Disappointed with our lack of transfer strategy

[Mullers]

Firstly and most importantly to start off I want to stress that I'm not a Levy hater..infact I am conscious that in Daniel Levy we have one of the more astute and forward thinking chairman in PL football. However I do have an issue..and that is with our transfer strategy over recent years.

Very smart.
If you had not praised Levy first you would have a ton of abuse, a ton more negs AND a horse's head in your bed.

 

[SpurSince57]

That's all well and good but what's the alternative?

We could go the Villa route under O'Neill and have a high net spend, buy who the manager wants and maybe get an upward period. Problem with that is that eventually the money runs out and just when you've improved you don't have the money to go to the next level.

Same happened at Portsmouth under Redknapp. They got good results and trusted him with their money but they just didn't have the money to keep it up.

People really need to stop thinking a high net spend is the only sign of investment.

Good players don't just go for a high transfer fee, they go for high wages. We've continuously upped our wage bill and as a result have been able to buy the French number 1, Ajax's captain and most creative player and the others.

Would you be happy if last year we'd sold the same players for £70m and bought the same ones for £130m? It seems like the only way you judge our spending is if we spend more than we sell. It's fundamentally flawed.

The last published figures showed Villa made a £52m pre-tax loss and were running a £189m debt. Their wage bill was £72m, which represented over 85% of their turnover.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

The last published figures showed Villa made a £52m pre-tax loss and were running a £189m debt. Their wage bill was £72m, which represented over 85% of their turnover.

They have an array of average players on high salaries. Hutton is a perfect example. Because of their recent underachievement, their commercial income is not as good as planned, which is a key lifeline, when you have no european football, attendances are down, incremental TV money is unlikely due to not being a particular attractive offer or likely to be challenging for anything other than premier league survival.

 

[dontcallme]

The last published figures showed Villa made a £52m pre-tax loss and were running a £189m debt. Their wage bill was £72m, which represented over 85% of their turnover.

Not sure if you picked up on it, but my point was the Villa route wasn't a good one.

 

[ThorntonSpur]

a very interesting debate on this thread. for me I think our new manager is focusing on his number one targets for each area. to date I would guess he has achieved that with the LB and back up GK.

it would not surprise me if his number one targets for other positions are MM for CB, MS for DM and JR for LW. I also think he is the type that will be prepared to wait if these are achievable and will not rush into a panic option. I think we will probably get one of these in this window and the other two in January.

I also think he rates the players he has and thus is confident that he does not have to rush into a different player to the ones he wants if they are not immediately available.

I also think that the strategy to bring in a Spanish speaking manager will enhance the performance of EL and RS who may prove to be big players this season.

all in all this season we have been astute to date and the possible additions over the windows would be good solid improvements.

Im looking forward to see how players who may be under threat, AT ET S AL plus some others react when given their chance.

optimistic for the season,

 

[sloth]

This whole debate can be pretty much summed up in one sentence. Levy buys for profit, not for success.

I think your whole intelligence is pretty much summed up in that one sentence.

 

[sloth]

I always have to laugh when i see a thread start off with these words "Firstly and most importantly to start off I want to stress that I'm not a Levy hater" it usally means that the rest of the post is going to tell us just where he goes wrong.

I'm not a racist but...

 

[sloth]

No shit! And how do you suggest we go about signing a top four quality squad? Spend as much as City and Chelsea on players and wages, perhaps?

What significant improvement have Everton made? They had Lukaku and Barry last season. They've signed a midfielder from Ferencvaros, someone no-one's heard of from MK Dons, and got Atsu on loan. Last season we got more points per game under Sherwood than they did, so it's not unreasonable to suppose we can do at least as well under Mo.

They've had to spend £30m for the privilege of keeping exactly the same team. That's it, budget gone.

 

[SpurSince57]

Not sure if you picked up on it, but my point was the Villa route wasn't a good one.

