Even off the field it gets silly. We finished our £80mill state of the art training complex and City announced they were building a £140mill one. Out doing Chelsea, City and United in the long term is impossible, we can only hope to keep doing well, as we currently are, by competing with Liverpool and Arsenal.
what teams are you referring to, PNP? - as I was talking about last season's top 4. yep, you're right about the money at those clubs. so how can we expect it? Arsenal did sell, but now they are investing and keeping their best players. but yes, I agree with you. There is very little chance, which is why i don't understand the expectations of the club.
I could well be wrong, but I thought Baldini was mainly responsible for the summer signings. Ahh well. I've been impressed overall with Paulinho, Eriksen and Chiriches, so it's not all bad!
Sounds like you are describing Gomes, mate!!! Seriously, Lloris is clearly a decent keeper but his decision making is very questionable at times and he has too many rushes of blood to the head for my liking: he could easily have cost us 2 goals yesterday and got himself sent off into the bargain, steaming out into areas of the box where there is little or no danger otherwise. And it's not as if it is a one-off - there are notable examples through the season. Conversely he also stays on his line when crosses come over that should be claimed - ironically, the fault that was levelled at Brad last year as I recall...... Verts has struggled to match his level of performance last season and a few untimely injuries hasn't helped. He and Daws just about coped yesterday, without ever looking assured. Hopefully, he will get a run of games together and recover his form - but if he doesn't, look on the bright side, he won't necessarily be a target for a 'bigger' club!
Man Utd (top 3 earner in football), City, Chelsea (both virtually peerless in terms of cash) and Arsenal, who've sold a fairly large number of their best players, often to direct opponents. City took a load of them, Utd took van Persie and they also sold the likes of Fabregas and Song to Barca. They haven't been keeping their top performers. I think that our expectations are to finish in the top 6. We're trying to push for a top 4 place, but I don't think it's an expectation. Redknapp wasn't sacked for his on-field performance entirely, in my opinion.
My worry is that Paulinho will be a target,easily our best buy he looks class,and is getting better & better
haha i could easily have been, Relayer Lloris' mistakes can be frustrating and I do agree with you, but I cast my mind back to the times where he's swept up for us in horrible 1v1 situations, and the times where he's got a hand to a ball that should have gone in the back of the net. Swings and roundabouts.
Verts hasn't looked that good this season but look who he plays with. Rose has been poor and looks short of confidence , Walker blunders every couple of games, Naughton when playing scares the pants off everyone. Dawson is OK against a typical big striker but give him anybody with fast movement he looks second class.
yeah, fair one with arsenal in the past, but that's not the case now. It's now even harder for us, if anything. so what was AVB sacked for? best points total we've ever got in a premier league campaign, and mathematically was still doing pretty well in the premier league this season. (obviously there was 2 or 3 very bad results). 6 wins out of 6 games in the europa, too. fair enough if redknapp's sacking was off the field antics, but at what point are we going to just stick with someone? There's going to be pros and cons with every manager.
quicker players are targeting dawson, too. They know he's extremely vulnerable and they can take advantage.
Arsenal sold their best player to Man Utd 18 months ago. Villas-Boas had us playing exceptionally negative football and fell out with various expensive players. He also seems to have had problems with the coaching staff. Lost the fans, the players, his staff, the media and several games by massive margins. We may have won every Europa League game so far, but the opposition was appalling. Fair play to him for giving it a go, though. I agree. Bringing in someone who's willing to work with Baldini and still bring through any bright youngsters is our best bet, in my opinion. The problem is that virtually every side other than the big money clubs will be looking to adopt the same model, if they've got any sense. Some patience would be good, but I think that we need to see signs of progress for that to happen.
Fair point! Yesterday again proved that. Rose's unnecessary intervention led to the breakaway for their goal and he switched off a couple of times in the 2nd half, letting his forward drift in behind, which nearly cost us a 2nd. Trouble is, we are through the window and don't have an established LB to call on.
Like I said, the past. That's changed now and they've spent 42m on one player and haven't sold one of their stand out players. It's all good having the youngsters, but at the same time there needs to be a balance of experience and top quality. We need a top manager to attract those players, and like you say, some ****ing patience with one bloke coaching/managing the squad.
One season ago is the past? Who targeted any of their standout players? What moves did they have to resist? Don't get me wrong, Arsenal have a good squad of high quality players, but there's no Fabregas, Henry or van Persie in there now, is there? The last time that they had a star man and a bigger side with more money made a move for him they sold him. I agree. The problem is that we can't really attract the top end, as we can't afford to, and anyone that we bring through gets picked off by clubs who often have wage bills that are double ours, if not more. The same would probably apply to any top manager. If we were to go for De Boer from Ajax in the summer and he did well for 3 or 4 years, then he'd be a target, too.
If we're in the champions league, then when ENIC sell, they will get a bigger price but it won't surprise me if in five years time we're still saying '' Redknapp was the only manager to get us top four ''. In virtually every business you have to spend money to make money, it's about the final profit, and that's how I view Enic and Levy, they run us as a business, are aware to keep us at a certain level investment is needed, but it's a classic '' spend what you earn '' as our net spend is low, which you know by that graph you posted, and when Enic sell up, the company will have made a huge profit.
Being a revolutionary, I tend to use Liadl , they tend to be good value and anti establishment . I would imagine it would be where Fidel Castro would shop if he lived in the UK.
No one tried to buy any of their best players in the summer. Arsenal are still vulnerable to that and if they crash our of the CL in the second round again and don't win a trophy then they'll still be at risk of their best players getting poached. United, Chelsea and City have always been able to pay their players more than they'd get anywhere else. Rooney's on £250k a week and isn't even one of the best 5 players in the league!
