Rival watch

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And that's what Chelsea are currently doing, albeit at a higher level as they're hoovering up players a Top 6 club could use to have a crack at establishing themselves in the Top 4 for a few seasons, so while their form is ****e they're also hoarding resources for a couple of seasons minimum

This, and just a point about hoovering up. Take the example of Citeh buying Kalvin Phillips. They take one of Leeds best players to make a squad player for them. How many games will he start? Yet this is always fine with the pundits, it's always about 'he wanted to test himself at the highest level'. Well given their other players how many times is he going to test himself at the highest level, and also staying at Leeds would be more of a test if he really wanted to test himself. Similar argument for people saying Kane needs to leave to win things. All this does is concentrate the best players at fewer clubs. Is that good for the game? And of course the pundits say what brilliant managers Pep and the like are.
 
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This, and just a point about hoovering up. Take the example of Citeh buying Kalvin Phillips. They take one of Leeds best players to make a squad player for them. How many games will he start? Yet this is always fine with the pundits, it's always about 'he wanted to test himself at the highest level'. Well given their other players how many times is he going to test himself at the highest level, and also staying at Leeds would be more of a test if he really wanted to test himself. Similar argument for people saying Kane needs to leave to win things. All this does is concentrate the best players at fewer clubs. Is that good for the game? And of course the pundits say what brilliant managers Pep and the like are.

True but ultimately the responsibility lies with the players. No one forced Phillips to flush his career down the toilet for the sake of a few extra million quid.

Like the idiots currently joining Chelsea, have none of them looked at the average contact length:playing time ratio at the club to know that there are multiple players who have been there in excess of 4 or even 5 years who are yet to kick a ball beyond pre season friendlies?
 
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True but ultimately the responsibility lies with the players. No one forced Phillips to flush his career down the toilet for the sake of a few extra million quid.

Like the idiots currently joining Chelsea, have none of them looked at the average contact length:playing time ratio at the club to know that there are multiple players who have been there in excess of 4 or even 5 years who are yet to kick a ball beyond pre season friendlies?

Absolutely no argument with you there. Not just the players though, but their agents. The agents are presumably advising these players also that it's a "good move" (when presumably they get a cut of the transfer fee or something).
 
This, and just a point about hoovering up. Take the example of Citeh buying Kalvin Phillips. They take one of Leeds best players to make a squad player for them. How many games will he start? Yet this is always fine with the pundits, it's always about 'he wanted to test himself at the highest level'. Well given their other players how many times is he going to test himself at the highest level, and also staying at Leeds would be more of a test if he really wanted to test himself. Similar argument for people saying Kane needs to leave to win things. All this does is concentrate the best players at fewer clubs. Is that good for the game? And of course the pundits say what brilliant managers Pep and the like are.
The thing about the whole "Testing themselves at the highest level" lie is that it's been established for the best part of twenty years now, starting with Scott Parker and Louis Saha joining Chelsea and Man Utd respectively to sit on their benches for a few years - and was so established that nobody even paid attention to The Sheikh Mansour Team effectively ending the careers of Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell at the highest level, they just clapped their hands and went along with it
 
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The thing about the whole "Testing themselves at the highest level" lie is that it's been established for the best part of twenty years now, starting with Scott Parker and Louis Saha joining Chelsea and Man Utd respectively to sit on their benches for a few years - and was so established that nobody even paid attention to The Sheikh Mansour Team effectively ending the careers of Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell at the highest level, they just clapped their hands and went along with it

I suppose it just answered the same question but in a different way. They went to test themselves at the highest level, and were found wanting.
 
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In the politest way I says this

Not the first time in history that a Man Utd fan has responded towards valid criticism of their club by being obnoxiously over-defensive
The very thought of a club throwing millions at a player who is not good enough to play for them because they fear he might play for someone else is more than laughable and deserves derision.
 
The very thought of a club throwing millions at a player who is not good enough to play for them because they fear he might play for someone else is more than laughable and deserves derision.
The very thought that various clubs have track records of doing exactly that deserves derision

And for some reason, a Man Utd fan really doesn't like this practice being derided...