If you mean relative to our standing they are great signings then I still kind don't agree. We've signed bigger names before, we've signed more talented players before, we've even signed players more on the cusp of greatness before. So again I can understand why you're so disappointed because you think they are better than they actually are.
I keep saying a different manager could in all likelyhood get us playing more attractive football, Ange just did that, so I have no disagreement there. What I disagree with is that we can play significantly better
successful football.
For me I don't care who the manager is, Poch, Pep, Klopp (well maybe Klopp actually
), this side is average. It has no stand out talents. I think at its best with a Poch esque over performance it could be top 6 but again that's searching for the Messiah manager. It's far easier to just improve on the playing pool then it is finding the mythic manager who gets 100% out of every player.
Now you're just running up the metric pole. Of COURSE we've signed 'bigger names' before than the ones I highlit.
First off, no. Not 'relative to our standing', relative to our signing policy/recruitment policy over the years. That has little to do with standing and everything to do with how we chose to go about our transfer business (I am not saying whether I agree or not BTW). We never went big on wages to beat others to signings, and we never went toe-to-toe in term of transfer fee muscle either. I mean come on, we squeezed 100 mill out of Real Madrid for Bale and spent it on 7 players rather than one or two huge replacements. We should be grateful Eriksen came through, otherwise wow...
As for 'cusp of greatness', I gave you Modric, Berbatov and Dele (Bale too of course) so yes. So not earth-shattering stuff. However, your apparent enthusiasm to write off talent such as VdV, Romero, Udogie and Kulusevski is (for me) now becoming stubbornness. As for Gray and Bergvall, let's hope they stay at this club and get coached by a top talent sooner than later, otherwise you will see them in bigger sides doing very, very well because they are potentially great players. That's not 'emotional-positive-hyperbole', it's the truth. That we had to accelrate their development through poor squad planning and desperation last season is both a curse and a blessing.
As I see it, you're beating the drum of how I am 'overrating everything' on the playing side of our club. That's fine. Again, we'll have to agree to disagree.
You talk about 'successful' football. What is 'success' to you? What are you expecting? Title after title? Every fudging time we've got ourselves in a situation to build on some good architecture, we fudge it up by never buying blue-chip materials to go the extra mile. So essentially, you're beating a drum which EVERYONE on this forum knows; we do not buy the ready-baked, elite players. We speculate on a combination of bargains and talented youth. With respects, I think anyone who has followed this club for even a modicum of time knows this; you are hardly introducing a 'wild view' on matters in that regard.
Where I think perhaps you're getting wired crossed so far as my views are that I do believe we have BETTER players than you do, and I do believe we should doing BETTER with them. Again (and this is a very important point to re-emphasize) I do not think this side can go and win the Premier League, and I am not even sure this squad (if fully fit) could grab 4th or 5th spot (albeit I DO believe it's possible with the right set-up). However the same glaring holes exist in terms of squad depth (left-hand side) and quality/type (playmaker, passer, hey - even two of them!).
What you are asking for is an investment of (I would think in current prices plus wages) of somewhere in the region of 6-700 million pounds on players to lift the squad to 'title challenge calibre' (which of course will make minimal difference if the manager is lost on how to deploy them). I do not think the Lewis Family will do that. We're seeing 150 million touted as a 'warchest' and it is a fairy large sum of money, don't get me wrong, but truthfully it is this era's 90-100 million whereby we'll get the 'next tier down' player. I suppose we need to see what happens, but I am not holding my breath thinking we're going gangbusters this January. Truth be told, I think it'd be wiser to only buy essential depth and wait for the summer to see what direction we take (sticking with Frank or going elsewhere).
I absolutely disagree with you when it comes to manager. IMO you should very much care who the manager is. They set the tone in terms of personality and intent. The manager selects the players he wants based on the style he wants to play. So it is VERY important.
An area I think we need to seriously consider upgrading is Director of Football. Lange has never fully convinced me, Paratici was always a smooth operating plaster with an agenda who delivered for us but also cost us at times, and it is my belief that IF we pin our long-term hopes on Lange as the driver of our footballing operations, we will be drifting for some time. That being said, in the short-term, we should be doing MUCH better than we are and we can play significantly better football IMO.
