Quarterly Quarrel: Financial Discussion Part 4

There is no value in the market.

The lie that keeps on giving.

 

Berba was post Glazers.

As was DDG - second most expensive goalkeeper ever

As was Jones - record signing for a teenage defender.

 

Yes. It is. Rio was certainly not the player he became, same for Rooney. Veron is the only player on that list who was never going to get better per se. Berba was established and expensive but not a world star - we overpaid for him because of the timing/owner but in reality he was in the class of a Veron/Keane type purchase.

 

It's not nearly as bad, but record signing for a teenage defender reminds me of one those stupid cricket stats and made me laugh. Something like, "the record 9th wicket partnership for Australia vs Pakistan in the 2nd innnings of a test match at Sydney on a Sunday in December since 1973".

 

RoM, I've NEVER heard that type of stat.

 

I may have exaggerated a wee bit.

I've definitely heard "record xth wicket partnership in tests for Team A vs. Team B @ [insert cricket ground here].

 

No I am not. You are trying to disregard Berbatov and ignoring our history of buying players and them becoming much better under his stewardship:

Rio
Ronaldo
Nani
Rooney


the list goes on. From time to time we'll buy a player who we must have and sometimes that guy will be in his prime already, but that is not the norm for our purchases. It never has been. Even suggesting that is daft.

 

You are right for the most part Johno. But Fergie has broken the transfer record three times with Cole, Veron and Rio, and has spent big money on the likes of Keane, York, Stam, RVN etc. Most of whom were established players, if mostly on the youngish side.

I think its accurate to say that Fergie usually has a mix of promoting / buying youth, buying established players (mostly youngish) and every few years a very expensive "special" player.

I think Jitty is not too far off the mark to say we are staying out of the market through choice. To some extent anyway.

I suspect the Glazers have imposed some restrictions, but not overly harsh ones, as are in place at Arsenal. I think Fergie and the club are probably of the same mind that restricting salary growth and not spending too much on transfer fees is a good idea for the club in the long term.

You add that mindset to other issues like our lack of a system, or issues appraising players, and perhaps that explains our current predicament.

 

Neither have Arsenal and almost every other historically major club. This is the reality in this era of too many oil/commodity fueled clubs.

Good scouting is important and that's where both Fergie and Wenger have been lacking in recent years. Neither was ever a tactical genius and not having good #2s hasn't helped.

 

If the Glazer's were not hoovering up the cash we'd have more money to invest in the club.

We need a couple of top level players for the team to be competitve in Europe. Further, if we do not improve the squad before next season, we will have a hard time with the league. We need to develop youth, buy prospects that may turn into top level talent and buy top level players.

We can decide A level talent is too expensive, but then we're not among the elite teams and 2008 will be the last European cup for a while.

I think the Berbatov flop has had an impact. In the past we've had a number of flops, but we'd keep spending. Now since we do not have much margin of errror, we play it safer and do not spend as much on any one player.

But on the bright side, at least that keeps us from doing things like spending 30mm on Carroll.

 

Bullshit. You can get half a Jordan Henderson or 1/3 an Andy Carroll.

 

Or Oezil Sahin or Cisse but lets ignore Bundesliga shall we.

 

It was still paying for talent we have been tracking since his Schalke days, his choice also made a difference, Spanish tax laws helped too which have changed since.

 

Having first Chelsea then City definitely doesnt help.

 

From the link DS posted in the other thread:

Also, net transfer for 10-11 was £11.4m.

 

How so