This.
The DOF should have sorted this, but his manager recruitment was such a failure and this is where we're at.
Conte needs immediate results. Kulusevski is one for the future (I think he's dross), but we don't need players for the future, certainly at £30 million. We need PL ready players to improve our 11.
In fact, the whole 'for the future' strategy changed from putting a few million on a player and loaning/integrating him, to spending a good chunk of our funds for them.
Gil, Sess, Berg and Rodon are 'for the future' at £80 million, none have had any real impact. You'd think we could focus on 1-2 of these and spend the rest on a PL player.
You're spot on there, looking at the meltdown on social media: it seems many fans are unfortunately absolutists that demand AAA players, under 27 years old and better than the average squad players we have, furthermore they have to be at a bargain prices that Levy would pay and all the bigger teams than us mustn't be interested.
It's quite a tall order. Up and coming players in their teens at this time are probably not as good as the ones they will eventually replace in the team. If we want them to be better now than we already have, then the big teams are already all over them and they have a price tag to match.
There are a multitude of problems with our recruitment, I myself always said years ago that instead of buying four or five 10m players: lets chuck that on a 40-50m star buy who is ready... and look where that got us with our recent splurges. That isn't a problem with the policy, that was a problem with scouting teams, recruitment departments and doing due diligence on what you are buying.
Any other HR department that had spaffed the money we had on bad fitting, unsuitable and seemingly unresearched assets: would've been fired years ago.
Ditto, nothing wrong with paying up to 25m to grab the very best from the Championship, but that didn't pay off with Sessegnon. Again, not a problem with the policy but wonder if anyone looked beyond his ability.
I can't see things improving while the person/people who wouldn't go over 5-7m for Maddison from Coventry/Norwich or Jarrod Bowen from Hull are still running our recruitment. I can't fathom risking 30m on a questionable RB from Barca, when we could be spending that money on young British talent that doesn't have the huge gamble on their ability to settle. Miss the days of us picking up the two Kyles from Sheffield or Etherington and Davies from Posh.
We need a mix of first team ready and up and coming for our targets, I just don't have faith that they are looking into more than their technical abilty.
