Just Think About It...

[ningnangnong]

This time last year, if you had of told me that we would have Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres in our team i would've sent you to a psychiatric ward.

I still can't believe we have signed (Mascherano maybe not) two world class players like this.

Even to a lesser extent, people like Ryan Babel and Lucas are two of the best young players going around.

Bring on the title.

[Jayesh87]

This time last year, if you had of told me that we would have Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres in our team i would've sent you to a psychiatric ward.

I still can't believe we have signed (Mascherano maybe not) two world class players like this.

Even to a lesser extent, people like Ryan Babel and Lucas are two of the best young players going around.

Bring on the title.

The problem is that the Mancs/Chavs have been doing this for years already so we are already behind them. It looks like they will continue to do this aswell and its not like we can say with a great deal of certantity that we will continue to add world-class players to our squad without selling any.

[ningnangnong]

The problem is that the Mancs/Chavs have been doing this for years already so we are already behind them. It looks like they will continue to do this aswell and its not like we can say with a great deal of certantity that we will continue to add world-class players to our squad without selling any.

You have a point there Milky.

We need to continue moving forward with our signings or we'll never catch them up.

I don't want to go another fifteen years of mediocrity in the league, now is the time to build on our squad.

[AFII]

The problem is that the Mancs/Chavs have been doing this for years already so we are already behind them. It looks like they will continue to do this aswell and its not like we can say with a great deal of certantity that we will continue to add world-class players to our squad without selling any.

Rafa need to stay and be backed in the transfer market every year. If a top class player is available and Rafa want him then he should get a chance to sign him.

He may miss out of him but the money must be there so he at least have a chance to sign him.

If Rafa isn't backed for a year then we will lose ground on the top and everyone has seen how difficult it's to take back lost ground.

[dww]

I think we need to take a look at what has happened at Arsenal and see how we can learn from it. The key thing here is that they haven't splurged more than us each year - they have relied on their scouting and coaching to mean that they can build a good team and squad. In part this is because they have always started with the nucleus of a very good side and in recent years we have had to spend money to catch up on the years that Wenger has had to set up the club.

Now however I believe we have a good platform in the squad to move forward and a selection of young players who can improve and make a better team without the need to constantly try and sign a £20m player each summer. Having said that part of our current squad is Mascher who would cost the majority of that amount.

The way to make up lost ground for me is to develop players like the much talked about Lucas, Babel and Insua and give them a chance in the way Wenger has with some of his young players. I think at the minute Babel is being used sensibly but I worry that competition for CM positions is holding Lucas back. Insua may simply be too young (even Wenger took a long time to ease defenders like Clichy, Traore etc. into his team and in the long run this seems to be paying dividends).

I also think we have in the attacking department made too many conservative gambles in the transfer market. I think that the signing of Babel a young prospect with great potential but who needed/needs a lot of work is a move in the right direction. I think we need to back our ability to spot flair players and our coaches ability to improve them more. Garcia worked out well. However we need to work on our ability to spot players who can step up for around the £10m or less mark - look at how well Wenger has bought with Adebeyor and Eduardo or lower in the league some of Harry Redknapp's signings.

The club will be run as a business with relatively limited funds (compared with Chelsea/United) for the foreseeable future there is no point pretending that we can expect to spend £30m+ nett each season as some would like. Rafa seems to have made the first steps towards a sustainable future with his youth signings but at this stage he really needs to start showing faith in some of them if they are to blossom.

[The Erectile Banana]

I think we need to take a look at what has happened at Arsenal and see how we can learn from it. The key thing here is that they haven't splurged more than us each year - they have relied on their scouting and coaching to mean that they can build a good team and squad. In part this is because they have always started with the nucleus of a very good side and in recent years we have had to spend money to catch up on the years that Wenger has had to set up the club.

Now however I believe we have a good platform in the squad to move forward and a selection of young players who can improve and make a better team without the need to constantly try and sign a £20m player each summer. Having said that part of our current squad is Mascher who would cost the majority of that amount.

The way to make up lost ground for me is to develop players like the much talked about Lucas, Babel and Insua and give them a chance in the way Wenger has with some of his young players. I think at the minute Babel is being used sensibly but I worry that competition for CM positions is holding Lucas back. Insua may simply be too young (even Wenger took a long time to ease defenders like Clichy, Traore etc. into his team and in the long run this seems to be paying dividends).

I also think we have in the attacking department made too many conservative gambles in the transfer market. I think that the signing of Babel a young prospect with great potential but who needed/needs a lot of work is a move in the right direction. I think we need to back our ability to spot flair players and our coaches ability to improve them more. Garcia worked out well. However we need to work on our ability to spot players who can step up for around the £10m or less mark - look at how well Wenger has bought with Adebeyor and Eduardo or lower in the league some of Harry Redknapp's signings.

