Bluebeer said:i mean look at chelsea, wanted and got instant success...
People need to remember that Chelsea were closer to success than us when both takeovers happened. My memory's a little hazy, but they'd just won the UEFA Cup or Cup Winners Cup i think and had also won an FA Cup relatively recently, and qualified for the Champions League via the league. They were well on the coat-tails of the top clubs already, and had a squad which was much more experienced at the highest level than ours is now. The Top Four wasn't quite so cemented then, either.