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googbye top 4

Jurgen the German said:
So are the chairmen who allowed to him to raise the wage bill blameless?
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we either pay high wages OR high transfer fee's - we can't do both, maybe after years of spending big on transfers and not getting very far we decided that higher wages is a better route to success . . .

either way i don't think Modric THFC is blaming anyone, just explaining the situation
 
billyiddo said:
we either pay high wages OR high transfer fee's - we can't do both, maybe after years of spending big on transfers and not getting very far we decided that higher wages is a better route to success . . .

either way i don't think Modric THFC is blaming anyone, just explaining the situation
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It was more of a retort to the rhetoric that he is solely to blame for financial failings of Portsmouth, Southampton, West Ham, insert club here.
 
he wasn't solely to blame, no

it's a tricky situation for chairmen - don't back him and you get supporters on your back, back him fully and risk putting yourself in financial trouble.

think Levy done as good a job as anyone could have working with a Redknapp type manager
 
Modric THFC said:
I didnt even say it was a bad thing.
I'm just explaining why we dont spend at much on transfer fees as we used to.
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But you did say "even if it's not entirely down to Redknapp" and I just wanted to point out it's not at all. He shouldn't be mentioned unless it's to praise him for taking us the level where players demand more money. You don't sign the likes of VDV unless you are a top club. Players want their contracts to reflect their status in the game. If we are a top 4 club, they want top 4 deals. We can either agree to those terms or sell the players. It's simply down to the fact the cost of doing business at the top end of the table is more than in mid table. Basically if we are doing well, we can't expect our players to stay unless we pay them more and that's why wages have gone up so much. That's not just player wages either. Mr Levy has rewarded his own good work rather well.
 
It is possible to attach some blame to Redknapp, even if just for novelty purposes. There's not really any point to it at this time, but some players were signed that he must have asked for where we could have gone for someone younger/cheaper/whatever. He wants experience, preferably from the PL, and that adds to the costs. What happened at Portsmouth was probably more Redknapp having too much influence and a macaronic chairman who couldn't say no. Like Ridsdale at Leeds.
 
As usual it's not an black/white situation. There are degrees of "blame" and it will vary from transfer to transfer who decided what and so forth.

It's rarely one man's fault in any kind of situation.
 
Harry said it was Lewis who effectively fired him. Not sure our "sleeping" partner should be calling the shots from his poolside lounger in Barbados.
 
billyiddo said:
we either pay high wages OR high transfer fee's - we can't do both, maybe after years of spending big on transfers and not getting very far we decided that higher wages is a better route to success . . .

either way i don't think Modric THFC is blaming anyone, just explaining the situation
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I don't think that's true though. If you look at wage increases prior to CL qualification they were in line with previous increases. There is no evidence to suggest we changed our minds about strategy. The wage increases really only shot up once we were in the CL and then we only signed 4 players.

I think the difference is, in the past we moved players on before they got to the stage where they were on big deals. But now we've had many quality players since they were young and they want wages that reflect how good they've become. When the likes of Bale and Lennon announce contract extensions, we all celebrate, but have to keep in mind the wage bill has just shot up some more.
 
Rossi22 said:
Harry said it was Lewis who effectively fired him. Not sure our "sleeping" partner should be calling the shots from his poolside lounger in Barbados.
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He is the majority shareholder, he can do what he wants. What we as fans want is a different matter.
 
Jordinho said:
It is possible to attach some blame to Redknapp, even if just for novelty purposes. There's not really any point to it at this time, but some players were signed that he must have asked for where we could have gone for someone younger/cheaper/whatever. He wants experience, preferably from the PL, and that adds to the costs. What happened at Portsmouth was probably more Redknapp having too much influence and a macaronic chairman who couldn't say no. Like Ridsdale at Leeds.
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But the jump in wages came at a time when we signed 4 players. Yet half this board refuse to give Redknapp any credit for Sandro or VDV. How many time do people claim Levy signed VDV? Yet he can be the only one of those 4 players on really big wages. And Pienaar was only here for half of the season, so I refuse to believe his wages were so high they accounted for a good chunk of a £30 million leap.
 
joey55 said:
But the jump in wages came at a time when we signed 4 players. Yet half this board refuse to give Redknapp any credit for Sandro or VDV. How many time do people claim Levy signed VDV? Yet he can be the only one of those 4 players on really big wages. And Pienaar was only here for half of the season, so I refuse to believe his wages were so high they accounted for a good chunk of a £30 million leap.
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Pretty sure Redknapp said that Levy was the mastermind behind the vdv move. Not sure on Sandro though.
 
