Realistically where is the club going? It's great to be back in the Premier League but let's be honest we are just making the numbers right now fighting to stay in the league and will be for the foreseeable future. To compete in the the top 6 we need backers simple as that. To be a top 10 club we need to be established and build on the squad each season. The club have a vision of getting us back into Europe but to do that we will need a very lucky season as Leicester did when everything just clicked. The club want to build a squad with players that grow within as we can't go out shelling top dollar for the big men. but, even that is a very hard thing to do We said once upon a time when we are out of the Championship we will stop teams like Norwich, West Ham lower level Prem Teams stealing our best player in which yes we possibly have but now even that has turned up a notch as it's Man City, Barcelona we can't stop. Let's be honest even though we are back in the big time if we ever get a player who over achieves he will move on because we still can't compete financially or give them what they need. We had Meslier,Phillips,Raphinha to work around building the club into something yet by the end of last season 2 had gone and possibly all 3 will be away by the start of next season. How can we build when we keep losing out best players? Some people may laugh here but I really enjoyed the Championship as we had something to play for winning plenty games and a buzz. yet the Premier League I get no buzz as I know we aren't winning anything and we most probably be fighting for 12th-17th position or be in a relegation battle every season. I'm not saying I want to be back in the Championship but we are at our level and it's going to be very dificult to improve on where we are unless we get some big backer. Big/Good Players don't want to sign for us even if we are in the Premier League because they want more ie fight for a Title/Europe or just simply just wanting to more financially better off. We can snag a upcoming player a improver but before you can build anything around them they are off to the bigger fish. I don't see anything for the future in our current position because we still can't financially compete on and off the pitch I don't see a build plan because it keeps getting blown down with ease. Where are we going? Are we at our level with our current owners? Are you happy/Satisfied to sit and play good teams in the bottom half of the Prem League because it's the Prem League?
With the current owners and manager..... We are going back to the Championship sooner or later, most probably sooner
In my mind I'm just hoping we stay in this league to obtain the finances to upgrade the stadium and infrastructure to make the future of the club safer until we can get owners with a bit more money. That's it really. It's not a slight on the current owner as Radz has been fantastic for the club but he just can't compete at this level. It's a waiting game in the meantime and if we go down then we may be back in financial trouble.
Monk gave us a slither of hope in the Championship and Bielsa gave us two fantastic seasons in it, the rest of the years it was abysmal so I wouldn't want to go back there. I always saw Radz as a stepping stone and in my opinion he has overstayed his welcome by at least one year. That first season in the PL, under Covid and no pressure from the fans playing in empty stadiums, we exceeded everyone's expectation and sadly I think it gave Radz false hope so he stayed on. There are no excuses from Radz this season, he should have sold up but then I am assuming the 49ers are ready too, I am sure I read somewhere Radz himself put an option in a contract for them to decide in 2024 The sacking of Bielsa and the appointment of Jesse all pointed towards a full takeover last summer, it is all a bit weird I said on the breakfast debate this morning I am not happy making the numbers up, we celebrate not getting relegated like winning a cup. My own personal problem is that I also felt more connected to Bielsa and loved what he was outside of football and how humble he was, how he gave up so much of his free time he got everyone talking about us for the right reasons. Yes he made me mad with his stubbornness but I loved him as a person, he was genuine, what you saw is what you got With Jesse I can't get that same connection, I see him as a clueless fake chancer, I do struggle to give him credit when it is due, I find it hard to understand that he has so many fans backing based on just two results in nearly 12 months
We’re the new Burnley, Southampton, Norwich, take your pick. Under current owners best we can hope for is survival each season but will eventually end in relegation. The vast majority of what we make is going into players and staffs pockets in salaries and daft bonuses so little cash left to upgrade either stadium or squad. I’m sure the Burnley fans are enjoying their season far more than we are
The problem with the club is lack of funds for the next step, so we have stood still and now in danger of relegation again. The club invested heavily in Bielsa and not just in financial terms. He rebuilt the club from bottom up. Due to lack of funds we threw Bielsa out almost 12 months ago and brought in Marsch. Marsch has failed to build upon what Bielsa laid down which is fine as long as there are improvements in the club on and off the pitch, which there isn’t as yet. Marsch comes from a high press background and a year on his tactics have changed a few times and last night proved we are now not a high pressing team, so what is our style? I believe Marsch was found out last season so has tried to do a Klopp and move away from the Red Bull high press and adapt his own style and so far has failed badly. Poor old Ralf H down at Southampton also knew he needed to adapt but he failed too. Marsch needs to get back to his high pressing tactics and add a few tweaks that killed Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, because whatever last night was it wasn’t anything good. I am a massive fan of Victor Orta when it comes to midfielders and attackers, but I’m struggling to see a good defender he’s brought in? i see a defence being shredded almost every game and yet Orta and Marsch are now giving long term contracts to Struijk, Llorente and Koch? Firpo has been dire and as yet Kristensen hasn’t set the world on fire. Ayling and Cooper are finished but not signed by Orta, we dont even have a LB anywhere in the squad except Firpo, not even in the academy now as we sold Davies and Huggins. I dont see any stability taking shape until Radz sells the club, but even then the 49ers maybe not the cash cow we hope for as its the investment arm and all they are is a vehicle for improving shareholder value. Part of the 49ers are the Lowey family and the YouTube guy but I believe the 49ers will need to attract the likes of Sir Jim from Ineos because he can’t afford Man Utd and we could do with his cash to take us to the next level
Let's face it unless you're in the big six or Newcastle you're making up the numbers. That's the nature of the Premier League. Under the current administration the highest we'll ever get in mid-table. I don't like the idea of Yank taking over the club after seeing what happened to Scum under the Glaziers or Villa under Lerner however I've conceded the fact that we need that kind of money to progress in this league. I've alway said you can get talent on the cheap you just need to look for it but now I'm scared we're going to lose Gnonto and Sini to 'bigger' clubs. Where do I see us in 5 years time? In the exact place where we are now. If we want to improve them we need to invest big time.
