Manchester City's net spend since 2006 is £437,120,000. That equates to £87,424,000 per season. These are lazy and warped stats since City weren't taken over by their Arab investors until 2008, but to be honest i couldn't be bothered rooting around for better ones. Suffice to say their actual net spend under their new owners should be much greater than that per season. After their huge transfer splurge throughout that same year (takeover year, the summer of 2008) City went from a 9th place finish the previous season to a.... 10th place finish that season. After further huge transfers (not even including astronomical wages to lure players from Champions League clubs) they finished 5th. After yet more transfers, they last season finished 3rd. Liverpool however were barely above the relegation zone and on the brink of bankruptcy following a 7th place finish- albeit with the remnants of a better-than-performing Benitez squad- only a year ago. Following a huge turnaround from Kenny, and a net spend of £40/50 million (in this instance it barely matters) over less than 1 year, Liverpool are... wait for it... not top of the league! Does this give some of you knee-jerkers some perspective? None of this 'i support my team but some of our signings clearly aren't working' rubbish is acceptable to me, because quite frankly it's a bit pathetic when you whinge and cry because Andy Carroll hasn't scored 20 goals already (despite being key in away wins at tough venues such as West Brom, Everton and Arsenal). Football is a drug. As such you can be the crackhead who begs for his next hit and lives in filth and self pity in the mean time, or you can enjoy the buzz on a weekend, let off some steam, and realize that there's gonna be some quality nights ahead. Given the millions of pounds, extremely fine margins, and huge demands from all fronts in football these days, how long do some of you actually think building a title-winning team (along with a financially successful club with a new stadium) takes? Get. A. ****ing. Grip. Apologies to some as there's some great contributors on this forum, but i've hardly been on here lately as it's all so sad, and maybe this is a last punt to see whether it's worth it. I'm not after attention or people to tell me to stay (not that i think i'd have any sway anyway), it's just that it all seems so desperate at the moment, and honestly i'm enjoying watching us again, which is a huge thing given events in the last year or two. Anybody with me?
This is a good site to compare net spends of the different clubs. http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/manchester-city-transfers.html If you look at the sums chelsea, and city have thrown at there teams in the last 8 years its no wonder that we have fallen behind. Saying that with winning the CL in 2005 we should have done better in the transfer market and been able to keep or replace our best players without having to spend to much. Man united have been getting the best players for years without having to spend huge amounts because the best players want to play for the best teams. Unfortunately for us since we've dropped out of the top 4 this does mean we have to spend alot more money to attract the world class players.
Heh, crackheads in filth and self-pity. You beauty. I don't really care that City have all that money but I respect their project because Mark Hughes and Mancini both knew you build a team, not a list of superstars. They've identified players they want then let the money talk to make sure they get those players. Lescott, Bellamy and Barry were hardly world class names but they were the players the managers identified as the required pieces of their jigsaw. For all that Utd had the money you have to give it to the auld alky that he builds teams. Contrast that to the Real Galaticos going out of the CL 2nd round for six seasons in a row. I'd have gone to the Championship with Kenny rather than suffer permanent mid-table mediocrity with Hodgson. He's building something big and big construction projects do not go up overnight. But the foundations are there to see already. If we don't make top 4 this year I can wait.
Real kept going out of the champions league because the managers they didn't have weren't good enough or they didn't get enough time. It was actually very little to do with the quality of the players. And Real not getting past the last 16 is no worse than Man City finishing behind Tottenham after spending all that money.
Absolutely my sentiments mate. How can people not be enjoying this season? Hodgson was systematically destroying everything i love about this club and football in general. Since then we have not only gained financial security, but strong transfer backing. We have owners with a top track record as sports owners who have already taken major steps to start fulfilling our revenue potential. We have a club legend in charge who is bringing back some great standards and ways of doing things, combined with more modern-thinking staff such as Commoli and a great sports science team. We have young academy players pushing for first team places. We have a player in Suarez who is everything we wanted Michael Owen and Fernando Torres to be (he has that mean streak with sublime talent and loyalty that makes him so great, i'd compare him to Fowler). The whole club is being remodeled from top to bottom, is it any surprise we've dropped a few points?
