The 2nd biggest spenders since the Prem started?

[paulcooper4]

who you talking to mate?

[Rafa Shankly]

someone tell the lad about quote because im easily confused.

[Helios Creed]

"Torres - £26.5m" - kinda says it all really....

[Guest]

Right, ok....

Cisse, Morientes, Bellamy, Crouch = £34m


We've spent more or less the same as them since the start of the PL - fact.

We CAN spend £30m, we just choose to spend it on 4 average players.

So yes, you do indeed have your head in the sand.

One world class striker ... I mean world class would have cost in excess of 24m.

[dww]

I think DJS has a point - the strategy over a long period of time of both Arsenal and United has proved very successful. United have spent big one a small number of players and filled in with homegrown players and Arsenal has spent heavily on young players but have done exceptionally well at developing them.

The key to both though has been stability of manager and a solid under pinning from the youth/reserve team.

I think there is a valid argument that Rafa may have been better spending the money he has on fewer players but it is easy to say in hindsight. It is also worth wondering what the wages on all the different clubs purchases were. this may have significantly impacted on some of Rafa's choices considering the god awful wages policy that seemed to be in place under Houllier.

[Guest]

Well of course.

In most cases though, it doesnt take a genius to spot a world class talent.

It does take balls to spend big on them though. Ferguson has had the balls to do it.

Errr ... We need the cash too, not just balls !

Ferguson got the spine of this team for a fortune.

Rio Ferdinand, arguable the classiest central defender in England, for 28m.
Wayne Rooney, the best english center forward and still a young 'un, for 30m.
Ronaldo, an unknown 18 year old at the time, for 12m.
Michael Carrick, an excellent passer of the ball, for 18m.
Anderson, one of the world's most promising talent, for 18m.
Nani, in the same bracket as Anderson, for 18m.
Ruud Van Nistelroy, at the time one of the best strikers in world football, for 25 odd millions (not sure of the exact fee on this one).
Louis Saha, a talented but injury prone player, he still splashed out 12m on him, and he was an integral part of their championship winning season last time around.
Carlos Tevez, well, for upwards of 25 millions !

We never ever matched these fees in out entire history, apart from the 19m capture of Torres, which it was made out to be for 26.5m, which was pointed out by Bascombe.

Wenger has been scouring the world for the best young talent and paid huge money for them, even though it wasn't in the same level of spending as Chelsea or Man. Utd.

At the same time, Rafa had to make to do with a budget of roughly 20m, and he had to try to find ways of financing moves for a central midfielder, right winger, strikers and central defenders.

It's not that we aren't progressing, but the simple fact that other teams are spending money too and the big 3 are either spending the same or more than us, making it even more difficult to catch them.

Rafa said it at the beginning of the season. We need to steal several marches on them, in scouting the best players and brokering deals before our competitors come into play. If it's to pay over the odds for a world class player, it has to be done.

Rafa, as a coach and manager, will only get us as far, based on the sum of the parts of our team. Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin, Pennant, Kewell and some others are simply not good enough when you compare them to players in the same positions at Chelsea, Man. Utd and Arsenal. Even teams such as Man. City and Everton are roughly spending as much as ours.

Yes, it isn't spending for the sake of it, we need to spend well too, but at this level, the best players are courted by the best teams, and we need to be smarter than that. If it needs spending like Chelsea, then so be it. It's the crux of the matter for me.

Any other manager won't be able to do better.

[Tatterdemalion]

Seems to me that one of the differences is not so much how much we spend on a player, but how much we are able to recoup on players sold.

There does seem to be some truth also in the idea of us spending lots of money on groups of average players rather than lots on one player.

I've never understood the logic of buying an average player and selling a reserve for less. Surely the reserves if given a chance can step up a few gears if they are given a chance and have good players around them. Warnock is perhaps a good example (well except for the good players around him bit!)

[Guest]

Seems to me that one of the differences is not so much how much we spend on a player, but how much we are able to recoup on players sold.

There does seem to be some truth also in the idea of us spending lots of money on groups of average players rather than lots on one player.

I've never understood the logic of buying an average player and selling a reserve for less. Surely the reserves if given a chance can step up a few gears if they are given a chance and have good players around them. Warnock is perhaps a good example (well except for the good players around him bit!)

Good players won't come cheap, therefore we have to do with the rest of them, being those average players ... Rafa tried to buy the best of the rest and make them fit into a team ethic, which he's largely been successful with. But in the end, it's not good enough.

[Craig_H]

hindsight is a wonderful thing aint it?

i try not argue the same point over and over again,you really should be seeing your argument is extremely flawed without being told.

