Row Jimmy wrote:
In other words, you wish our 4 year plan were a 2 year plan.
It's more about seizing the moment or opportunity and/or fortune favours the brave.
Plan to succeed by giving yourself the best opportunity to do so on and off the pitch. If you miss top4 but were in the mix then you can still achieve the other option re top6.
IMO saying we are only after regaining UEFA re top6 is an excuse to not complete the rebuild and to put things off for another year = we'd still be prioritising our financial structure ahead of giving the team the resources to succeed by signing a CF and CM. At worst we should have signed 1 in the summer and the other in Jan, as we should know the sort of player needed to meet Arteta's vision for the team.
LCFC won the league because the main players were either all in a rebuild and/or did not plan or adapt to seize the moment, whereas they did. IMO it is much the same this season in that on paper both MU and TH should be better prepared than ourselves at the start of the season. However IMO we should have looked to take advantage of both our reduced fixture list and the disarray at the usual suspects to regain top4 on merit rather than by their failure.
I have read an article recently that suggested we failed to sign Melo (or anyone) in Jan because of FFP, which to me does not make sense as it is suspended during COVID and we don't need to comply until we actually qualify for UEFA comps, at which point we then have 3 seasons to meet compliance. Even then the precedents set by UEFA in other breaches have been to reduce the number of players able to be registered for UEFA comps (which does not apply to domestic competitions), a transfer ban for 1 or more transfer windows (usually starting with a Jan window), and a suspended fine which only gets imposed if the club fails to achieve compliance during the time of their initial sanctions.
None of these are game breakers as we routinely have players under 21 who are part of the match day squad but do not need to be registered, such as the likes of Saka, ESR and Martinelli these past 2 seasons. As for a transfer ban again it means nothing as we did so this past Jan. However the trick is to have your shit sorted on and off the pitch so as to negate the impacts of any breach = no point in having sanctions imposed if you didn't finish the job. In doing so you negate both the transfer ban and potential fine, as the only transfers during that time should be players out as you trim the squad as your developing players replace your older players.
That said I am well aware that I am being somewhat idealistic in this, but then again I make no apology for being/doing as such, particularly when the actions by KSE during COVID re loans and increased debt upon the club goes directly against the ideas and principles behind our sustainable self funding financial plan we have had for longer than PHW was Chairman. In other words if you are going to break what many see as being a major part of our core values and beliefs, then do it right and get the job done = they've already increased our debt for financial reasons re COVID, so now fix the team so that we can improve our success on and off the pitch to cover the increased debt so that it does not become a burden that weighs us down like we allowed the stadium to do.
