You’re now rewriting the dictionary? You don’t “aspire” to a benchmark. The benchmark is a set standard at any point in time that you either aspire to reach or surpass
"Do you really have so much trouble in understanding this English colloquialism, or are you clearer on this good/bad thing now ? " The orgasm of satisfaction at putting you down must have burst through his body. He cannot help himself.
I think it's a useful warning for us all to hear Publicity Pete's name now & again. If you think back, how many people at the time truly had a clue about his business methods? Not many that understood, it would seem, for he (almost) got away with it. Now ask yourself how much we know about Radz's dealings - do we know more about his ways of working than we did Ridsdale's back then? Answer is a very firm 'NO!'. Given our (apparent) penchant for spreading the cost of our player purchases over several years, how much do we currently owe other clubs at this moment in time? How many years is it spread over? Is it these outstanding payments that are making us difficult to deal with in the transfer market? Is this why so many 'close' transfers fail at the last minute? I could go on, but a big part of me doesn't want to know. I've tried running it through my head before, but it all ends up in my thoughts as us getting relegated, swiftly followed by going bust. Possibly for ever. Remember, peeps, I'm normally the optimist on this forum, & if I'm expressing concerns, there is something that really needs to be thoroughly examined. It's our club. Going bust would rip out the hearts of us supporters. The owners / officials would only lose some money .....
I came across this recently. It's not that surprising we're struggling. https://www.planetfootball.com/quic...022-newcastle-man-utd-city-liverpool-arsenal/
This week I heard someone say that we had made a big loss the season Bielsa landed and the extra effort made to back him in his 2nd season paid off, but if it had failed we could have got into all sorts of trouble. Basically we all moaned about clubs cheating and spending way too much to get promotion and we couldn’t compete. Radz backed us and spent big in Leeds terms and it paid off but if it hadn’t…….. we all complain about the board from time to time, but I cannot join Eire in having a go, but it’s time for a change of owner as Radz cannot fund us to stay in this league. Failing that we need to accept we will be a new Norwich
I know we were proper skint that first Christmas under bielsa… a number of contract extension meetings with key players were canned at the last minute. Radz business troubles elsewhere were thought to be the trouble.. he was begging cash from everyone. But that was several years ago before he dropped his pants for the 49ers. Where are we now? Well the attractiveness of the city offer for Phillips was cash up front payment. That says something. Every businessman loves early payment but the stage payments we are offering when buying players is actually pretty normal. Whichever, if you look at it from cash flow perspective - our transfer fees come in this year but flows out over several years. Ie Today looks better than tomorrow. Who do we have to sell next year to pay the already spent outgoings? There are some mixed messages… Gnonto coming meant James had to go… yet apparently we could put a deal together north of 30m for CDK or gakpo. Feeling was that players like CDK were seen as investments and came from a different budget. Whoever/whatever that is. Obviously we have PL money and parachute money should the worst happen. But it’s clear we’re running a tight ship and easy to see why investment is required if we want to progress.
The only thing I would add to that very fair summary, is to say that we have been very shrewd with some of the kids we have sold for peanuts but have 50% sell on fees included. Ofcourse this is only shrewd if the player turns out to be good, but players like Lief Davies already the best LB in L1, Casey, Huggins, Caprile etc, so is another revenue stream that kicks in later
So if we had bought a striker for say a 30 million package and then sold him for 50 plus million is that not a good deal?. I was delighted what Leeds raised for Phillips and Raphinha. Remember a player is only a severe injury away from being worth virtually nothing. Forshaw /Dallas spring to mind and Bamford all have lost their value.
