Well done Levy and co.

[mickdale]

Just trying to make sense of Levy stance:

1. He genuinely wants to make us a proper big club. Which the training ground, stadium, Poch + kane suggest. - win for us

2. He’s fattening the club to sell - win for us

3. He’s fattened the club up to just get bye and skim an annual profit - L

4. He believes his own hype in terms of being the master negotiator and it’s all a bit of an ego thing to him.

1+2 are ultimately win win for us although might take some patience. 3 really makes no sense if he’s in it for the profit, then now selling is surely the option as opposed to faffing around for £50m profits annually. But definitely think there’s a large slice of 4 involved. For me 1+2 are the only realistic options and either way ultimately we win.

Why is 2 good for us?
So someone buys the club on debt the club is valued at?
Careful what you wish for

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

everyone is entitled to moan now and then, but I dont know why anyone would expect the SOP to change. Levy is 56 years old. This window is like all the others and we have done ok. I dont think he is squirreling extra cash away for his retirement - he doesnt need it. If the money is there he will invest it into the squad, and there will be extra money in the near future. I can be patient.

It's really not the same though.
With the massive increased income from TV money, the wealthier chairmen joining the fray more frequently and the fact the window now closes before the season starts, ALL of his previous tactics are redundant.

If he doesn't change his ways we will fall down the table, quite a bit I suspect.
West Ham for once are actually doing decent business this window FFS. When even those useless cowboys get in a big name manager with a winning record and actually sign players they talk about rather than tweeting bollocks.

Poch will walk if Levy doesn't back him and to back him, he is going to have to break the mold.

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

Why is 2 good for us?
So someone buys the club on debt the club is valued at?
Careful what you wish for

Levy and Lewis, despite not spunking billions, do care about the club. Much like Sugar did. They wouldn't sell the club to a cowboy for a quick buck, they would deal with a suitable buyer
The PL also means tests chairmen too.

 

[barry]

everyone is entitled to moan now and then, but I dont know why anyone would expect the SOP to change. Levy is 56 years old. This window is like all the others and we have done ok. I dont think he is squirreling extra cash away for his retirement - he doesnt need it. If the money is there he will invest it into the squad, and there will be extra money in the near future. I can be patient.

I like Levy and I don't think he's squirreling away extra cash for his retirement. The true problem is Levy refuses to pay over what he believes a player's worth. Sadly for us he seems to believe most players are worth far less than the current market demands.

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

I like Levy and I don't think he's squirreling away extra cash for his retirement. The true problem is Levy refuses to pay over what he believes a player's worth. Sadly for us he seems to believe most players are worth far less than the current market demands.

Kinda reminds me of me.
I spent many years in debt and under paid. In that regard I got used to being tight and scrutinizing the cost of everything and going without if thought it was over priced.

I'm still like that now despite having more money than those days. My wife gets the hump when I look at something I can afford, sort of like it, but still think "it aint worth £50, I'll leave it"

That is Levy to me. The difference being, if I don't buy that t-sihrt, I'm not gonna lose millions when my company fails.

 

[coys200]

Anyone that did buy us would have to be seriously loaded with an asking price of £1.5-2bn. You’d have to be some cowboy to rustle up that kind of money.

 

[totteridgewhetstone]

Seems to me that our entire model is predicated on over-performance. That's all fine and good until some players - Sissoko, i'm looking at you - perform at par. What's annoying is that while a lot of it has worked - Trippier, Davies etc - if you add together the fees for the ones who don't - N'Koudou, Janssen, Sissoko - we could have had one hell of a player.

 

[SonicSarr]

Seems to me that our entire model is predicated on over-performance. That's all fine and good until some players - Sissoko, i'm looking at you - perform at par. What's annoying is that while a lot of it has worked - Trippier, Davies etc - if you add together the fees for the ones who don't - N'Koudou, Janssen, Sissoko - we could have had one hell of a player.

It's not an exact science.

Look at our first 11 or 15 and what we paid for them and what they are worth now. Look what we bring in from our failures. We don't lose a lot on our failures and our successes are all bought for around £12-£25m and now worth quadruple that and more. Lloris, Trippier, Alderweireld, Son, Eriksen, Vertongen... need I continue?

 

[SonicSarr]

It's not an exact science.

Look at our first 11 or 15 and what we paid for them and what they are worth now. Look what we bring in from our failures. We don't lose a lot on our failures and our successes are all bought for around £12-£25m and now worth quadruple that and more. Lloris, Trippier, Alderweireld, Son, Eriksen, Vertongen... need I continue?

I will continue... Alli, Winks, Kane, Rose, (Walker) and Sanchez is now worth at least £20m more than we paid. And Lucas was a bargain too.

