an attractive destination for the very best players because there are about 14 clubs who will pay them the same but give better trophy winning probabilities.
Agreed, but purposefully not making one simple change to make ourselves a more attractive destination (in what is probably the second most important factor to a player deciding on their future) than all but 7-8 of those 14 clubs, is the stuff of sheer madness. It is the equivalent of sitting down to discuss terms with a potential new signing, then halfway through the negotiations mention that per his contract, he won't be included in our CL squad. Why do it?