joey55 said:
But the jump in wages came at a time when we signed 4 players. Yet half this board refuse to give Redknapp any credit for Sandro or VDV. How many time do people claim Levy signed VDV? Yet he can be the only one of those 4 players on really big wages. And Pienaar was only here for half of the season, so I refuse to believe his wages were so high they accounted for a good chunk of a £30 million leap.
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I agree that it's mostly down to increased wages for existing players through new deals or contract clauses, but players like Gallas and Adebayor didn't come cheap. Then there's quite a few short term deals, like Saha, Nelsen, Chimbonda, Pienaar, Pletikosa to name some.
 
Spursalot said:
Pretty sure Redknapp said that Levy was the mastermind behind the vdv move. Not sure on Sandro though.
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what Redknapp said, that many seem to cling to as proof that he actually signed him, is along the lines of "we was aware that VdV was going to sign for Bayern Munich early in the summer but for some reason it fell through at the last minute, Levy was in the right place at the right time and gave me a call on deadline day telling me he had a present, if i wanted it"
 
billyiddo said:
what Redknapp said, that many seem to cling to as proof that he actually signed him, is along the lines of "we was aware that VdV was going to sign for Bayern Munich early in the summer but for some reason it fell through at the last minute, Levy was in the right place at the right time and gave me a call on deadline day telling me he had a present, if i wanted it"
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We've been through it many times :)

He was on a list of possibles, inquiries were made, but we decided to move on, then a possibility came along late in the window. Just like Lloris this time.
 
billyiddo said:
what Redknapp said, that many seem to cling to as proof that he actually signed him, is along the lines of "we was aware that VdV was going to sign for Bayern Munich early in the summer but for some reason it fell through at the last minute, Levy was in the right place at the right time and gave me a call on deadline day telling me he had a present, if i wanted it"
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And Redknapp revealed to Absolute Radio: "I spoke to Daniel about loaning him, and we spoke about loaning the player, so he said ‘Look, we can do a loan deal for Van Der Vaart’. So I said ‘Yeah, great, if we can get him on loan it would be brilliant, we’ll take him on loan’.

"Then he come back about an hour later, he said ‘Look, I’ve got a present for you, a surprise’. I said ‘Oh great’, you know, I thought ‘Oh here we go, maybe he’s going to… that old Mondeo, its done 140,000 miles’, I thought he was going to change it for me, its worth about £240. He said ‘No, I’ve bought Van Der Vaart’, so I said ‘Oh, great’, you know.

"Yeah, he’s a good player. Yeah, he is a good player, very good footballer."
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.
 
Jordinho said:
I agree that it's mostly down to increased wages for existing players through new deals or contract clauses, but players like Gallas and Adebayor didn't come cheap. Then there's quite a few short term deals, like Saha, Nelsen, Chimbonda, Pienaar, Pletikosa to name some.
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Gallas apparently did come cheap. He wanted to stay in London. But the others players don't seem to have increased the wage bill. They just seem to be replacements for players who left. Saha came from Everton, so there is no way he was on more than Pav, and the balance sheet suggests this. The same is true foo Nelson replacing Bassong. Chimbonda was bought and sold before we saw the jump in wages so is of no consequence. Pienaar was only here for half the season where our wages suddenly jumped, so it's hard to see how he could have been responsible and I can't imagine a 3rd choice GK made a difference. Adebayor is expensive, but he came on loan after the big jump in wages, so can't be part of the explanation. Also we have actually signed him independent of Redknapp, so I think it's fair to say Levy is happy to sign these players without Redknapp on his back.

Basically there was a sudden jump from one year to the next and it coincided with CL qualification. If you take away the impact that would have had, our wage bill would have grown at the usual rate.
 
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We've got a lot of young players. If we want to make Walker, Naughton and Caulker into first team players they need experience. But when we capitulate like we did at Everton and Liverpool it's partly because of their inexperience. When Rose and Townsend come back next season we will go through similar things with them (if they are good enough to be worth it).

This really was a transition season, I'm just worried we won't have money to spend for the next 6-7 years because of the stadium and we really do need it to stay competitive. Look how long it has affected Arsenal although I believe they are beginning to start spending again now.
 
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