It is mad that everyone is comparing the modern era to the 50s-90s.
There are so many clubs now who are so much better than every other club due to one or both of PL/CL money (United, Arsenal, Liverpool) and financial doping (City, Chelsea).
You only have to look at the distribution of trophies between clubs over the years to see that they are being shared by a narrower and narrower set of teams. Money has hugely stratified the league and created a gulf between clubs.
And its only getting worse. A lot of people use Swansea, Wigan, Portsmouth etc. as a stick to beat Levy with. But when is the last time that sort of club won a trophy? Leicester are the only ones. Otherwise you have to go back to Wigan/Swansea in 2013. Every single other trophy has been shared between the 5 clubs mentioned above. Frankly its a miracle that we've even been this close.
The same can obviously be said for us being the only European regular outside the elite: we have also benefited from this stratification of the league. But to get to that point was a miracle from where we were in the 90s, whether we won a League Cup in 1999 or not. We could have easily been left in the doldrums like Everton, Leeds, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Villa.
Now we have comparable income streams to those other 5 clubs, which is a testament to Levy's management. He always said that CL under Poch came earlier than planned. The plan was to build the stadium and use that as a base. We now have that base. We have the stadium/revenue streams, the training ground, and the behind the scenes operation in place. We are finally ready to have a crack at the big boys.
Of course, having had the best team in the country and almost winning several trophies, there is a strong argument to say we should have just said 'fudge it' and invested at the top, like Arsenal are doing now.
The flipside is that the margins are fine and, if it backfired, we could have easily squandered all that good work and slipped down the league. We may well have not been in as strong a position on PSR/squad quality now if we'd been overspending like our rivals.
It remains to be seen what happens to (for example) Arsenal or Villa. It is 'brick or get off the pot' time for both of them with regards to finances. A couple of bad years, the top players leave, and its back down the snake to square 1 on the board. (Albeit Arsenal have very strong revenues to fall back on.) That is the risk they have taken, and one we chose not to take when we didn't sign anyone, didn't back Poch, and let that project go stale.
If you deem that risk to be unacceptable within our finances, as the club did, then you are left with 2 options: unheard of largesse from Lewis, or oil money. Neither of these was ever realistic.
I can't be sure whether that under-investment was the right approach or not, but we are in a strong position now to build from. We can (and have) invested in the squad and are making real progress on the pitch.
As is abundantly clear from this post, more money from Qatari investment would have course help. But changing the leadership who have delivered such success in such an unprecedented climate is complete lunacy IMO - regardless of their risk appetite in the Poch years.
Even if it was uncalled for, we are now in a position where the same risk appetite will yield much more investment. If we can get even more investment from selling off a bit of the club, great, but for me it can't mean getting rid of Levy. He built this club to where it is now, including laying the foundations of a footballing operation that is designed to take us to the next level.
In any case, he's staying. He wants to win the league with us and I don't expect him to quit until we do. Of course he has made mistakes but it is a punishing environment and overall I wouldn't want anyone else at the helm. His dedication and knowledge of the club are second to none and, in the long run, he has always managed to reach new heights. He is here to stay and for me has earned my backing over the past 20+ years.
I am hugely proud of what the club has done over my lifetime with all of the odds stacked against us. We have managed to muscle in on one of the most competitive and - frankly - rigged cartels in world sport.
I really do think that we are approaching a period of real promise for this club and I wish everyone would just quit moaning and get behind the fudging boys.
COYS
