Is anyone else watching the Leicester spending spree going and seeing similarities between them and our play off push season under Burley? Lots of players coming in for good money, earning good money (I would assume), experienced talented (questionably!) manager and you would assume they have a shout at promotion. But what if it all goes wrong? What if Sven gets offered the Scotland job and takes it?! Just wondering what people think might happen!
It doesn't really matter what point we're talking about, our decline was the result of years of mismanagement.
True to a certain extent, but Lowe's return, the Dutch youth experiment, relegation and administration can all more directly be blamed on spending big (especially on wages) in the summer of 2006 and then not drastically cutting costs in the summer of 2007 after we failed to win promotion. In my view people like Wilde and Crouch have just as much to answer for as Lowe, although Crouch did partly redeem himself by chipping in to keep us afloat during administration.
Remember it was the big spending that gave the team enough quality to reach the playoffs. It was a big risk, but no one would be complaining if we'd been successful in the playoffs. The financial situation was getting worse and worse every season, and getting promoted that year would have been the perfect solution. To get to the source of the financial problems, you'd probably have to go back to the turn of the century.
Maybe, but the reason why we went into administration and had to cut costs so dramatically was because we were losing about £1 million a month. We gambled big and it didn't pay off. If we hadn't then we might have missed out on the play-offs, but we also would have missed out on administration and league one. I still think gambling with a football clubs future is a monumentally stupid thing to do, and 90% of the time it all ends in tears.
My point is that promotion may have been the only way to avoid administration, so not gambling might not have been an option. Every season we spent in the Championship, we edged closer and closer to administration. Granted if we hadn't spent all that money we would have stayed afloat longer, but I reckon eventually it would have happened anyway, and there would have been no chance of promotion without spending some money. Just to link this point back to the original question; none of what we have discussed is happening at Leicester. Therefore they will be fine.
Leicester - the Man City of the Championship! They must start to sell some players soon otherwise they will have a squad of 50 - we obviously can't compete with their spending power (fee + salary) so maybe we can get hold of some of their better rejects!
Maybe we can compete, but we just don't want to and end up paying over the odds for players and be stuck with an unsustainable wage bill and massive debt?
I think Wisescummer has 'hit the proverbial nail on the head'! NC has repeatedly stated that there is no mad rush for the Premiership; it's all about building the club (not the first eleven) up be able to sustain a continuing presence in the Premiership.
I seem to remember the banks had no confidence in Rupert Lowe since his presence and methods sent attendances plummeting. I don't deny that the overspending led Lowe to od what he did, but the Total Football experiment was an almighty screw-up that ultimately led the banks to pull the plug. Doing things properly, I think we could have avoided administration. The mistake was letting a pisshead like Burley spend the money and not cuttiing back in 07, less so spending in the first place. I don't think we went over the top, the money was just wasted on the wrong people. What Leicester are doing isn't comparable. Not that it's guaranteed to be any better though! You can't buy a whole new squad and expect it to work to its full potential immediately. I can't see them making a fast start and running away with the league.
