The Champions League is exactly where we should be aiming. It's possible by re-investing the club profits back into the club!
The team/squad would obviously be better! Yes we sold our Club Captain to West Ham and replaced him with a player of potential... once that potential was realised he was sold, for a profit, which Mike Ashley will pocket. Most of it anyway.
Yes we bought five players in the last January window, because if we hadn't, we would have been relegated. (Obviously you failed to mention that the previous summer we released/sold 11 players) Jeez man, do you not follow these things as they're happening?
I'll spell it out for you as you're struggling with it and testing my patience...
Mike Ashley is using the club to claw back the money he originally invested. He is doing this by keeping the profits that the club produces. That can be from transfer dealings and from the fan base that just keep turning up and buying tickets, merchandise etc... He will never stand in the way of selling a player if he makes a good profit on it. Krul or Ben Arfa could be next.
If we qualify for the Europa League again this year, Pardew will not be given the funds to expand the squad to cope with all the extra fixtures. We will struggle in the league all over again and the cycle will continue.
I hope that's clear enough for you now.
And how much are those profits? Make sure you get all your fingers and thumbs out, but whatever you do please don't include "player amortization" as you're so staunchly against us selling people like Nolan and investing in players like Cabaye, something you appear to feel was little more than a lucky stroke. So once you've got a number, come back with a reply stating exactly how it is possible for us to have a better playing squad than the one we do. I suspect the adding and subtracting will make you understand that we're probably around 1 or 2 players short of operating at top capacity - the rest is then down to us to hope that the infinitely-greater resources at Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Spurs somehow fail to secure 4 of the top 6 places and that we, on our budget, with our limitations, can somehow usurp one of these.
So we should be a Champions League club? What about Everton, Villa, Southampton? Don't they have as much a claim as we do? So there's another three to throw in the mix, we're now competing with nine on our budget. We are situated in a low-employment, relatively poor area of the country, a long way from the bright lights of big cities. It is frankly astonishing that we are within touching distance of 5th place, it beggars belief that we regularly get to watch Sissoko, Ben Arfa, Tiote, Coloccini, Santon, Debuchy et al play football. The people in charge of this club may not spend more than they can, they may not tell you what you so desperately want to hear, but frankly speaking the fact we're 8th with no threat of relegation should tell you enough. Sadly, it doesn't.
And for the benefit of anyone else having taken your comments as read, do you want to reveal who the "eleven" players you mentioned are? All I can find are Demba Ba (January, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt), Leon Best, Fraser Forster, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith. Who else left? I'm confused by your maths - maybe you're using that same calculator that somehow feels we have the revenues and should spend to be a Champions League side.
"Testing my patience" - really appreciate that comment! Oh, I'm so sorry, sir, for testing your patience, please forgive me - you're right, we should absolutely be 3rd right now, shame on the owners for being so short sighted. It's like Huw Jenkins, that unspeakable menace down in Swansea - the fcker didn't let Swansea buy tonnes of players to cope with the Europa League and look at the pickle they're in. We should be more like Everton - but, wait, you have a problem with us loaning players in, so they're out.
Mike Ashley is taking back more of the loan he granted the club than I would like. I would like him to take back a smaller amount, but by the same token the sooner the money owed is paid off - as long as it doesn't seriously impact the playing squad - the sooner we can invest like Arsenal. In a very similar model to Arsenal, they had to keep expenditure low for a good few years to help pay off money owed on the new stadium. As per last Summer, the money was paid back and they were then able to invest £43m in one player. They have never been able to do this, but can do so now because they DON'T OWE ANYONE. They do not take from sheikh's, they do not steal from the Russian people, hence why we are trying to emulate their model. We CANNOT be like Arsenal, as we have neither the history, the geography, the stadium nor the representation. But we can run ourselves in the same way and - one day - be strong enough to fight for the odd trophy, to have the odd good run in the league. But "Ashley greed" is so far away from the reason for these transfers it's untrue. We're already trying to re-invest the Cabaye money, what the fck more do you want???
We might sell Krul for £20m. We might sell Ben Arfa the same. But we haven't, so it's just a negative opinion based on absolutely sweet fck all. And even if we did, then we'd reinvest the stacks of cash in two or three players to make us even stronger - or are we not allowed to say this kind of thing??
You talk about a lack of ambition, but we have beaten Man U at their place for the first time in 4 decades, we beat Spurs at theirs, Chelsea at home. The cup exit was poor, but take that up with the manager or the eleven who started - we already beat Cardiff at theirs, there was no reason to lose that game - but we're not Man City, thus have no Oil-given right to win every fcking game we play - it's bloody football, for chrissakes, not FIFA14 or Football Manager.
Climb out your ar$e you condascending tw@t.
