theHotHead wrote:jayramfootball wrote:Disgaree - we are going about spending money in exactly the right way. Though, clearly, we should have started earlier.
You agreed too not so long ago. I remember discussing how Liverpool had managed to spend so much, but had a lower net spend than us. How they rebuilt their squad. Coutinho, for example, was picked up for 8.5m and at the time is exactly the kind of player our fans would have been moaning about now if we signed him at the time Liverpool did. A kid who had not made it in Italy and was being loaned around Spain when he signed for Liverpool. They sold him for over 100m. Those kind of transfers were pivotal in Liverpool's reemergence and they didn't do it overnight.
Our squad was not good enough and no one wants those old failure players. We couldn't - and still can't in many cases - shift them. When we do we can't get fees for them that enable us to reinvest in better. What we are doing now is spot on. Younger players whose value had the potential to increase dramatically. We're on the road to a much healthier position.
Where we are not spending the money correctly is over-spending on players, I made that quite clear. I have also said that we must make shrewd purchases, they don't cost an arm and a leg, Coutinho would be in that bracket, as are Tomi and Lokonga, again, I have no problem with that.
I have a problem with spunking big money on mediocre players. I have a problem with us spunking good money on dead players too (contract renewals).
By the way, I don't think fans would moan about the Coutinho purchase, consider, that was Wenger's MO, buying players few people had heard of and them turning into top players. I think Arsenal fans moan when we are linked with mediocre players that we all know. I know there were some murmurs about Lokonga and Tavares, but I think that was more because of our situation last season and a desire to compete that people equate with spending big on players. My reaction to the Lokonga purchase was "problem position, lets see what the kid can do", I had no negativity. I had a bit for Tavares because I didn't see the point in buying a backup player when we needed starters.
Look at the whole. We spent 150m on 6 young talented players who have been through their initial development cycle and can all contribute now.
That is an average of 25m per player, which is perfectly fine. That 150m investment is likely to turn into much more in asset value.
As for 'mediocre players that we all know'. sorry but that doesn't fly. Of all the players that we signed no one had any clue about any of them other than Odegaard. You are equating mediocre with how much you know about a player. All 6 of the signings look like they have bright futures.
Then we also have Gabriel, Martinelli, ESR, Saka and Tierney.
We're talking 11 players there that cost us, what ... 210m? Probably already have an asset value of well over 350m and they are all young.
The direction right now is spot on, IMO and when you look at the list of signings Edu has made he's doing a f***ing brilliant job overall, despite a couple of howlers like Willian:
Gabriel, 23
Martinelli, 20
Tierney, 24
Lokonga, 21
Odegaard, 22
Ramsdale, 23
White, 23
Tomiyasu, 22
Tavares, 21
then..
Saka, 20
ESR, 21
#revolution - and not before time.
If you can't be excited about that group over the next 3-4 years then I don't know what to tell you.
In 5 years time the oldest of that group will be 29 and the youngest still only 25.You want to know what else is significant about those players? Character. Look down the list. They ALL have the right mentality to supplement their talent. No surprise and gives even more of an insight into the current strategy.
However, being young, it WILL take time for them to gel as a group and become consistent. They WILL make mistakes. They WILL lose some games they shouldn't. They WON'T always be on top form. I understand that it is going to take 2-3 years before we can seriously challenge. Till then, I will be happy to see progress and as long as we get top 6 and push towards top 4 this season (not miles away), the future remains bright.
Unfortunately, we have some cancerous fans who will actively try and destroy the confidence of this young group at EVERY opportunity. One mistake will be reason for them to call a player shit and write off their whole career. My biggest hope is that those fans fail miserably and the players get the support they need to progress.
We will have more players to come in too - striker(s) - one or 2 depending on what happens with Nketiah and Balogun.. and probably another defender and DM... but once they come in and the deadwood and ageing players are gone we're in good shape (great shape actually) and I am mightily impressed with how quickly we have changed our outlook to a significantly more positive one from where we were.