Errr....Aren't we forgetting that City made do with the likes of Bellamy, Barry etc because no big name players would even consider joining them (kaka). Now, sudddenly, it was Aguero et al.'s dream to join the club that has won one trophy in 37 years...
1.Fans are not annoyed because we arnt competin with City, that is to be expected with the money they have 2. Fans arnt annoyed with the owners,because so far they seem to be doing a good job,long may it continue Some fans are however frustrated/annoyed with our start to the season , me included, because Arsenal and Spurs, finished 1 and 2 places above us last season, we have had a £40m NET transfer budget this season.Arsenal have a transfer SURPLUS,after selling ther best 2 players.Spurs have a net transfer SURPLUS too. Considering we have had a MASSIVE advantage over these 2 clubs this summer in the transfer market. It really, really ,really by the week is looking like we have largely wasted that budget.We have MASSIVELY overspent on overpriced British talent, we should have been buying much higher quality foreign players for less.We didnt, Kenny was obsessed with British.He wasnt obsessed by quality and youth.Why did we buy the older inferior Downing instead of the younger superior Cazorla or Mata. People are frustrated we arnt above Spurs and Arsenal in the table,after the transfer budget we had.And people are also VERY worried that our home record, is WORSE than it was at the same time last season under ROY!!!
I really don't get why everyone is so concerned and are moaning about the transfers we made this year. We have Andy Carroll, what is the best way he is going to score goals... from crosses. What have we needed for years... A left winger. What did we buy? A left winger who was very consistent for 2 years and has a great delivery. It's just a shame Downing & Carroll haven't linked up but they have only been playing together for 10 games, give it time! We also have the captain of the Under 21's who seems to be improving game by game and is surely seen as the long term successor to Gerrard. We got someone who is as close to Alonso as we could get for £10mil in Adam. Ok he's not as good but he is a calm head and him and Lucas help us keep possession - something you need to be a top team. Looking at the table what shocked me was we have the joint 2nd best defence in the league, 10 goals conceeded along with City. Only Newcastle have a better record of 8 goals. We are probably playing the best football we have done in years and had it been for a slice of luck here and there we'd have turned a couple of those draws into wins. People need to relax and realise we have good young players in Kelly, Enrique, Henderson, Lucas, Suarez, Carroll who in 2-3 years time will hopefully be great players. Rome wasn't built in a day and Kenny can't build a title wining team in a year.
Talk about tailoring the situation to depress yourself. We have more points than we did under Hodgson which is surely the main point? How do we know Mata and Cazorla would have joined us for a start? Were we in a position to gamble on them settling? Given that Malaga have taken less points from the same number of games as us then just how good is he? The point of this article wasn't that people think we should be as good as city right now, but if you accept that we were never going to be able to compete at this point in time then where is your logic? The next team we would be competing against is Utd. Utd in case you watched last season won the league, surely again in one season a bridge to far for us? The next team is Newcastle who have had a freakishly good start and who we are only 6 points behind. Had we had a bit more luck in one or two fixtures then we'd be right beside them in points, so surely you'd be happy then? So basically draws in games where better finishing or a bit more luck would have won it for us are the difference between you being happy and this complete despair you are in. Rational.
So Carroll and Henderson aren't youth? You've picked our one signing who was over 25 to make your point there. Cazorla is 27 in Dcember, older than all of our signings under Kenny bar Downing.
