jonnypd excellent post from N.O.....
"we're not allowed to criticise until the transfer window is closed.... ....oh wait, the mantra is now - we're not allowed to criticise.
there's a few myths floating around that dont seem to tally with the actual state of affairs. and these refer to the behind the scenes team and the owner rather than on-the-pitch affairs, as that is what this thread is about. (fyi i think we've improved slightly on the pitch to what we had at the end of last season)
1. apparently we can't compete with other clubs and we should be pleased if we can break even in the transfer market as that's about our level these days. is that what people are really saying? all a sudden we're supposed to be worse off than we were a few years back?
the answer is - have they missed the past few years of investment by a billionaire owner and tv cash injection of at least £18m+ per season? we should have plenty of money to spend, either ashley is being tight with the purse strings & failing to push the boat out or the negotiation team of jiminez and wise is messing up badly. either way this reflects negatively on the owner. people are saying the failue to invest is down to us not being able to compete with other clubs. that is tautological - the truth is the other way round - if there is a reason we can't compete with other clubs it is BECAUSE we've failed to invest
2. apparently because we're not in europe we can't get top quality players.
the answer is - anyone with an ounce of sense knows this argument is bullshit so can we please put it to bed? yes being out of europe may mean we miss out on some of the targets who eventually move to much bigger clubs, but if you are willing to go that bit further in the pursuit of the best you will land your targets. there are plenty of players out there, it is not like Keegan would've had one player in mind for a position, so that if we miss out on that one player, we don't strengthen at all. in this instance we were able to land two top players which in itself invalidates the claim that being out of europe means we can't get quality. it's a self-defeating argument. Man City were able to attract players like Elano and Petrov last summer despite no european football. We were able to spend £36m in one window under Souness despite no european football.
for those making the argument that we can't compete with sides in europe, specifically yorkie, ask yourself this - how come we beat one of these fabled euro teams, Pompey, for the signature of Jonas? i'm guessing it is because we got in there early, did business professionaly and gave him what he wanted. when it came to Coloccini we ended up paying the extra money that deportivo wanted to secure him. these are two successes for which the backroom staff deserve credit, but it's not enough by itself, we should've done this in other instances too. of course in retrospect it now looks like the Coloccini move was paid for by the departures of Faye and Milner, and since Jonas came on a negligable fee/free, it seems to suggest the problem lies more with Ashley than with Wise and co.
3. earlier in the window people said we were prepared to spend big and compete. now people are saying we can't compete and must build slowly. why must we now build slowly but two months ago we were on the verge on spending big?
the answer is we dont have to build slowly or act in a conservative manner. people have compared this summer to robson's first transfer windows but the situations could barely be more different. we've not spent anything for two years now and robson's spending increase was sanctioned on the back of a new cash injection which at that time happened to be the stadium expansion. there is a direct parallel, a present day equivalent, in the injection of cash from new TV Money. this summer should've also witnessed a comparable surge in spending.
