I know, I do appreciate that.
When squads were smaller you never heard of clubs struggling to compete on 2 fronts...I'll grant them that 4 can be difficult.
What's troubling Poch?
- Thread starter thefanwithnoname
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I know, I do appreciate that.
When squads were smaller you never heard of clubs struggling to compete on 2 fronts...I'll grant them that 4 can be difficult.
It shouldn't be that way though.
4th in the league shouldn't be celebrated more than winning a cup.
And that is the problem ps. No one (maybe spurlock) is criticising levy for the years before. The criticism is for the past few years, where the net spend has been pretty much nil and lowest in the prem (certainly last year) when your expenditure has grown vastly.
You cant excuse ffp for that one bit.
Furthermore you cant on one hand say how the stadium is going to net you 50m extra per year a(before sponsors) with only 5m of interest and then say you are handicapped by stadium costs.
This is where i think criticism of levy is valid and from a slightly smaller transition season you now have a giant rebuild job as the squad hasnt been refreshed, players haven't been moved on in good time and your defence is aging (as well as out of contract).
If you guys aren't careful you could fall out of the top 4 now that you are regulars and thats saying something because united, arsenal and chelsea are not looking too hot either
I have never said we have been handicapped by stadium costs. It is completely clear that we could have spent £150m more in the last three windows. Why we didn't is unknown. It seems we expected to sell Alderweireld and Eriksen and that Vertonghen would extend. It also seems that Poch is quite rightly fussy on who we sign and Levy has budgets for players on both sales and purchases that restrict deals. Given that our transfer dealings have been more successful than most clubs I don't feel very critical of any of that. The current results are poor.....time will tell whether this is a deep malaise or a blip.
You have said you have been handicapped by ffp. Im refuting that claim.
You might not have mentioned the stadium in the above but im pretty sure you have mentioned it in previous debates of levys lack of spending. If you havent then apologies.
You are also right about we dont know the underlying reasons why players havent moved on or bought in.
However theres two main protagonists in this
Poch and levy.
Now unless you think pochs recent demeanour suggests hes happy with his team and whats gone on, my moneys on levy being the bad guu judging from his track record of guys being bought moved on (even if you have to overpay undersell).
Now im not saying levys financial acumen isnt smart as he had built you boys up. Imo a lot of the credit goes to poches coaching.
If true, then he might want to do himself a favour and change his backroom staff. However, I would not bet on it, wouldn't even stake a quid on it.
He won't replace his old mates...the way he talks about them in his book. That's fair enough if you can't part with your maties but it will be to the detriment of his career.
Of course there's no reason to suspect The Athletic for using clickbaity headlines to fuel a push for subscriptions...
Nothing in particular but throughout he refers to how they have always been a team together
Here's the thing with that Athletic article: who would the player be?
I doubt it's Danny Rose as he's shown himself to be more than happy to mouth off to the press in the past
I doubt it's Verts as he will speak his mind to Poch, so running off to the press seems out of character
I doubt it's Harry Kane as he has no track record of running his mouth to the press that I can recall
The likely candidates are either Eric Dier or Christian Eriksen - and if it's the latter, that explains why he's not been starting
I doubt it's Danny Rose as he's shown himself to be more than happy to mouth off to the press in the past
I doubt it's Verts as he will speak his mind to Poch, so running off to the press seems out of character
I doubt it's Harry Kane as he has no track record of running his mouth to the press that I can recall
The likely candidates are either Eric Dier or Christian Eriksen - and if it's the latter, that explains why he's not been starting
There were rumours doing the rounds over the summer that Wanyama had fallen out with the coaching staff on account of them requesting that he change his diet and routine in order to take as much weight off of his barely existent knees as possible. Vic apparently loves spaghetti more than he does playing CL football and refused. It would make sense if he subsequently had a dig at the coaching staff in general.
He's hardly a long-tenured player though...or is it "long enough" for the headline?
More than anything else, though, I immediately distrust anyone who wants to cite The Athletic as a source, because they're essential a blog hidden behind a paywall and people who are quick to post links (mainly the r/coys crowd) are doing so to show off their shiny thing - much like the wrestling fans who constantly cite the Wrestling Observer Newsletter to show off that they're chucking ten bucks a month to Dave Meltzer
If Levy wants to pay me my usual daily rate as per my proper day job,
then I will take that role on (I have PLENTY for them to work on) .
He doesn't even have to pay "logistics" because that RDBD guy :
he only lives round the corner.
Allow me to point out why Top 4 is more important than winning the FA Cup
Qualifying for the Champions League guarantees we get Lo Celso, as that's a condition of his loan
Winning the FA Cup leaves us potentially open to be gazumped
Are we getting it yet?
Qualifying for the Champions League guarantees we get Lo Celso, as that's a condition of his loan
Winning the FA Cup leaves us potentially open to be gazumped
Are we getting it yet?
Like most other top tier clubs, Champions League qualification is priority #1. The financial rewards are key, not to mention sponsorship, endorsements, TV schedules, image rights and player contracts as you point out. If there's any sniff we'll miss out, Levy will make his move. Let's hope Poch can sort us out and get us back to our old selves...
On an entirely separate note, there's a stupid rumour circling that Verts was apparently caught doing the dirty with Eriksen's missus this summer, and this is the root cause of the disharmony. This has caused a rift between certain sections of the squad and the club have now decided to pull any offer of a new contract to Verts as a result of his behaviour. Poch is understandably finding it impossible to sort out and it explains Eriksen's lacklustre performances.
I must stress that this story came from a United fan via a Chelsea fan so I doubt it has a single shred of credibility. But still thought I'd share, just to highlight the nonsense that get's spread around (with me now being guilty of the same - <hypocrite>Sorry!</hypocrite> ). Most likely a crock of **** though.
There was three separate articles about us in yesterday's Standard, so there's a cottage industry in concocting theories about us
The current lowest bar is Barney Ronay's hatchet job in the Grauniad, which is best summer up as follows...
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