Clrnc wrote:
That's absolute damning. Thanks Jones.
Fuck Kroenke and his entire shit family
again, i dont think the issue is the raw amount of money spent. it is decision making.
every single transaction has a ripple effect. just look at the last few seasons.
we gave ozil a massive contract extension which is now an anchor hanging around our necks. that was a self-imposed error. but it wasnt the first time it happened. as a club, we did not have a policy in place to get players to either extend their deals or sell them when they had 2 years left. because of that, we backed ourselves into a corner. now we have a player on massive wages that has no real resale value because no one will pay him that contract for what they'd be getting in return
the summer where we went out and spent, we spent a ton on xhaka and mustafi. both players turned out to be underwhelming (generous) or busts (seems inarguable in mustafi's case). that was a failure of the recruiting team, and it was a failure from our coaching staff to not be able to get more out of them.
over the last 5-8 seasons, plenty of superstar/high quality players have been signed by other premier league clubs for fees of less than £20m. southampton signed virgil for £13m. they also signed mane for £10m. leicester signed kante for £6m. spuds got trippier for less than £4m. son and pedro both went for around £20m. firmino cost £30m. hell, we got holding for £2m and that was a massive steal. but why haven't we found more of those?
the point is, we dont need an ambramovich to come in and dope our club up with £300m to just go spend. we need to stop being wasteful. our very best players should be paid accordingly, and our squad filler should not be making £80k per week. our wage bill is truly insane and has been for a few seasons. we need to stop letting our best players run down their contracts and then either giving them money they dont deserve because they are holding us hostage, or losing them for free when they run their deals down.
if we build a proper infrastructure at this club, with a proper manager and a proper system, we can integrate young talent into the team, we can keep the ones we need to, and we can move on the ones who aren't going to make it, while supplementing the team with 1 or 2 big time players each summer. right now, we are miles behind. most of our squad needs to be overhauled. the last few years have been painful, and if we're going to successfully rebuild the club, we're probably in for more pain in the next 3-4 seasons.
