I assume "some" will be showing us how since the takeover of THFC, ENIC have effectively spent zero of their own money since then on the club ...
They are not wealthy enough to be able to compete even if they did. And as things currently stand it wouldn't make any difference at all.
Summed up perfectly and it all comes back to the decision making of Levy, Cullen etc, it`s bad decision after bad decision from our (not so) illustrious leader, all the data, bar charts, graphs, delusion etc in the world is irrelevant when you have Levy at the wheel.
Yes...it is easy to spot mistakes that Levy has made. Now look at the ten clubs who were five either side of us in the PL when Levy took over and tell me which has outperformed us.
Love this. Ange addressing the critics who question his credentials and assume he is out of his depth, after having been a manager for longer than most said critics have been alive. Assuming he is clueless just stupid. Give this guy a run with a fit squad with decent like for like cover in all positions, and let him cook.
I suggest that you imagine going into a consultation with business advisers, about an underperforming business. How many years of ownership/control history and performance do you think will interest them? 25....? 20.....? 15.....? 10...? 5.....? ...or 3? It'll start at 3. It will likely extend to 5, maybe 10, at a push. What happened beyond that is irrelevant. 25 years ago, Woolworths were on the high street...and Blockbuster Video. My great grandfather was a blacksmith, until cars/trains replaced horses as the primary form of transport. What is, in business terms, ancient history is an irrelevance. We're on a steady decline. The appointments to arrest that slide were HUGE PUNTS. No sensible CEO appoints Postecoglou and .Munn, nor Mourinho, Nuno or Conte, given our financial structure. That's the last 6 years taken care of and in sporting performance, it's consistently poor with no sign of improving.
Time to consider the real world. In the PL era 32 seasons The following have won the league Man U. 13 times Man City 8 Chelsea 5 Arsenal 3 Liverpool 1 just 1 Blackburn 1 Leicester 1 In the entire history of the division Spurs have won the league 2 times. That puts us on a par with Preston, Derby, Burnley, Portsmouth. 15th in the pecking order of winners FIFTEENTH. Above us are Man U. Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Chelsea, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves, Leeds, Huddersfield, Blackburn. Up until the PL Spurs were the leading FA Cup winners with 8. Since the PL we have not won it. FA CUP in PL era. Arsenal 9 Chelsea 7 Man U. 6 Man C. 3 Liverpool 3 4 other have won once Everton, Portsmouth, Wigan, Leicester. As you can see the top 5 dominate. The only way to compete is revenue and ENIC have been incredibly successful in increasing our revenue and that seems to be the only way to compete. We are closer to the top of the league then we have ever been. So to talk of failure as a business is just utter nonsense. If we continue on the current path we should start to win stuff in the next 5 years IMO, but that could be stymied by Everton as their revenue increases or by continuing to stop start by changing managers. It's called perspective.
But we are not in a steady decline. We are having one poor season. That's arguably down to injuries. Even so we've got to a cup quarter final and a semi-final. Football decisions are not the issue in any case. Revenue is. A club outside the top five richest wins a trophy only when everything works well. The chance of winning a trophy doesn't alter much if you are 6th or 12th. Your mythical consultant is going to come in and conclude that we should be doing everything possible to increase revenue. How is a different owner going to help that unless by cheating like Man City and Chelsea have done? If it was so easy then Villa, Newcastle, Everton or Sunderland would already have done it.
As you know full well, we aren't having one poor season. We're having our worst season for decades. We're not qualifying for Europe again (barring a miracle),having failed in 2022-3. Two of the last three years, no European football at all. Only qualified for the CL once in 7 years. It's clear demonstrable proof of our declining performance...should you care to acknowledge it. Our performance, barring a 10 game 'new manager bounce' last season, is poor and getting worse. We are the 8th richest club in Europe, yet we're trailing Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle, Fulham, Palace...the list goes on. These clubs aren't looking for excuses, they're finding solutions. Scratching to make everything perform to the maximum benefit. Until we seek to do the same, our problems aren't financial, they're cultural... Our leadership are rooted in being complacent and unaccountable. We're stale and you can try to run from it, try to hide from it, but until we grasp that uncomfortable truth... We're ****ED.
Just do some statistics and calculate how often the 6th richest club finishes bottom half. It happens. It doesn't prove anyone is at fault. Life is uncertain. The biggest mistake anyone can make is to change strategy because of random events. Levy has already sacked 2 good managers too soon and tried to short cut the financial growth by appointing 'proven winners'. Rather unsurprisingly it turns out proven winners can't win unless they are at the wealthiest clubs. We need calmness not panic.
Interesting thread. Players in support of the manager. What makes some of us fans think we know better than the actual players?
They may be completely sincere, but they're unlikely to publicly criticise the manager. He seems like a fairly likeable bloke too, which makes it even less likely. I'm sure the players want it to work. That doesn't mean that it will.
No, they'd be on a brain surgery discussion forum. They'd almost certainly be wrong but that's kind of the point in having a forum. Do the fans know as much about the game as any of the managers in the league? Probably not. Can they still point out things that they think the coaches are getting wrong? Of course. If they do so in advance and it turns out that they were right, then what does that mean? Knowledgeable people aren't infallible, make mistakes and sometimes get too close to a problem.