The club will be run as a business with relatively limited funds (compared with Chelsea/United) for the foreseeable future there is no point pretending that we can expect to spend £30m+ nett each season as some would like. Rafa seems to have made the first steps towards a sustainable future with his youth signings but at this stage he really needs to start showing faith in some of them if they are to blossom.

Great post dww.

We should be looking at Arsenal as our model for success not United or Chelsea.

We've never spent as much money as these clubs and it's unrealistic to think we will start now just because we have no owners.

We're not too far off the top, we're certainly a lot closer than some people here are making out. If we invest wisely in a mixture of youth and a few top class individuals we could be in a very healthy position in a year or two.

This strategy might not pay immediate dividends but the club would reap the benefits in the long term.

[AFII]

I think we need to take a look at what has happened at Arsenal and see how we can learn from it. The key thing here is that they haven't splurged more than us each year - they have relied on their scouting and coaching to mean that they can build a good team and squad. In part this is because they have always started with the nucleus of a very good side and in recent years we have had to spend money to catch up on the years that Wenger has had to set up the club.

Now however I believe we have a good platform in the squad to move forward and a selection of young players who can improve and make a better team without the need to constantly try and sign a £20m player each summer. Having said that part of our current squad is Mascher who would cost the majority of that amount.

The way to make up lost ground for me is to develop players like the much talked about Lucas, Babel and Insua and give them a chance in the way Wenger has with some of his young players. I think at the minute Babel is being used sensibly but I worry that competition for CM positions is holding Lucas back. Insua may simply be too young (even Wenger took a long time to ease defenders like Clichy, Traore etc. into his team and in the long run this seems to be paying dividends).

I also think we have in the attacking department made too many conservative gambles in the transfer market. I think that the signing of Babel a young prospect with great potential but who needed/needs a lot of work is a move in the right direction. I think we need to back our ability to spot flair players and our coaches ability to improve them more. Garcia worked out well. However we need to work on our ability to spot players who can step up for around the £10m or less mark - look at how well Wenger has bought with Adebeyor and Eduardo or lower in the league some of Harry Redknapp's signings.

The club will be run as a business with relatively limited funds (compared with Chelsea/United) for the foreseeable future there is no point pretending that we can expect to spend £30m+ nett each season as some would like. Rafa seems to have made the first steps towards a sustainable future with his youth signings but at this stage he really needs to start showing faith in some of them if they are to blossom.

Top post.

We should use some of our young players instead of players like Sissoko and Voronin. Play Lucas instead of Sissoko and Nemeth for example instead of Voronin. They would be eased into the league, not playing to much and players at that age need to play to reach their full potential.

That works for everyone else, why wouldn't it work for us?

And don't come up with that Nemeth have only played in three reserve team games. He need to play with better players, that means the first team, to take the next step.

Our reserves isn't exactly a step up from the Hungarian league. I don't think playing four, five games in the the league and FA Cup would be to much and he can't do any worse than Voronin, can he?

Some people clearly thinks that we should sign a young player and then don't give them any chance at all. That is totally rubbish.

Play them in the league at home against teams like Wigan, Derby, Fulham, bottom of the table teams instead of playing a player like Voronin against them who probably wouldn't deliver more than Nemeth.

We have good enough players in the rest of the starting XI to be able to cope easing a young player into the league.

[carlton]

The problem is that the Mancs/Chavs have been doing this for years already so we are already behind them. It looks like they will continue to do this aswell and its not like we can say with a great deal of certantity that we will continue to add world-class players to our squad without selling any.

Thats true but given the lack of funds we are not that far off them and shows what a good job the Manager has done. Its not like we get played off the park when we play these sides and we are maybe 1 or 2 quality players from turning those 1-0 into draws or wins. I also have faith in our youth set up, we appear to have some cracking young players and some good coaches. I dont expect much to happen in Jan transfer wise but summer will be very important to state the obvious.

[The Birdman]

I think we've only just got to the stage where we can begin to be competitive.
People forget that it is a near miricle that Rafa has got us to 2 Champ Lge finals in 3 years when Fergie with all Man U's resources and continued domestic success has managed it only once in 20 odd years, Wenger once in over 10 years and Chelsea never despite all the money thrown at it by Roman.
I think we'll see Riise leave either in Jan or at the end of the season which will allow Insua more games even allowing for the fact he is still 18/19. We all know Momo is leaving which will give more games to Lucas, Babel features every week either from the start or as sub and I think Rafa is handling him brilliantly by using him sparingly making sure he adjusts to the different system and positions without burning him out.
If the money is available I would like to see 1 winger and a top quality striker, if it isn't then I would want 2 top quality attacking full backs who should be cheaper to buy.
We're at the stage now where we need 1 maybe 2 major signings every summer with a regular stream of youngsters coming in

[Robster007]

Another great post by dww, but, using Arsenal as a benchmark is a strange choice for me. Yes, they play beautiful football, yes they have some very talented players, yes they have an excellent manager, no they've won **** all.

