Re: **Official Other Games Thread, Season 2012/13**
Ok, can I ask what the people who are against Levy think are the reasons for him performing his role the way he has done?
Is it that he is incompetent - that he doesn't realise that spending the money that is clearly there to spend will see us finish in a better position?
Is it that he doesn't want us to be successful, and is therefore deliberately not spending the money that is clearly there to spend because he would rather keep us in the position we are in?
Or some other reason that I can't think of right now?
Because the way I see it, he has managed us to the point where we are over-performing based on our wages and turnover. We are now competing with Arsenal and Chelsea. To expect to finish above them and see nothing else as failure is just unrealistic, flat out. I want to be competing with them and put up a real fight to get above them, but with how competitive this league is you can't just expect it.
Even if we signed Damiao and Moutinho at the start of the year, we still wouldn't definitely finish above them. And if we can't get them for the right deal for us, with the right payment structure and satisfying all parties, then we can't do it. Someone put a good example a few pages back about why we would have to pay in instalments and it just got dismissed, despite it being very likely that it is the reason why we can't just go out and spend the money how we would like to. If we are going to sign those next level players, because of our turnover, stadium size and wage structure we will have to try and get them on terms that are overly favourable to us or we won't be able to get them at all. And even if we did sign them, there's still every chance that we don't finish top 4 because Arsenal and Chelsea can still spend more. So what then?
I think personally the way it has been calculated that if we can get the players we need to take us up a level in the right structure for us, we will do it. But we will not mortgage the future of the club on those players and will wait to get the best value, and in the meantime pick up the players who will likely improve such as the Sigs and Holtbys. That way, with good management we can hopefully maintain our position which as it is, is overachieving already and hope to make a push to get even further ahead. If we spend a brick load of money we couldn't really afford, set ourselves back on the new stadium and still didn't qualify for the CL I would be fudging furious.
As it is, the way we are doing it allows us to stay ahead of the likes of Everton but maintaining financial stability and retaining our spending power so that we can finance a stadium and so that if a quality player does come along, we can go for it if the terms are favourable to us. If we were to spend money we didn't really have, there's every chance we still finish 5th only now we've lost that money, lost our footing as a club and have gambled where we didn't really need to.
But I have to ask again, why do people think Levy is doing it the way he is? Incompetence? A lack of understanding? A lack of wanting to do the best for us? It's not ultimate proof that he is doing a good job, but if you check the recent Benny interview, that is a player that seems to want to understand the business side of the club and he has maximum respect for Levy and how he runs his business. The chairman seems to have good relationships with our players, and they must be respectful of how he is running the club. There certainly doesn't seem to be any suggestion that he is holding us back from making progress due to glaring errors that everyone else can see, and instead he seems to be acknowledged as the man that has got us to this point.
