He had a blank cheque for one day in the summer and also the January window where big signings generally don't happen. Injuries to Petrov and Johnson led to us losing a big part of the previous season and falling out with Elano and Jo only made it worse and led to the likes of Ched Evans and past it Vassell to get starts. Bellamy, Bridge (improving on Michael Ball), De Jong, and Given were great signings and led us to finish 3 points off a European spot, make the UEFA Cup quarterfinals (unlucky not to get further), and set the foundation for getting the likes of Tevez and Ade in during the summer. Really I don't think we could have expected much more out of that season especially since we were shit after Christmas the previous year and weren't as good as our league position suggested.