We've won more than them in the last 5 years (I say with some certainty but without checking), haven't we finished above them for the past 2 seasons?

Milkman says we can't use Chelsea and the scum as an example, but their records over the past few seasons (the past 15 in the case of the scum), speak for themselves.

I'm not for spending fortunes on players and buying the title, in fact, I despise the thought of that even though we did the same to some degree in the 80's and with a great deal of success. I do believe that investing in youth is definitely an essential PART of what we need to do, but I also believe in order to start winning the title the way things are currently, we unfortunately need to start splashing the cash.

[Nic83]

This time last year, if you had of told me that we would have Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres in our team i would've sent you to a psychiatric ward.

I still can't believe we have signed (Mascherano maybe not) two world class players like this.

Even to a lesser extent, people like Ryan Babel and Lucas are two of the best young players going around.

Bring on the title.

I did tell you all this, this time last year. I was actually on my way OUT of the psych ward at the time though.

[Jayesh87]

I remember last Feb when Gillett was talking at the press conference and mentioned that if selling the naming rights to the 'new anfield' would mean we could sign a 1 extra world class player a year, would it be worth it?

I have to say it would be worth it, especially as we are playing catch-up to the teams above us and us the fans will always call the stadium Anfield even if it was called 'Adidas Anfield Stadium' or wateva.

But now, maybe if we sold the rights to the stadium it would go towards paying of the debts they have accumalated.

IMO we have the best squad since i can remember and we are 2/3 players away from having something vert special and with the reserves/academy atm, we could have saved millions as their are some exciting players coming through. Its just frustrating that these debts could stop us adding those few quality additions we need to be the best.

[mersey86]

Top post. Agree.

We should use some of our young players instead of players like Sissoko and Voronin. But Sissoko is a young player. If we could develop his game he could be right up there.Play Lucas instead of Sissoko and Nemeth for example instead of Voronin. They would be eased into the league, not playing to much and players at that age need to play to reach their full potential. Lucas seems ready. As for Nemeth, I really don't think he is yet. Rafa did a good job easing Agger into the team. Nemeth has a lot of potential but we need to nurture it well.


Some people clearly thinks that we should sign a young player and then don't give them any chance at all. That is totally rubbish.
I would like to see some of the younger players getting some league experience, but other than Arsenal the top teams really do not do that. Pique has played for United, but he has been on the fringes for some time.

Play them in the league at home against teams like Wigan, Derby, Fulham, bottom of the table teams instead of playing a player like Voronin against them who probably wouldn't deliver more than Nemeth. Its not a bad point, though I wish we had a little more quality as backup striker.

We have good enough players in the rest of the starting XI to be able to cope easing a young player into the league.

[dww]

Another great post by dww, but, using Arsenal as a benchmark is a strange choice for me. Yes, they play beautiful football, yes they have some very talented players, yes they have an excellent manager, no they've won **** all.

We've won more than them in the last 5 years (I say with some certainty but without checking), haven't we finished above them for the past 2 seasons?

Milkman says we can't use Chelsea and the scum as an example, but their records over the past few seasons (the past 15 in the case of the scum), speak for themselves.

I'm not for spending fortunes on players and buying the title, in fact, I despise the thought of that even though we did the same to some degree in the 80's and with a great deal of success. I do believe that investing in youth is definitely an essential PART of what we need to do, but I also believe in order to start winning the title the way things are currently, we unfortunately need to start splashing the cash.

I think the point is fair in that the use of Arsenal as a benchmark of sorts does need justifying and I would so in this way:

1/ Our aim has to include the idea of winning the PL which as we have seen in recent seasons involves different criteria to doing well in the CL. Arsenal have done that using the policies I have described and are so far this season competing better than we are.

2/ Until they finished the Emirates their financial situation was comparable to our present one.

Obviously there are counter arguments to both points and I'm not saying that we wouldn't benefit from getting a few £20m+ players in. However, realistically, this is unlikely so we need to find a model to improve the team without doing so. For me Arsenal are the team who have shown what can be done with (relatively) limited resources.

[Robster007]

I think the point is fair in that the use of Arsenal as a benchmark of sorts does need justifying and I would so in this way:

1/ Our aim has to include the idea of winning the PL which as we have seen in recent seasons involves different criteria to doing well in the CL. Arsenal have done that using the policies I have described and are so far this season competing better than we are.

2/ Until they finished the Emirates their financial situation was comparable to our present one.

Obviously there are counter arguments to both points and I'm not saying that we wouldn't benefit from getting a few £20m+ players in. However, realistically, this is unlikely so we need to find a model to improve the team without doing so. For me Arsenal are the team who have shown what can be done with (relatively) limited resources.