Nope, Jimmy was arguing that the wages we offer have increased recently which is true but everyone else as increased theirs too meaning we are no better off as a result. Its inflation based on the increased TV deal imo. Only people to blame for that lower wages level is ourselves though, we've shown we have the money with the crazy transfer fees we've been paying for the last few years.
But you have not only lost players to Premier league clubs, Henri Ryan for example. Unfortunately the club is not the draw it once was, one CL season out of 6/7 does not inspire a player to pledge his next 4 years to you. As sad as it is, all players want to play in the CL now and look for teams that have consistently qualified for it.
Henry Ryan was one of the examples I gave of us dragging our feet. We were linked with him well before anyone else and a good six-eight weeks before he actually moved anywhere. That one isn't a case of someone offering more, it's a case of us trying to cheap out rather than securing the man early and preventing anyone else coming in. I'm not saying CL isn't a issue, clearly it is. However, we were able to offer CL briefly and we've signed quality player (Suarez, Coutinho, Studge, etc) without CL football before too
That is what you (and all teams) need to do, find players that haven't quite made it but have shown signs of being good enough. Too many of the top teams go for top names and top wages. The down point is, once they make it they want to move to a top/glamorous team (Barca/Madrid). We need the "glamour" back in England, unfortunately with the poor European showings in the last few years his looks some way off.
I don't mind players using us as a stepping stone so long as it helps the clubs and they treat the club in the right way when they come to wanting to move on. Suarez made it clear on his arrival that he wanted to play for one of Barca or Real and Liverpool offered him a great platform to get what he wanted. Give me eleven Suarez's every day of the week
