I did make a comment in the summer while we were busy buying players for the U23s it seemed to me that we were too busy preparing for the Championship than the Premier League . Just like everyone else I desperately want the fantastic Championship team to succeed in the Prem , but if it doesn’t then we will need to do something about it or go down . After all the effort from us all ( from fans to the management) to get us up it would be a shame to throw our hard fought promotion cheaply away just like we did in the last two unnecessary relegations
I thought the same and I am sure Webber said we would plan for this summer as if we were in the Championship.
The thing is that it is fine to plan for the future (and I am all for going and getting the top talent into your academy with the view of getting them into the side) but you can't really do that in football because we might have a poor season, confidence is at rock bottom, players leave, the manager might go then others leave etc plan for the here and now too. Why not go get young talent but also spend money on 1st teamers. If the rumours are true that Hart was here at the club were interested then we were prepared to spend money on a high earner like him so wages were not an issue which makes me think there is money. Also, I am sure Webber said at some point that we would have 10 million to spend (or did I completely imagine that?) and even then a lot of us were like 'that isn't enough' and we end up spending around 1/2 million so what happened to the rest?
If we go down you'd think we would lose Godfrey, Aarons, Lewis, Pukki, Cantwell (if he continues), Buendia and we will then have to rebuild the squad and that could take a while - I mean how long did take us to get these youngsters in the side regularly? We could make a fair amount of money from those players but I bet it wouldn't be spent as ...... we don't have rich owners and we can't splash the cash.
Who was the last club to come up and spend 1 million and stay in the prem? or who was the last club to spend that amount and stay up (of the clubs who are relegation candidates)? Also, if we stay up will we do the same again and spend maybe 2 million or overtime would the club look to spend more? The argument that I read/hear is 'well we spent money before and we went down so why should we do it again?' is ridiculous - I mean so we got burnt before we won't do it again this is football sometimes you get burnt but sometimes you have to spend the cash and that is another issue with having owners who don't have lots of money that are less keen to spend the money as it probably means more to them and well they don't have the resources to keep spending 20 million every time. The thing about the spending lots in my opinion was a whole load of circumstances - Hooper was a brilliant forward in Scotland, RvW was excellent in his record of scoring that was around 14 million spent but that didn't work because Hughton didn't manage them well and the style of play was terrible also the fact that RvW picked up an injury and his confident went and Hughton/coaches just didn't see this and stuck to one game plan - Hooper again suffered that season - if they would have had a different manager you never know that season. Why buy two goal scorers for decent money and go 4-4-1-1 or 4-1-5-1 he at times had RvW on his own with us sitting back and the same with Hooper and we all knew it wasn't working. In that season we also spent money on Ollson, Redmond and Garrido who were all decent for us so that side worked - Then the AN cash splash was just stupid Naismith was the main money spent around 8/9 million which in terms of football is still nothing (but to poor millionaire owners it is). Klose cost around 7 million but he is still here and has been good for us when fit so would we see that as a failure? Along with those two Pinto 2 mil , Maddison 2 mil , Jarvis 2 mil , Godfrey. combined it comes to around 20 million but that was down to poor summer planning - AN thought Whittaker - Bassong - Martin - Turner - Bennett would work in the prem plus playing one of your biggest signings in Brady at Left Back when he had been performing as an attacking left winger shows the poor vision of the season he had. Like DF he wanted to give the championship side a chance and it went tits up (probably because AN lost confidence in his ability and decided to turn into Hughton). I think spending that much in a January window is a sign you fucked up summer and are in a panic or was it the same as DF has had to deal with (no money and see what is happening in January) AN spent around 7 million got 3 loans in and 2 free players then jan came and they then decided to give him some money.....too late. The argument of spending money and it, not working can also be used to not spending money and it not working as Worthy can tell you I think he spent around 2 million and then again got to January and then splashed the cash on Ashton but it was too late. Summer planning is key and the last few times we have got it wrong. I am not a fan of splashing the cash in January.
DF has mentioned a few times that he would love to be able to go out and buy some quality players and if he could he would bring a couple of quality players in - so I bet he would want money to spend especially after now a few windows with hardly any money. Does DF also think the players who have been signed are even better or at the same level as his current bunch? None of them are starting and one isn't even getting on the bench - I look and see Drmic as a quality player who could probably do a job but is he better than Pukki? Byram not better than Aarons, Fahrmann well I am not sure but Krul looks excellent at the moment, Roberts I think is quality and probably could offer more than Buendia and stieprmann are but DF seems to say that it is Cantwell that is in his role....but it is not so is it DF just making an excuse to not play him, Amadou has only come in because of injury and is out of position after a couple of poor performances he should have come in earlier but didn't.
Sorry rant over -I have been working on a work project for about 48 hours.