 

[dontcallme]

Seems to me that our entire model is predicated on over-performance. That's all fine and good until some players - Sissoko, i'm looking at you - perform at par. What's annoying is that while a lot of it has worked - Trippier, Davies etc - if you add together the fees for the ones who don't - N'Koudou, Janssen, Sissoko - we could have had one hell of a player.

On the other hand where would we be if we hadn’t signed Eriksen, Alli and Son and spent the £40m on one player?

 

[totteridgewhetstone]

On the other hand where would we be if we hadn’t signed Eriksen, Alli and Son and spent the £40m on one player?

I'm not disagreeing. But it shouldn't be our *only* approach

 

[Gb160]

I'm not disagreeing. But it shouldn't be our *only* approach

But what you're suggesting seems to require being able to see into the future...its an ambitious idea, i'll give you that.

 

[dontcallme]

I'm not disagreeing. But it shouldn't be our *only* approach

I don’t think it is.

We spent big on experienced players like Soldado, Sissoko and Llorente.

We found that the quality of players we want who are ready made are not a sure thing.

 

[cliff jones]

It's not an exact science.

Look at our first 11 or 15 and what we paid for them and what they are worth now. Look what we bring in from our failures. We don't lose a lot on our failures and our successes are all bought for around £12-£25m and now worth quadruple that and more. Lloris, Trippier, Alderweireld, Son, Eriksen, Vertongen... need I continue?

yes, to prove your point in such an inflationary market you'd need to make meaningful comparisons with players signed by other clubs during the same window/year. Back to you.

 

[vegassd]

The only guarantee you get from spending big bucks on players is that you no longer have those bucks. Any player can be a flop at any club.

I would guess that most people who criticise Levy and say things along the lines of "Unless we spend money now we are going to miss our chance" have probably said the same thing in every transfer window since Jol. But the fact is that we have progressed. Maybe we progressed in spite of the spending policy, but I think there's a pretty good chance we progressed because of it. Probably a bit of both.

If the ITK from ages ago about Alli and Eriksen already signing new deals is true (big if) then we have our 5 primary attacking players already loaded up. Signing new players for big money who are going to have to fight their way in can't be an easy task. Some might say we should spend 60m on Martial, but if he doesn't play much it's not a great investment. We need squad options etc. but it's just not as easy as some people make it out to be.

 

[Japhet]

The only guarantee you get from spending big bucks on players is that you no longer have those bucks. Any player can be a flop at any club.

I would guess that most people who criticise Levy and say things along the lines of "Unless we spend money now we are going to miss our chance" have probably said the same thing in every transfer window since Jol. But the fact is that we have progressed. Maybe we progressed in spite of the spending policy, but I think there's a pretty good chance we progressed because of it. Probably a bit of both.

If the ITK from ages ago about Alli and Eriksen already signing new deals is true (big if) then we have our 5 primary attacking players already loaded up. Signing new players for big money who are going to have to fight their way in can't be an easy task. Some might say we should spend 60m on Martial, but if he doesn't play much it's not a great investment. We need squad options etc. but it's just not as easy as some people make it out to be.

IMO, this is massively down to Poch, and if Levy has promised to back him and then blatantly doesn't do so, we'll have a huge cock up on our hands. Levy's obsession with brinkmanship has cost us over and over and prices have gone through the roof lately, so he really has to wake up and smell the coffee. I'm only concerned about Poch getting what he wants, not specific players, but the list of signings he allegedly wanted and never got is depressingly long.

 

[Mattspur]

You can’t blame the club for the ‘usual early season bullshit’ because the club never said anything about big signings, early signings or spending lots of money. They haven’t even said anything about competing with the other top 6 clubs. That’s all come from posters on forums or journalists in the media. If you’ve accepted what they’ve said without the highly recommended dose of salt then more fool you.

I know it’s frustrating to see our rivals strengthen when we’ve not brought in anyone but let’s see what business we’ve done once the window has closed before we start pointing fingers.

 

[mickdale]

Kinda reminds me of me.
I spent many years in debt and under paid. In that regard I got used to being tight and scrutinizing the cost of everything and going without if thought it was over priced.

I'm still like that now despite having more money than those days. My wife gets the hump when I look at something I can afford, sort of like it, but still think "it aint worth £50, I'll leave it"

That is Levy to me. The difference being, if I don't buy that t-sihrt, I'm not gonna lose millions when my company fails.

£50 for a t shirt

 

[John48]

Everton showing they prepared to back their manager by forking out 50M for a player with huge potential, but somewhat unproven, Richarlison. Perhaps it's time Levy to do something similar & back his manager & that's not buying Grealish.

 

[The Doc]

£50 for a t shirt