There was a post by
@Leo Billy showing the team that lined up in 2020 vs the team now. The dross we had - Lazaro, Rose, Shelvey, Bentaleb, Ritchie - was incredible. Four years on, whilst it's alarming we still have some crap like Ritchie getting minutes, we are progressing.
Why that's relevant is because the team today will be unrecognisable from the team in another 3 or 4 years. There'll be no Burn, Pope, Longstaff, Murphy, Almiron, etc. And they'll all be upgraded.
I'm expecting Summer to be a lot better. We'll bin off a few, sell one or two but it'll be about 5 in the door at least. We've kept our powder dry and now have SELA, Adidas, UCL and more revenues on the books with potentially bigger allowances for clubs finishing lower down the table. As a minimum, our commercial revenue should go from about £260m to about £350m+, possibly nearer £400m. 70% losses means the gap between our wages/expenditure will leave about £100m+ available - with amortisation allowing us to get some big names on decent salaries whilst being clean.
Might be wrong, might be Howe over-rates some of our dross, might be he's too absorbed in "team spirit" and "huge personalities" like Burn. But at some point a higher calibre of player has to turn up - I have my doubts as to whether Howe will be here to see it.