We just have to put up with the fact that 5 other clubs have more resources but still aim as high as we can. One of the things I like about AVB is that he is always positive about what we can achieve. Partly by design and partly by luck we've got a squad which has five or six players that would challenge for a place in the starting XI of any of the top four plus five or six others (mostly young) on the fringes of that with some solid squad players in addition. Given our budget this is more than we should expect. If there is any appetite from ENIC to really go for it I think now is the time to splash out £50 -£100m in getting three players who could make a real difference. If we had three like Mouthinho, Hulk and Damiao, and two or three of Smith, Townsend, Carroll, Ceballos, Rose and Pritchard turn out well we've got a chance of really challenging for trophies.
Think that 5th will be the best we can possibly hope for next season, no matter what strengthening we do, because: Chelsea & Man City have the financial resource to spend big, and even if all the signings don't gel they have strong enough squads currently to outlast us over the course of a season (even if in head2heads we may pick up points now & again) Man United, even without Fergie, have a very strong squad already, who will only get stronger even without the 2 or 3 signings they will make in the close season L'Arse are going to spend BIG this summer, they can't afford not too, having squeaked past us by a point this year. They KNOW that they need CL football every season. Liverpool, owners with more money than sense but they are willing to spend! must be nice. Yes it all comes down to money, and the ability to spend it wisely. But ALL the teams around and above us have more money than us (except Everton) and are willing to spend it. We have less money, and a seeming inability to spend it, or at least spend it wisely.
Actually, since Bentley, we've spent pretty much all the money we have, and pretty wisely. No obvious massive wastes of money as far as I can recall.
For me, it was the one thing that Fergie always seemed to excel at. Player choice & team selection. As we saw so many times, a particular Utd team may not look much on paper, but somehow Ferguson just knew which pieces fitted where. Therefore making the whole far stronger than the individual parts appeared to be. I suppose, going back to what I said earlier, he always had a sense of which pieces of the jigsaw were missing, and where to find the correct ones.
Really? Remind me what wise money we spent on replacing the abilities, guile and finesse of Modric? Or the goals & talent of VDV? And the NEW STRIKER that we've been crying out for since Berba left? How exactly have we spent money on that? Wisely? Yes, we may not have wasted massive amounts of money, but we haven't spent it wisely IMHO
VDV is the proof that you can buy quality players without spending a fortune. On the other hand you can spend 15 million on Bentley, or 50 million on Carrol. AVB has backed the idea of a Tech Director suggesting he does not have full confidence in his own ability to 'pick a player' or maybe he wants these decisions moved away from Levy.
I agree but its also true to say that lesser teams play with fear when they are up against Man U and to a lesser extent, City, Chelsea and Arsenal. You can almost see players thinking 'I'm about to score against Utd' before adrenaline gets the better of them and they squander the chance. We are not in that position as yet: if we had left Cisse unmarked on the penalty spot as Arsenal did on Sunday, the ball would have soon nestling in the back of our net rather than in Row Z. Its just another reason why catching the current top 4 is so hard.
Very harsh as usual OODB, we bought VDV & Modric in the first place. Vertonghen, Kaboul, Sandro, Bale, Dembele, and the current squad for the most part which is on parity with Arsenal & Chelsea. How much are you going to spend for 1 point?
If we get players for less than they are worth then we've spent wisely. Looking at our accounts we've nothing much squirreled away so it is fair to say we've spent what we have. As for 'New Striker' we could probably have got Remy for what we paid for Vertonghen. Anyone think that would have been a better signing?
Really, the squad is on a par with Chelsea? who finished two places above us and won the Europa league? No, sorry its not. Maybe L'Arse, maybe. No. It wouldn't have been a better signing, but Remy instead of Dempsey would have (naughtiness off the pitch notwithstanding...)
I was attempting not to use the R word, and its not gone to court 'yet' so we don't know the level of his involvement, let alone whether its proven or not...
So by your reckoning last season we were way better than Chelsea because we finished two places above them. No sorry these margins are too small for your kind of definitive statements. What are you going to do if Spurs do make a big breakthrough in the next couple of years OODB. It would destroy your image.
What image???? And yes we finished two places above them, but didn't win a trophy (but they did) so they were still better than us last season. And after winning that trophy, they went out and got two outstanding midfielders and two forwards so that the following season they finished above us and got a trophy?
In a way, yes. If you get a player for less than his market value, you have done well. However, you have only truly bought wisely if that player also fits into your team. If he is being bought purely because he was "cheap" and then being either played out of position, or just does not fit into the structure as a whole, then he's no really a bargain.
Winning a trophy does not imply your are a better team or are you suggesting that Wigan are better than us. Knowing you you will probably say that they are. WHAT IMAGE are you ****ing serious?
Thank you Spurf To be honest, Spurs improved on what I expected at the beginning of the season, where I thought that 6th or 7th would've been about right. But we did this not through the team, but the efforts of one player. Without Bale's heroics, we'd have been about where I thought. Honestly, it won't happen again next season. We need the team to do MUCH, MUCH better. And the quality of the team just isn't there to do that at the moment. We need at least five new first team players to stand a chance of top four, as well as a squad that mostly remains fully fit throughout the season. And we need to bang out serious bucks to do it. And this isn't going to happen, 2 or perhaps 3 at the most and none of them will be the next level, more likely a couple at £10-12 million, and one at £8-10 million, and it'll be the same story all over again.
