- Aug 24, 2011
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Perhaps in the long term the infrastructure that ENIC have put in place will enable us to challenge again, but the point that @jeremystorey is making in the post that you quoted is that he's despairing over the short- and medium-term. We had a golden opportunity to kick on and the club utterly squandered it.That’s a bit pessimistic. The stadium will generate a lot of money over the long term. How much of that drips through to the transfer budget, who can say but the potential of the stadium is nowhere near being realised (the naming rights deal for example could be a massive financial benefit to the club). The benefit of an absolutely superb training ground hasn’t really been realised. How efficient is the scouting network? Are the best prospects being identified? There is undoubtedly the foundations for success there but for reasons outside of the club’s control (COVID) and within the club’s control (fcked up transfer window), we have had a setback.
The failings in the transfer market have already been outlined in this thread so I won't re-litigate them, but it suffices to say that they have been numerous and costly. The end result is that City (who were always marginally ahead of us even at our best) and Liverpool have pulled miles ahead, Chelsea and United appear to be on the cusp of doing the same, the likes of Wolves and Leicester have pulled level with us if not marginally in front, and Newcastle are poised to be able to outspend us massively. Even Everton have now a world class manager and an owner who is not afraid to invest in their squad, so may pose a real threat to our position before long. We've been pulled back toward mid-table.
The pandemic has pulled the rug out from underneath us, undermining our financial position to a far greater extent than many of the clubs we are competing against. Just look at what Chelsea are doing, and then think that their capacity to spend is no greater than that of United, Liverpool, City, and soon to be Newcastle. Wolves and Everton are owned by free-spending billionaires as well. All of those clubs are going to continue to kick on while we try to work with scraps. It's hard to see us competing again for years to come.
By the time the dust settles and the benefits of the new stadium are bearing fruit again, Kane and Son will be in their late 20s or early 30s and the chance likely will have gone. We'll then have to start over again with a new generation of players, and with the competition being fiercer than ever there's no guarantee we'll ever make it back to the position Poch had us in, on the verge of glory.
That's what is so utterly depressing. Not that there's genuine cause for optimism of a theoretical future that may never come to fruition, but rather that we were so close and now it feels likely that our chance has passed us by. All that was needed was sensible backing and investment in a small number of key areas, and Levy refused to push the boat out. Now we'll likely be languishing for years as a result. It's gutting.