DeanoAustin
Rafael Van Der Vaart
It's the lower risk long term option to support higher risk higher spending further down the line. So you can spend more with a safety net.
Plus the first class stadium and training facilities do have daily footballing benefits, whether that's attraction of players or comfort and resourced working environment.
The thing I don't get is the negativity about this direction or process. This is ENICs final act, the slow process of getting to this point is now behind us. Very few owners will take this path, they wouldn't have the stomach for it. Many would like to be in our position.
When ENIC leave the tangible assets will remain....feeding the club, the team, the new owners. That at bare minimum will mean we are a contender (unless some real rank bad management/decisions are made), above what we were and above all of our peers.
They have squeezed us up to the point that only a sugar daddy will see us better. (And even that's not guaranteed in the battle of dingdong swinging sugar daddies)
This is a fantastic post. And this is what gets me with the "ENIC Out" phalanx. They don't know who they want as far as I can see. They just want ENIC out. That's not a plan. The only way for us to kick on is if we get oil money or an Abramovich.
No other biggish club has really been improved sustainably the way that we have over the last 20 years. Look at Everton, Villa, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Leeds...all teams who were around our level or ahead of us when Levy came in. They've all had bad periods that included relegation except Everton who are on their knees and haven't won a trophy since 1995. The irony being that they're as close to relegation now as ever before since they've gotten a sugar daddy of sorts.
Levy and ENIC have taken us as far as they really can sustainably in my view. They've done a brilliant job. But the list of people who can take us further is very small. In the absence of someone with bottomless pockets coming out of the woodwork, I'd rather stick with ENIC and hope they luck out on a managerial appointment that may temporarily elevate us to trophies for a period of time.