Maybe it's because of the high expectation levels after he spent a lot of money (in relative terms) on players such as RvW back in the Summer!
But it wasn't really a lot of money (in relative terms) was it? Cardiff spent more on a striker than we did, Hull have spent more on their strike force than we have, everyone spends a lot of money in the Premiership - and some even spend the entire value of our first team on a single player. All the money we spent did was keep us up with the Joneses, not push us up to a different level where we would be happily enjoying mid-table obscurity and not having to look over our shoulder like the short-sighted ones amongst us seem to believe it would.
Tony this may well be case but as fans you know darn well that when your club spends a lot of money on players the expectation levels will always rise! That is the nature of the beast! In our case we went in the complete opposite direction and spent next to nothing and happily we have over achieved so far!
I was kind of with you JWM, but you are talking about different leagues here, If ITFC adopted the same approach in the prem you wouldn't last long. Luckily for us we had Lambert who was a great man manager and got the best out of people. We do not seem to blessed with that these days............ Hope you are well mate.
We are going over old ground here KEMP but I honestly don't think that PL would have pulled off the same trick in year 2 and that was fundamental in his exit strategy. CH has done O.K. albeit with bigger budgets, I agree that he does not appear to be as strong though in the man management department.
I'm fine mate and I hope you are too. Yes unfortunately we are in different leagues but surely the priniciple is the same? If you spend a bit of money on new players then your expectation levels rise as a result. And just to clarify that I have no opinion either way on Hughton as a manager because I dont know enough about him or his adoped style of play but I read enough of your posts ion him and I get the overall impression that the majority of you aren't impressed with him!
CH had a smaller budget in his first year than Lambert in our first year in the Prem . Obviously not the case this season, but I always think that's interesting.
Doesn't this prove the case that Lambert spent that money far more wisely than Hughton could? Lambert had to spend in the first year back in the Prem to ensure that you could compete! He did a great job and you over achieved with your league position. After Hughton's first year in the job he was given a lot more money but unfortunately this year you have struggled and can anyone honestly tell me that RvW is really worth the amount you paid for him?
these were raised for a lot of fans after bowkett's statement about aiming for the top ten and i think we have spent about 2 weeks in the bottom 3, once when it was alphabetical to fulham! what counts is if we are in the bottom 3 at the start of May though.
Yes you are obviously right about it being important to finish outside the bottom 3 come May BUT a lot of your fans were expecting far better than just scrapping survival!
No. It tells us that in his first season Lambert spent well with the money he was given and that in Hughton's first season he spent well with the money he was given. My point was that you're comparing apples and pears. Both fruit, sure, but very difficult to draw any robust conclusions. his has nothing to do with RvW, so I'm not sure how that relates. No, RvW has not been worth the amount we paid for him this season. But then he's on a four year contract, and from what I've seen I still believe he has the potential to be worth the amount we've paid for him, all being well and with better injury luck. I doubt he'll ever be ranked in the "great value buys" with the likes of Michu or even our own Holty, but equally he is definitely not as bad a purchase as say Shevchenko (who was undeniably a class player, but a poor signing).
The trouble with that assessment is that it doesn't take account of the existing value of the squad. If you're squad is worth £1m and your net spend on transfers is £10m, you're, purely financially, no better off than a squad whose vaule is £10m and net spend is £1m, despite spending ten times as much that year...
And surely that figure is skewed by the fact we didn't sell anyone (ok we got perhaps a couple of million for Holty). I imagine Spurs are probably somewhere near the bottom of the net spend league, despite the fact they shelled out £100m+ on players to strengthen their squad.
Indeed they are - top for spending, but one from the bottom when it comes to net spend. My point was really that we spent like never before, and the board's expectations reflect that.
So did everyone though mate, the Sky money went bonkers last year and everyone was spending like never before