I think there'll always be "knee jerk" reactions after any dissappointing result and lets be honest we've had probably 50% of our games so far that can be classed as dissappointing when looked at just in the context of that performance...Sunderland, Stoke, Spurs, Norwich and Swansea. 3 of these games we could have and should have won and two (Tottenham and Swansea) we didn't really deserve anything from and so I can hardly say I'm surprised that there have been reactions to this. What you have to remember Skrtels Nips is that this forum is just a sounding board for peoples thoughts and opinions and as often happens in life people say things in haste that they probably wouldn't given a bit of time to reflect. Personally I try to avoid the match threads after a game because when we win there are always claims that we are "flying" and when we lose the "slating" begins. Take these things with a pinch of salt though I agree to a certain extent with what you are saying re. the relative net spends of both clubs and the fact that we shouldn't expect to be seeing LFC transformed overnight but I do feel as an avid Red and regular attendee of matches home and away (although less away this year due to work pressures) that I've been a little disgruntled with a few things so far this year. Certain team selections have been poor, Henderson walking straight into the team ahead of Kuyt, Spearing and Maxi for one, Skrtel played at right back, playing against Norwich with Bellamy left, Downing right and Kuyt up front and not switching it round when all 3 under performed (surely Downing left, Kuyt right and Bellamy up front was a more natutral formation to get the best out of all 3). Half time team talks seem to be sending the players out uninspired. My biggest bug bear at the moment still being the total lack of crowd involvement at our home games still...I honestly thought this would change with KK coming back. I still don't know who the hell buys tickets to watch a game just to sit in silence for 90 minutes or talking to your mates on your mobile for the whole game Things aren't perfect at Anfield and I never expected them to become so straight away. The Hodgson era was a farce and thankfully short lived although all those who blame him solely for our demise seriously miss the problems we've had at Anfield for twenty years now. This was never going to be solved overnight and I am in total agreement that we've taken the first steps forward both with the squad and hopefully at boardroom level too but this does not mean that we have no right to criticise bad performances or team selections and when we do so it doesn't mean we've necessarilly lost sight of the long term vision it is simply our opinions on the here and now. Simply put have Carroll, Downing and Henderson looked like good buys so far? Absolutely not. Did I expect them to be world beaters? No I already knew they weren't but should we expect more from them when wearing a Red shirt than they've shown so far? Damn right we should and I'll tell you why....it's got nothing to do with transfer fees it's simply about the fact that they are playing for the first team. If they have been brought in as future prospects then fine but why are they walking straight into the first team squad and being allowed to develop there? Shouldn't development be done on the training ground and in the reserves? Will they improve? Let's hope so. Ultimately all that counts is where we finish come the end of the season, we all understand that, but you can't really expect everyone to blindly "look at the bigger picture" without making any comment on what happens between August and May otherwise it'll be very quiet in here
No, we're comparing ourselves against other teams who are competing for a Cl spot now, there's no use rolling out the Hodgson card everytime we get a poor result. Somewhere along the line we have to accept that doing a bit better than Hodgson isn't a target, we need to improve or at least play at the level we played in the second half of last season. We spent £50m+ in the summer to improve that team, and bar Enrique none of the signings have been an improvement on last years team under Kenny. And how can Cazorla influence the whole team and make them play better? Next you'll be saying Suarez isn't that good because Chelsea have taken more points than us, or something. Plus if you look at Villareal and how far they've fallen from last season and most people acknowledge that most of the regression is down to the sale of Cazorla, who was key to them, almost as key as Suarez is to us. And what a laughable last paragraph, football has always been a game of small margins, but the fact we always miss out by these small details and margins, suggest there's a deeper problem, rather than simply being unfortunate. How many chances do we miss a game? I'd say about 7 or 8 each game at present, it isn't coincidence that we keep missing, its the fact we've got a whole team that don't have a history of scoring goals or the quality to score goals. Succesful teams need goals from across the park, none of the midfielders we've signed will give us 10 goals or more in a season, the only player that will get a decent scoring tally at present is Suarez, who can't win EVERY game on his own. That means in some games someone has to pick up the slack, no one has done that so far.
