- May 17, 2004
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Does one thing preclude the other ? Of course we should invest in the recruitment of Young players and infrastructure for the future. But every team needs a mix of youth and experience. If I was a Chairman or Owner I wouldn’t want to buy outfield players in their 30s with low sell-on potențial unless they were excepțional like Kane or Son . But players at the end or out of their contracts like Perisic can bring that balance.You either:
Establish a clear plan, philosophy and structure that goes beyond any individual coach, or even director of football. Invest heavily into scouting, recruitment and the academy to bring down the wage bill and transfer fees.
Appoint a win now manager and back them with cold hard cash to give them everything they need.
For the moment we've gone down the latter route half-heartedly. It's backing but 70% and not 100%. And unfortunately option 1 is just not possible for Levy since he is too thin-skinned and cannot give up control to somebody who would have a clue in setting up such a structure.
Where I think Levy can be heavily criticised is keeping players on loan where they are clearly have no future at the club. The likes of Ndombele , Lo Celso and Reguillon are not coming back. But Levy doesnt want to sell them at a loss because it looks bad on the balance sheet. You can include Sanchez in that category too even though he cant be loaned out. That would free up some cash for another player sale potentially and avoid the fiasco that happened with Doherty last night.