- Aug 5, 2006
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Mate, the vast majority of our income is from the TV deal (£140m). The amount we pay to watch the team is relative to us being a premium product for entertainment consumption. Matchday revenue is what? £30m?
What's happened to the 2 to 3 seasons of CL cash? (£120m?)
I think my beef is that this team have appeared to be on the cusp of something special the last few years, and it may only have taken a couple of upgrades in key areas to get us over the line (in which areas is subjective). It's like the film, "The Cube." The cubes only arrange themselves in the right order every once in blue moon, and the time to strengthen is when you're strong. We have been strong. We haven't massively strengthened the team recently. Some fans are happy with that, others aren't. You have to pay the market rate.
I agree about the TV money etc. It was your post that seemed to imply that because we finished 3rd in the league we should have bought more expensive players. My reply to that was that I don't think league position should determine how much money a team spends.
I'm not sure the CL cash is quite as much as 120m but certainly around the 100m mark. We could look at Alexis Sanchez as being the calibre of player that many fans want us to buy. His deal to United is meant to be worth about 180m over the four years of his contract. That's like us paying 3+ years of CL money for just one player.
But then think about how that will affect the rest of the squad. Current players will want contract boosts so our total wage bill will rise beyond just that new player. It's impossible to predict just what those numbers would end up as, but we can be confident they would go up and not down. So now we are effectively looking at 4-5 years worth of CL money to afford that one player.
I agree that you have to pay the market rate. Unfortunately for us that rate is sky high at the moment and would have those knock on effects throughout the squad. A big spending spree is probably something we would be capable of, but it would be something we could do only once and then be held back financially for many years after that.
As fans, we have been calling for that one big spree that will take us to the "next level" ever since the Jol era. So when do you pull the trigger and do it? Imagine we spent the money building an AVB team that didn't become a trophy winner. By the time Poch arrives there would be no money left to spend. Same goes for Redknapp, Ramos or Jol. It's impossible to know if any of those managers would have been able to build a league-winning team, but we can be fairly sure that the subsequent couple of managers wouldn't have had the money to try.
I totally agree with you about the strengthening thing, and also about it being subjective. But I disagree about the end goal. You say "over the line" but what does that mean? Different things to different fans probably. Some fans would be happy to spend 150m to win the FA cup once. Personally I want to win 10+ out of the next 40 FA cups, and I believe that the best way to do that is gradual but continual investment both on and off the pitch.
I'm not interested in a one-off, plastic spending spree. I want to see this club grown until it can genuinely stand toe-to-toe with the traditional giants of the game. If you think that can be achieved with one spending blast then I guess you will be disappointed with ENIC. For me, the "market rate" of true success is actually patience, perseverance and the ability to take a long-term view.