Re: **Official Other Games Thread, Season 2012/13**
Well, we lost Graham Carr to Saudi Sportswashing Machine because of his rift with Redknapp - could be a possible factor, considering how well Saudi Sportswashing Machine have done in getting decent players on the cheap since then. We also lost our club secretary to Man United, though I'm not sure how big of a loss that is. Then you have Comolli, though Comolli is hit-and-miss (indeed, his tactic seems to be to throw money at everyone).
We still don't have a proper head of scouting at this moment.
***
The other big thing that I don't think is brought up often enough is that the environment for us has changed enormously in the last few years. For one thing, we have improved, which means we must target a higher level of player to improve our first team - and yet we actually have less money to do so, because of rising wages. We had a larger transfer chest than many other clubs in this league because we were maximizing our income streams while minimizing wages - however, that's been squeezed by the impossibility of keeping down wages in a market where we want to compete for top four (seven into four don't go...). So now we have to sell to buy, whereas before we had an extra ~20m every summer or so for transfers.
Moreover - for the last few years, the likes of Chelsea and Emirates Marketing Project have been hoovering up the young talent that we would normally set our sights to, since they can just hoard them and loan them out. Meanwhile, Liverpool have fallen to our level but have more money, so now we compete in the same market as them; same goes for clubs like Saudi Sportswashing Machine who have gotten much smarter in the market, while sensible smaller clubs like Swansea and Southampton - who mimic our model, at a lower level - have popped up. So the prices for coveted young players have risen extraordinarily - can you imagine a player like A-OX going for 12m even five years ago?
German teams have the advantage of getting first pick on the young Germans, who are much cheaper and probably amongst the best in the world. Holtby was an exception because he really wanted to come to England, but even the likes of Son Heung-min look like they'd rather stay in Germany. I don't blame them either - it's a great place to develop, with fantastic atmosphere and entertaining games.
Well, we lost Graham Carr to Saudi Sportswashing Machine because of his rift with Redknapp - could be a possible factor, considering how well Saudi Sportswashing Machine have done in getting decent players on the cheap since then. We also lost our club secretary to Man United, though I'm not sure how big of a loss that is. Then you have Comolli, though Comolli is hit-and-miss (indeed, his tactic seems to be to throw money at everyone).
We still don't have a proper head of scouting at this moment.
***
The other big thing that I don't think is brought up often enough is that the environment for us has changed enormously in the last few years. For one thing, we have improved, which means we must target a higher level of player to improve our first team - and yet we actually have less money to do so, because of rising wages. We had a larger transfer chest than many other clubs in this league because we were maximizing our income streams while minimizing wages - however, that's been squeezed by the impossibility of keeping down wages in a market where we want to compete for top four (seven into four don't go...). So now we have to sell to buy, whereas before we had an extra ~20m every summer or so for transfers.
Moreover - for the last few years, the likes of Chelsea and Emirates Marketing Project have been hoovering up the young talent that we would normally set our sights to, since they can just hoard them and loan them out. Meanwhile, Liverpool have fallen to our level but have more money, so now we compete in the same market as them; same goes for clubs like Saudi Sportswashing Machine who have gotten much smarter in the market, while sensible smaller clubs like Swansea and Southampton - who mimic our model, at a lower level - have popped up. So the prices for coveted young players have risen extraordinarily - can you imagine a player like A-OX going for 12m even five years ago?
German teams have the advantage of getting first pick on the young Germans, who are much cheaper and probably amongst the best in the world. Holtby was an exception because he really wanted to come to England, but even the likes of Son Heung-min look like they'd rather stay in Germany. I don't blame them either - it's a great place to develop, with fantastic atmosphere and entertaining games.