Hindsight???

If someone really couldnt see in advance that Rooney/Torres types are better than a whole bunch of average players, then never mind hindsight, i'd go for a full on labrador...

[Craig_H]

Errr ... We need the cash too, not just balls !

Ferguson got the spine of this team for a fortune.

Rio Ferdinand, arguable the classiest central defender in England, for 28m.
Wayne Rooney, the best english center forward and still a young 'un, for 30m.
Ronaldo, an unknown 18 year old at the time, for 12m.
Michael Carrick, an excellent passer of the ball, for 18m.
Anderson, one of the world's most promising talent, for 18m.
Nani, in the same bracket as Anderson, for 18m.
Ruud Van Nistelroy, at the time one of the best strikers in world football, for 25 odd millions (not sure of the exact fee on this one).
Louis Saha, a talented but injury prone player, he still splashed out 12m on him, and he was an integral part of their championship winning season last time around.
Carlos Tevez, well, for upwards of 25 millions !

We never ever matched these fees in out entire history, apart from the 19m capture of Torres, which it was made out to be for 26.5m, which was pointed out by Bascombe.

Wenger has been scouring the world for the best young talent and paid huge money for them, even though it wasn't in the same level of spending as Chelsea or Man. Utd.

At the same time, Rafa had to make to do with a budget of roughly 20m, and he had to try to find ways of financing moves for a central midfielder, right winger, strikers and central defenders.

It's not that we aren't progressing, but the simple fact that other teams are spending money too and the big 3 are either spending the same or more than us, making it even more difficult to catch them.

Rafa said it at the beginning of the season. We need to steal several marches on them, in scouting the best players and brokering deals before our competitors come into play. If it's to pay over the odds for a world class player, it has to be done.

Rafa, as a coach and manager, will only get us as far, based on the sum of the parts of our team. Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin, Pennant, Kewell and some others are simply not good enough when you compare them to players in the same positions at Chelsea, Man. Utd and Arsenal. Even teams such as Man. City and Everton are roughly spending as much as ours.

Yes, it isn't spending for the sake of it, we need to spend well too, but at this level, the best players are courted by the best teams, and we need to be smarter than that. If it needs spending like Chelsea, then so be it. It's the crux of the matter for me.

Any other manager won't be able to do better.

We had the cash, we just spread it over 5 players...

Seriously fredo, if you buy ONE young world class striker such as a Torres, you've solved half your strikeforce problem for a decade.

It's really that simple.

[Craig_H]

Good players won't come cheap, therefore we have to do with the rest of them, being those average players ... Rafa tried to buy the best of the rest and make them fit into a team ethic, which he's largely been successful with. But in the end, it's not good enough.

Nonsense fredo, even by your standards.

Good players cost money.

What's the point of spending £30m on 5 players, who flop and are sold at a combined fee of £15m the following year or two?

Just buy ONE brilliant player and leave it at that.

People may say we have other gaps to fill but when we buy average players, we're not filling those gaps, because a year later, we're back in the same boat trying to find ANOTHER player to play in that position...and why? Because we bought ****e in the first place.

Lets use Pennant as an example. £7m. And then Benayoun...£6.

£13m later, we still dont have a brilliant right sided midfielder/winger.

What was the point? If we sold them both now, we'd just about get £9m IMO.

Multiply this process by 4 or 5 (across various positions) and you see why we're ****e.

Big lump of money spent on 5 players. 18 months on, those problem positions arent sorted and the same 5 players are either squad fillers who arent good enough or sold for less than half what we paid for them.

And then we complain that we dont have enough money.

If it wasnt to depressing, it'd be funny.

[ivan]

Dirk+Pennant+Bellamy= price for Torres. I'd go for Torres any day.And I'd like one world class player in the future per year then couple of average ones.

[Craig_H]

Dirk+Pennant+Bellamy= price for Torres. I'd go for Torres any day.And I'd like one world class player in the future per year then couple of average ones.

Exactly.

The world class player will stay and succeed long after the woeful ones have gone.

[bobbyfallon]

We had the cash, we just spread it over 5 players...

Seriously fredo, if you buy ONE young world class striker such as a Torres, you've solved half your strikeforce problem for a decade.

It's really that simple.

now pay 20m plus for villa or aguero and thats the front two for at least 6 years rather than 8m here and there eventually totaling more then the 50m for 2 world beaters.

[Tatterdemalion]

now pay 20m plus for villa or aguero and thats the front two for at least 6 years rather than 8m here and there eventually totaling more then the 50m for 2 world beaters.

...and settle for Warnock at left back - I'd agree with that.