It's not what he does, it's who he is. It isn't going to change. This is one of the reasons that I think we need a director of football. Someone has to concentrate on the overall balance of the squad and future transfers. Levy has too much on his plate.
Transfer markets will always throw up different obstacles but the general premise is still to buy and sell efficiently. Whether our stature, rivals' stature, finances are different etc, there's still a host of players we can target and sign and the amount we sign is also down to us. Under Jol's tenure four players could be signed £15m, four players may now likely cost around £70m-£80m, we can afford that, even more so if we're shipping out deadwood. As Brian mentioned, we need about 8 signings this summer but realistically 5-6 would be a solid start, for me it's imperative we bring in a LB, RB, CB and ST, with then either another CB or a DM the other, though I'd happily see Oli Skipp given a prolonged chance at DM to see if he can take the position. This was where I meant an overhaul not just being about buying and selling, I'd have zero issues with Skipp and Tanganga becoming fully fledged first team members. I do agree that the margin of error is much finer now but then we have Jose Mourinho to get that right as that's partly what he's been employed to do alongside Levy and co. With regards to the system and Poch's first season, I think there are two huge factors that worked in Poch's favour back then: 1 - He had a pre-season with his new team, he was able to train with them for circa 5-6 weeks without interruption coupled with being able to test it out in friendlies so that on matchday one players had been well prepared in doing what Poch wanted. 2 - He never really suffered with injuries to too many key players in that campaign, this allowed virtually no disruption to the rhythm or system: Kane played 31 league games. Eriksen played in all 38. Chadli 35. Lamela managed 33!!! Rose 28. Mason 31. Bentaleb 26. Dier 28. Dembele 26. Jan 32. Hugo 35. Walker was the only main first teamer who missed a large chunk through injury so it meant Naughton/ Dier played a portion of games at RB in his absence. Now if you compare that to what Jose's dealing with; our two best players are out injured, our £60m signing can't last for longer than 30 minutes otherwise he misses 3-4 weeks, our two experienced CBs are dreadful, Lloris has missed a large chunk and isn't the same keeper he was, Davies has missed a large chunk and can't get back to a good enough level, Lamela breaks down every five minutes, Lo Celso had a tough start adjusting, Dele and Lucas are incredibly inconsistent... To me it's no real surprise we're not seeing too much of a system or rhythm at the moment, it feels like every week there's a new problem and without our two best players I just think it's more or less impossible for Jose to get anything 'right'. He's not helped himself with certain selections but his range of choices are hardly too appealing either and it's why I hope he gets sufficient backing this summer.
The most pressing issue is that, if we do get a DoF in (with Luis Campos being the name bandied about the most, because we forgot to grab one of Lille's staff in November...) they actually need to be competent at their job, because not only did Comolli and Baldini think they were playing Football Manager with the club's money, both ignored their actual remit be it Comolli undermining Martin Jol because he wanted to work with Juande Ramos to the point of ignoring Jol's suggestions and signing who he wanted us to sign while Baldini was told we wanted to develop our younger players before he walzted off and spunked away tens of millions without thinking about it which made him look like a drunk at an auction
It underlines how the entire team is set up to accommodate Serge Aurier; a player who even at his best is nowhere near the standard we need. The defence isn't helped at all by having no real protection from the midfield. I would question why Winks, Alli and Lo Celso are clustered so close together when ideally one of them (probably Winks) should be sitting quite a bit deeper. Davies may be the more conservative FB but his average position was just as far forward as Aurier. In fact, the best delivery of the entire game (both teams) came from him - a superb cross that Alli headed wide early in the 2nd half. The issue seems to be that we just weren't finding him enough on that flank. Once again suggesting that we are now Sporting Serge FC.
If he signs 3 good players in needed positions early and Jose has promoted a couple I can live with a late haggle but if not I think I would back the manager in being pissed off. I aint tslking 3 £60m players as I think that there are some decent players that are an improvement on some of our current squad who would be available for less...we can not afford another summer of haggling and losing out on players...we should treat it like Jan 2009 and July 2009 where Redknapp signed the players he wanted early on...if there is a late haggle it should be for an unexpected bonus like VDV was back in 2010...obviously just my opinion but I backed the club and manager when we were being very careful financially but if we have the money then we need to spend it and if it means psying a little more this season then so be it. If we do not have the money then we need to be told as that is a different issue.
There's certainly value out there, after all Lille accepted a £35m bid for Soumare on Deadline Day (only for him to reportedly pull the plug on the deal when he saw their training facilities in a Skype chat) but the important thing is to look for where that value is The Eredivisie has been a great place to search for value for us in the past, with Eriksen and Bergwijn the most obvious examples, but with Ajax now expecting big fees for their stars (with de Ligt and de Jong going for big fees last summer, while van de Beek likely will this) that reduces the field somewhat Similarly, the Primeira Liga was a place where a bargain could be found a few years ago, but this season both Sporting and Benfica have been fully aware that they can ask for big fees this season with the fees they've got for Jedson and Bruno Fernandes respectively and no doubt have similar ideas for others in their squads (notably Rafael Camacho for Sporting, Ruben Dias and Alex Grimaldo for Benfica) so looking at Porto is likely the smarter option Then there's the minefield that is Ligue 1, where one minute you can find value and the next you're being fleeced so a club doesn't have to worry about FFP for a year or two - case in point, Boubakary Soumare appears to be a player where a deal can be struck (although probably not in our case, as we've likely pissed off Lille by helping ourselves to their entire coaching team and are looking to add their sporting director too...) while on the other hand Eduardo Camavinga is going to move for an eye-watering fee
Perhaps Levy should have charity boxes around the ground to help him buy players. I thought we were earning lots of money being in the CL.If so,where is it?
We have a grand total of five years of CL money in our coffers In comparison, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have at least three times that each - and that's the reason they can be more flexible with wage demands than we can, and this is before adding the wallets of Uncle Roman or Sheikh Mansour to the equation
Have you ever seen that episode of Frasier where they go to a spa and have the membership benefits...only to discover that there's a level above them...and when they sign up to that level they find there's a level above that? That's what football is: moving into a new, exclusive band...only to find there's a band one step above you
Jose says he will not be having a summer clearout.Will use what he's got! Same ol'. Same ol'. If a club doesn't spend money,doesn't the tax man take it?
That's why we started the clearout in March ...is probably also the logic behind Verts signing a pre-contract with Ajax in a couple of weeks