My argument was perfectly rational too and in fairness I didn't mention either City, Mata or Cazarola. I'm not talking myself into depression in any way. We have tremendous positives at the club: Owners who aren't rushing things so far and who haven't made any ridiculous false promises...the jury is still out but so far so good. Kennys appointment was a massive lift and can only be more positive than what we've had. He of all people understands and embraces what LFC means as anyone alive. We have a lot of promise in the youth ranks. We have a world class keeper, a selection of very good full backs and in Agger one of the prems most cultured centre backs, Lucas has blossomed and Adams done ok so far, Kuyt, Carra and Gerrard will run through brick walls for the shirt and in Suarez we have a guy who at times I'd pay my ticket money just to watch. However none of the above should mean I'm not gonna come on here and have a bit of a vent now and again when we play like we did against say Spurs or Swansea (in my defence it doesn't happen often). I was one who was quite happy with our Stoke and Man U performances and even though we weren't on fire against Norwich I walked away from that game shaking my head about how we didn't get 3 points. We all have frustrations when the result isn't what we hope for and often comments go OTT immediately after a game, but it doesn't mean we are wrong to come on and criticise because I do find most of us adequately quantify our comments and temper our criticism...but when criticism of the players or manager is warranted then on a football forum somebody is bound to air that opinion surely. You're right to say we have been unlucky this season....we really have. Are things ten times better at the club than last year? Yes IMO they are and I'm grateful for that. We ARE moving in the right direction. Do I still reserve the right to come on here and discuss performances both good and bad and feel able to criticise the bad as well as praise the good....yes I do As a great man once said...No one should ever be immune from criticism else they soon lose the drive to be the very very best.
I'm with the OP. I still say if the players on the pitch do worse than they should (which is not the same as being top) i can be critical. but the op is right we can't expect to dowhat nobody has in the past. for me i think right now some players are doing very well and we'd want more effort out of those guys but all in all i'm still looking at 5th
Think the OP is spot-on. We have issues attracting players for two reasons: 1) we haven't got CL football 2) we haven't got a limitless pot of money to play with However, we still have our name and our (cue the moans from jealous fans) HISTORY and reputation. These are best exploited with British-based players. It makes sense as they are closest to us in their psychological make-up. Can you get a Frenchman or a Greek or a Russian excited about playing for Liverpool? Or is motivation easier to get with Englishmen, Welsh and Scots? That alone will shave money off the wages, because the player WANTS to play for us. Added into the mix the age of the players we're going for because in the business (yawn!) of football, we have to ensure that what we buy can be sold again otherwise it'll be a writeoff (who honestly buys a car for £20k and expects to give it away for nothing a few years later - you want resale value). OK, the car analogy is a bit off, but you get the drift - you make an investment, you want something back. With the players we've gone in for, we're looking at potential in Henderson and Carroll, albeit at a high outlay, but on much reduced wages over 5 years, such that the knee-jerkers don't imagine just how much more we'd have had to pay out for their 'dream signings' in total, and with practically no resale at the end of it. Our performances are much improved on those under Roy Hodgson, Kenny is setting the team up to try to win games - just look at how often the players are fashioning changes, and I'd say we only had two poor performances this season. We all know which ones they were too, that's just how much they stand out from the rest. Anyone looking at games like Norwich or Man United and complaining about our on-field performances is living elsewhere, because in the real world we had good games, just didn't get the rub of the green. That kind of thing evens out - somewhere somewhen else we'll be under the cosh, and a shot hitting the woodwork will go in, not wide and we'll get the luck. God knows, we've hit the woodwork enough times to consider shares in Dulux. Things will get better, I have confidence in that. Carroll will sort out his fitness issues, Henderson will get over his occasional stage fright, Adam will be banned from late-night fridge raids, and Downing will put in a few crosses with accuracy... After all, Suarez and Enrique need little more bedding in time...
