There’s nothing delusional though because this club barely even tries to sign top players. Hence why we splurge on dross like Richarlison, Solanke, Gallagher etc.
Rightly or wrongly we’re part of the Prem big six, we won the Europa League just over a year ago, we have glitzy stadium and world class training facilities and we rank inside the top 10 richest clubs in world football. The idea we’re not an attractive proposition to top players is a myth, the issue is our club forgets who we are at times and seemingly so does our fans.
Sunderland are also not an example to follow. Whilst they went a step or two further, there’s been quite a few promoted sides over the years who take the league by surprise in their debut season only to then falter in their second.
Sir. while all that may be true, the actual reality is we were 17th twice in a row and haven't looked like a top six team since both Son and Kane left.
Rodgers
Eze
Semenyo
Guéhi
MGW
Mbeumo
..all top players who either chose to stay put or move to other clubs in the last few years when the club 'tried'.
If we'd have tried these moves before we lost Kane and Son, we might have succeeded. Who knows?!? I agree that we needed to buy bigger players more in earlier years when we were more attractive. That was the big opportunity, between when we lost the CL final and when we sold Kane, and then Son.
Prior to this chapter Paulinha first chose to go to Bayern instead of us when he was closer to his peak and came to us partly because it didn't work out there.
Just look at where the top players move in this window and keep saying to yourself that we are in the 'Prem big six'. If we don't give De Zerbi an actual team with balance there is only one way this goes.
What we actually need to do, as well as
trying to get the best players in their prime, is become the team that gets the likes of Rodgers, Eze, Semenyo and Guéhi
before they become the players that the bigger teams want. Eze was there for the taking for years and we waited until he became a big player before trying. Dumb. If we had bought from QPR back in the day, who knows what the situation would be now, of course he wouldn't have been the 'big' player then. Villa have succeeded in doing this partly because they have benefited from the stability and philosophy of a good manager.
This is exactly what we did with Kane, Bale, Son, etc.
We also bought good players with experience from the teams 'below' us. Dembele, Wanyama, Dempsey etc. all came from teams deemed to be 'below' us. That picture has changed slightly in the minds of some teams, hence the MGW situation.
De Zerbi coming in will hopefully make a difference, but we have to give him a run of years and back him to build a team.
On Sunderland, we need to follow any example that actually works. saying different is part of the delusion. Do you believe we'll do better than them next season just because it'll be their second season?
We may need to act as if we just came up from the championship ourselves and at least aim for the one good season you're eluding to in the hope that we can push on from there, if we don't all of the top tier players we're after.
We need to build a team and not rely solely on the individual brilliance of a few players.
If you wanna ignore Sunderland look at Brentford, Brighton etc. Even Fulham! They have focussed on building teams, rather than simply getting 'top' players and they have become consistent. They've even managed to finish above us even after selling their best players to
other 'big six' teams, not us. We have been stuck in the delusion of 'big' in between these two modes and not really doing the best work in either direction, hence getting good players past their prime and leaving the pick of the talented youngsters to the likes of Chelsea all whilst other teams we like to call 'lesser' build balanced squads and pass us.
