- Jun 5, 2004
- 32,221
- 64,290
- Staff
- #1,941
What's frustrating is that you get the feeling that we only needed two or three signings to make a push and properly challenge for the league. Nobody expected us to spunk £100m on one player and put them on £250k p/w. Backup for Eriksen (Grealish), a defender to replace Toby (if he left) and maybe one marquee signing that's still within reason was all most of us wanted.
How we have not identified and made those signings is beyond belief. Yes, we still have a great squad, but the teams we are chasing from last season have strengthened and the teams that are chasing us have done the same.
I want to win the league, and not signing anyone won't help that cause, neither will moving back home (it's still a new stadium for the players), neither will an extra season of gelling; people keep mentioning this as if it's some sort of weapon, but this isn't an advantage that is exclusive to us.
You fear that that as the years go by, Madrid will inevitably come calling for some of our stars - Poch included - and the team will break up and we'll have to rebuild all over again. We've proved that we're not a club that is willing to spend big bucks on proven players, so if and when we lose the Kane's and Eriksen's of the world, how will we replace them? We needed to invest now to ensure we win something and prevent that from happening.
I'm not saying we won't win anything - no one's to know for sure - but we've certainly not made it easy for ourselves.
Big difference between player identification, and extracting said player from his club - if (a) he doesn't want to come to us or (b) his club don't want to sell. Or both.
And even if you have the intention - do the financials work?
I can't ever lay blame at "player identification" because I simply refuse to believe they're just sitting in an office trying to think of footballers names like a bunch of Apprentice contestants trying to think of a business idea.
So then is it selling problem? Because we've just bought ANYONE for the sake of it (because the fans demand it)? So we have no space in the squad without moving someone on.
It's such a convoluted process, and that's not me trying to make it sound more complicated than it is but the sheer volume of people involved in such a transaction is usually a sign of how complicated it is (or how much money is involved) - or a combo of the two.