Cobwebcat said:
Read a post on here last night and it's beginning to sink in.
Our owners spent 10 years' money in 4 years because of FFPR coming in. Gary Cook persuaded them to do this arguing, correctly, that we needed to get into the CL and quick.
Now that has been achieved the big spending stops. The business model buzzword is sustainability... to be achieved long term with the odd affordable signing. This will be aided in the long term by the academy.
We are no longer following the Chelsea model.
That's why I believe that we brought in Hargreaves and Pizarro....the mega signings will be one per season once we have shifted the deadwood.
Players like RSC and Savic are still here and, if they go tomorrow, its too late for this window.
It hasn't been a fuck up. It's a business plan. We've forked out more money keeping Mancini and Kompany and hopefully Silva than most clubs have on new signings.
It may or may not work but I think the penny has dropped for me. The blow them out of the water days have gone for the forseeable future. If I had known I'd have enjoyed it even more then.
Like most businesses...there is a plan. Just not as exciting as it has been.
I don't think there is a £40 million signing waiting to be unveiled tomorrow. Sorry....I hope I'm wrong.
P.S. I know this isn't as exciting as seeing DDR in the chippy :-)
I think you're certainly right about the sustainability, and in future the name of the game will be spending sensibly whilst increasing revenues. Not convinced about the academy though, which I think may turn out to be a gigantic white elephant in terms of what it produces.
What I would take issue with though is the assertion that this transfer window hasn't been a fuck up. We started it needing to add just 3 top quality players to turn us into a real global force. A centre half, a central midfielder and a wide midfielder with a bit of pace. Somehow by the time the window shuts it looks as if we will have ended up with a winger fresh from the Swansea bench, who is no better than the one we let go, a defensive midfielder from the Everton bench, who cost 4 times more than the seasoned international we're letting go to those Milanese shysters for a pittance, a raw 19 year old Serbian centre half, who by the time you factor in a fee for the raw 21 year old Montenegran centre half going in the opposite direction, cost a whopping 15m, an over the hill 32 year old right back when we already have two perfectly serviceable right backs on the books, a 'homesick' 3rd string keeper (and yes, I know we needed one - a keeper that is, not a homesick one!) who lasted less than 3 weeks the last time he was asked to live in the North West, and possibly another defensive midfield player from Benfica, whose 25m buy out clause is roughly twice what he's worth.
All told they have/will cost around 65m in fees alone, whilst we have recouped only 18m for NDJ, AJ and Adebadbuy, plus we're still paying the wages of Bridge and Crocky. My question would be if we had that kind of money at our disposal (and I'd assumed because of FFP we didn't), then why the fuck didn't we just cough up the asking prices for Hazard and Martinez at the beginning of June and then blow Spurs out of the water for Dembele? Job done.
Next year will be a scorched earth job in so much as we will finally get the last of Hughesless's shitbox signings off our books, but I fear the Chimps League draw yesterday, where we copped for 2 of the 4 best clubs in Europe (cos that's how good Dortmund are - they stuffed Bayern 3 or 4 times last season) may put a sizeable dent in any spending plans. It was important then that we had a good summer this year in the market, and with all the will in the world, I don't think we can say we did.