Yes, I was just adding some extra illustration. Lerner comes across as a decent enough guy and a genuine football fan, but it's obvious that he completely underestimated the scale of the task he was undertaking, and, rich though he is, he's nowhere near as wealthy as Abramovich, let alone the sheikhs.

 

[dontcallme]

Yes, I was just adding some extra illustration. Lerner comes across as a decent enough guy and a genuine football fan, but it's obvious that he completely underestimated the scale of the task he was undertaking, and, rich though he is, he's nowhere near as wealthy as Abramovich, let alone the sheikhs.

I figured you were adding, just wanted to make sure.

 

[Big Jeff]

You do realize you`ve just pissed all over your own argument dont you. As you say, "we retain our net spend to virtually nothing" and the result is ......WE WIN FUCK-ALL. We fail to make the champions league each season, we fail to make an impact in the cups each season, we finish below Woolwich every fucking season, but your happy and contented because we manage to "retain our net spend to virtually nothing". Well, sorry, but given our record of failure I aint fucking happy about it and neither should you be.

You might be well advised not to tell me what I should and shouldn't be happy about, and you need to explain to me why it's so important to you that we spend far more than we make back. Those are the economics of a fool. Do you honestly believe that if we spend £100 million on new players and only get £10 million back in outgoing transfers every season, we'd be any better off? Jesus Christ on a bike!

 

[Mullers]

Disappointed that once again Levy hasn't learned his lesson, and given his coach time to coach with the squad he wants.

We're still desperately lacking an experienced and vocal centre half, and while we may get some players in and out on deadline day, by then the treadmill of Europa games mid-week will have started and Poch will just have time to prepare the team match to match rather than work on the bigger picture.

I thought when Baldini was employed this kind of situation would be a thing of the past but it seems not.

 

[Keith Morris]

Very smart.
If you had not praised Levy first you would have a ton of abuse, a ton more negs AND a horse's head in your bed.

Not another horses head in my bed
In fairness all just my views, whenever I debate football with my mates or work colleagues I always say as a club we are fortunate to have levy...it's the revolving door policy with managers and players that I just get a little frustrated with

 

[spurs-r-us]

Yedlin, Dier, Davies - three good young defenders addressing our lack of depth at the back. I don't mind it.

 

[E8spur]

messed up proper with that Dier signing…

 

[NEVILLEB]

You might be well advised not to tell me what I should and shouldn't be happy about, and you need to explain to me why it's so important to you that we spend far more than we make back. Those are the economics of a fool. Do you honestly believe that if we spend £100 million on new players and only get £10 million back in outgoing transfers every season, we'd be any better off? Jesus Christ on a bike!

Don't you agree with companies reinvesting their profits back into the company to help it grow?

 

[mpickard2087]

Don't you agree with companies reinvesting their profits back into the company to help it grow?

£50m spent on the training ground and academy, and the £100m so far for the stadium buying land/property etc. Isn't that reinvesting for long term, sustainable growth?

 

[MikeLondon]

£50m spent on the training ground and academy, and the £100m so far for the stadium buying land/property etc. Isn't that reinvesting for long term, sustainable growth?

Checkmate fool.

 

[NEVILLEB]

£50m spent on the training ground and academy, and the £100m so far for the stadium buying land/property etc. Isn't that reinvesting for long term, sustainable growth?

Yes it is. They are separate budgets though and I remember Levy saying that the stadium budget wouldn't affect our transfer budget.

The point is that if you are always balancing the 'transfer budget' every window then you might find it harder to improve the quality of players at your club. Arsenal had to take on that strategy and stagnated for a long time. Recently they've begun to spend some money and have improved as a result.

 

[dontcallme]

Yes it is. They are separate budgets though and I remember Levy saying that the stadium budget wouldn't affect our transfer budget.

The point is that if you are always balancing the 'transfer budget' every window then you might find it harder to improve the quality of players at your club. Arsenal had to take on that strategy and stagnated for a long time. Recently they've begun to spend some money and have improved as a result.

Really? Seems to me Arsenal keep finishing 4th.