- Dec 23, 2004
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So many people have not read the OP (or at least read it properly). I feel sorry for @rossdapep as he clearly put a great deal of thought into it.
Yes I knew what you meant, and it's that which I disagree with and was responding to.Somehow? I think maybe bringing one of the best strikers in world football through our youth academy probably helped somewhat.
Hope you're not banking on that happening again.
And its gonna take massive investment to replace him with anything close to the same quality and repair the damage done from letting the squad deteriorate if we wanna get back up there.
But you knew what I meant anyway didnt you
Thanks for saying, mate. I appreciate it.So many people have not read the OP (or at least read it properly). I feel sorry for @rossdapep as he clearly put a great deal of thought into it.
With the value we are at now, what we really need is a group of the Steve Ballmer’s of the worldI don't know, world will change a lot when ENIC sell the club. What if Ballmer decides to buy a club in England? Or Buss family. Or any successful club owner in other sports. One of Villa's owners is doing a good job in NBA and spends basically whatever they can under FFP and second one is relatively unknown.
Rightly said.. we have to look at the start of our cycle to have a long term plan.. Levy has done an amazing job in brining us to this level but now is the time to start and act like a big club ith everthing in place and push on.. We have a big stadium, excellent training facility and a core of top level players.. We need to push on and make the next 5 years into a club pushing the elite and winning stuff... Covid didnt help but we have the capability to push on.. I always believe we should give every manager 3 seasons minimum so hopefully Mourinho can lead the team next season with his players.. He did improve the playing staff this seasonPart of the reason I rated Levy so highly for such a long time is because as a chairman then you need to be judged on 5 year (approx) cycles. What happens in an individual match is primarily down to the players, what happens over the course of a season is primarily down to the manager, but the club owners need to be judged in longer cycles. So starting from 2001, in what state were we in compared with five years earlier across each cycle?
- 2006 - objectively much stronger than 2001 - we were no longer just another crap mid-table club, a new continental structure had been introduced and we'd invested into a promising young spine in Defoe, Keane, Carrick, Lennon, King, Dawson and Robinson that was now good enough to qualify for Europe via the league.
- 2011 - objectively much stronger than 2006 - now we'd gone one step further and made it into Champions League and had players like Modric, Bale, Van Der Vaart and co.
- 2016 - objectively much stronger than 2011 - now we were competing for the title under Poch, had strong players in every position as opposed to just a few star individuals, most of our best players were young and on long contracts, and were building a new stadium.
So for the first 15 years or so then I think Levy was consistently excellent in his job. But the last 5 years is a different story:
What does our 2026 look like? Think it really depends on whether we can fill the stadium again and whether invest the extra revenue it brings into the squad.
- 2021 - We now have a bigger stadium but I don't think there's any other metric in which you can say we're in a stronger position than we were five years ago. We have a weaker squad, we're not in the Champions League, we don't have any star players under the age of 24.
Maybe we should get you to takeover as manager or DOF take your pick, see if you can bring success at last
Mate don't get your thong in a twist I was just having a bit fun asking if you want the gig.I know nothing about tactics or sports science. I would definitely be in the Harry Redknapp tell-them-to-run-around-a-bit mould.
But I'm intrigued......of all the countless posts on SC offering an opinion on football matters, why did you choose this snarky (as I read it) response to mine? I didn't have you down as a Jose fan.
So you would judge each 5-year cycle based on a snapshot at the end of it, while ignoring everything that went on during the 5 years?Part of the reason I rated Levy so highly for such a long time is because as a chairman then you need to be judged on 5 year (approx) cycles. What happens in an individual match is primarily down to the players, what happens over the course of a season is primarily down to the manager, but the club owners need to be judged in longer cycles. So starting from 2001, in what state were we in compared with five years earlier across each cycle?
- 2006 - objectively much stronger than 2001 - we were no longer just another crap mid-table club, a new continental structure had been introduced and we'd invested into a promising young spine in Defoe, Keane, Carrick, Lennon, King, Dawson and Robinson that was now good enough to qualify for Europe via the league.
- 2011 - objectively much stronger than 2006 - now we'd gone one step further and made it into Champions League and had players like Modric, Bale, Van Der Vaart and co.
- 2016 - objectively much stronger than 2011 - now we were competing for the title under Poch, had strong players in every position as opposed to just a few star individuals, most of our best players were young and on long contracts, and were building a new stadium.
So for the first 15 years or so then I think Levy was consistently excellent in his job. But the last 5 years is a different story:
What does our 2026 look like? Think it really depends on whether we can fill the stadium again and whether invest the extra revenue it brings into the squad.
- 2021 - We now have a bigger stadium but I don't think there's any other metric in which you can say we're in a stronger position than we were five years ago. We have a weaker squad, we're not in the Champions League, we don't have any star players under the age of 24.
So you would judge each 5-year cycle based on a snapshot at the end of it, while ignoring everything that went on during the 5 years?
All clubs have peaks and troughs, so to assess things on only the end point while ignoring all of the accomplishments leading up to that point is rather short-sighted.
By your logic, no matter what we achieve during 2021-25, the next 5 years will be judged on how the 2025-26 season goes.
2016-21:
Runners-up in the PL (highest ever PL finish, highest ever PL points tally, scored the most goals in the league and conceded the fewest goals in Europe's top 5 leagues).
Consecutive CL qualifications (a first for the club).
CL finalists (another first for the club).
New stadium completed.
International fanbase has grown.
Revenue and financial standing has grown considerably (in real terms plus relative to Europe's elite).
Down-turn in performances that coincided with spending restrictions linked to the stadium (inevitable) and a global pandemic (a situation that Levy has probably handled extremely well!).
So despite the club achieving its best results on the pitch within recent decades (coming the closest they've ever been to European Champions), launching a world-leading stadium and becoming the 'biggest' the club has been in recent history, it has been a poor 5-year cycle? 3.5 years were amazing and the last 1.5 years has been mediocre (compared to the previous 3.5 years but still very good compared to pre-Levy).