Newcastle have been through similar to what you guys are going through now in the footballing world. Your captain leaves, a few other players are rumoured to be leaving and then everyone jumps on the bandwagon and thinks your team is doomed to hell and on the verge of collapse. In reality, there are still plenty of quality players who are all playing just as well as they always have. We lost Nolan, who despite scoring lots of goals, wasn't actually a great centre midfielder (the weak link in our midfield actually), Barton gets transfer listed, Enrique leaves, and the suddenly all hell apparently breaks lose. We're a club in turmoil and we're almost certainly heading for relegation. Blah blah ****ing blah. In reality, many of the lose players have (or will be) replaced with players who are either almost as good or better, key players like Tiote are still here, and the rest of the squad are as motivated as ever to crack on with the new season. However, many people (and pundits) seem incapable of absorbing that. They just hear what the media tells them and off they pop. So yeah, people will keep whinging, but they'll sharp shut up when they realise that you still do have the quality to be fighting near the top of the table, with more quality signings on the radar.
We have a world class side waiting to emerge, but season upon season it's always been the case of 'needing a couple of more players'. Money is not an issue. Wenger has had a huge budget over the past few seasons. Fabregas + Nasri is £60m, FFS.