Well he’s now part of the Mercedes F1 team, has the former Team Sky cycling team, has the Americas Cup yachting team has an athletics performance school, has Nice football club has Sir Dave Brailsford as CEO of Ineos Sporting and now wants a Premier League football team, but knows the only way to add any value is by qualifying for the Champions League….
Last January our squad value was 15th in the Premier league and we underperformed as we just beat relegation. Now for me that was due to a small squad and the number of injuries we had. It cost Bielsa his job. This January our squad value is 11th but cannot see us getting anywhere near 11th right now. We also need to face the facts that clubs like Brentford, Fulham, Bournemouth are valued a lot less but outperforming their perceived position. That’s down to coaching, luck with injuries etc. we as a club are underperforming and it needs to change quickly
Who comes up with squad values. For example Llorente probably worth more than last year due to increased contract but he’s gone backwards. Firpo added at 12m but in effect is worthless
The squad value profile is much more accurate than the club spend league. Man City value is the biggest and they win the league, Man Utd 6th biggest and they have been around there but now trying to move up. spurs 4th tallies, Chelsea underperforming slightly and Liverpool 2nd all marry up. Last season saw Leicester with 7th value underperform badly, WHU over performed for the last 2 seasons but now Moyes has spent big he is in the shyt. Wolves another big under performer, Palace doing well. Everton were 9th on the list last season and finished way badly and will again this season. Villa were 8th and think this season are 7th but league position last season and this is poor. In other words squad value is probably more accurate on where a team will finish in the league than anything else
Back in Julythe YEP published this list of squad values. There has been more money spent since this was published so not as accurate today for example Forest spent another £54m…. But it gives you a flavour of what a fan should expect from his club. You can see which coaches are doing their jobs well and those that aren’t. Man City £813m Liverpool £592 Man Utd £581m Chelsea £531m Arsenal £473m Newcastle £351m Villa £321m Leicester £314m Spurs £312m WHU £269m Wolves £260m Everton £231m Leeds Utd £226m Palace £208m Southampton £175m Bournemouth £116m Fulham £114m Brighton 106m Brentford £101m Forest £75m
yup… my take too I get that life is about the journey and the championship promotion pushes are exciting … but I don’t see the merit of the voyage to the promised being just for a holiday. I want to stay there. The 16 year voyage was long enough for me, and the enjoyable parts of it were fleeting. I’ve enjoyed watching us try to compete… even with mixed results… in the top league.
Agree with you there Milky and we could double the capacity at ER to 72,000 but still wouldn't be anywhere near competing financially with City, Newcastle, Scum etc. However, in all probability having that increased match day revenue would attract new and more wealthy owners, who in theory at least, could then bridge the gap and get us competing for CL places or maybe even titles and cups. Personally I'm happy as we are and think trying to develop ER at this particular moment in time, with the current owners, would be folly. Which means accepting lower half PL football for the next decade (if we're lucky) or so and doing so with good grace.
The club is a few places below where I expected us to be at this time, I didn't think we'd replicate that first season back. Hoped we'd have added 3 first team signings each summer to get us to that comfortable 10th- 14th place team by now. Failures in the summer 2021 market, knocked us back dramatically, we made good signings this summer but that was diluted by the sales of our two star men. Every club is a selling club, that includes some of those top 6 too, remember when Liverpool couldn't hang on to Suarez and Coutinho when they wanted out,it's the nature of the beast. My biggest disappointment is our scouting network appears to be a shambles for first team players, we rarely grab a bargain, especially from our lower leagues. So where are we going? Nowhere fast at present, everyone knows Radz has taken us as far as he can, including himself but the downside is 49ers aren't the answer, they are only interested in profits for their shareholders, they don't give 2 ****s about Leeds Unitedas long as it makes them money, so it will be much the same from now on, they just hoping we can stay in the PL but not pushing us on.
I think squad value gives a steer doc for sure, there are caveats with anything like this obviously… what basis the valuations are done on… age profile of the squads. Then there’s all the intangibles of how long the squad has been together, injury record etc etc. But if you want to have a starting point it’s as good as any. Agree on Orta/Leeds ability to pick attacking talent better than defensive talent, too. True of 21s and first team. I think there’s some mitigation - neither bielsa nor marsch systems make it easy for defenders… and both prioritise ability in the ball above ability off it… but even allowing for that they seem to be error-prone and struggle with some of the basic fundamentals of positioning and defending. We also lack pace across the back 4… which again is exacerbated by the systems we play. The more I think about it, the more I think the biggest single difference we could make to this team would be a pair of genuine Prem quality strong mobile centre halves. Assuming we could find them, afford them, and that they’d want to come
