Do we expect too much??

[Craig_H]

Well, that's not a fallacy. During the Abramovich era, Chelsea have outspent us each season, maybe last year being an exception. As for United, well I'm pretty certain they've spent more than us too.

You have to take into account the money we've recouped (under Rafa) and take it as a net spent! This doesn't add up if you aren't taking this into consideration.

I'm not talking about chelsea, i'm talking about Man Utd.

And when i mention the money, i AM talking in net spend.

Rather than philosophising over the usual excuses, research the actual numbers and see for yourself. You might feel pretty certain, but you're wrong.

[Joe King]

Insha-Allah.

[Craig_H]

Since the start of the Premiership though we've had 3 "revolutions" which means lots of changes, lots of players, and lots of money. United have had the stability (which has occurred due to their level of success) over the same period to purchase higher value players.

In my opinion, there is a big difference in spending "habits" even if the gross/net amounts are similar

That's true, but why have we had these revolutions? It's because the manager(s) have spent poorly and fecked us up, meaning a replacement's been needed.

It's all inter-linked. Our problems are of our own making, they arent due to being financially deprived.

[Imy]

Our expectation as always is silverware and at least to challenge for the Premiership, realistically we are still a few years away from the Premiership - I actually wonder whether in my lifetime we will see us win the League again

I say this as many a giant has fallen, look what happened to teams like Wolves, Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest even Spurs - realistically how many of these are going to win the League? they had their time and now they are mediocre.

Insha-Allah.

Insha - Allah

[einar]

I'm not talking about chelsea, i'm talking about Man Utd.

And when i mention the money, i AM talking in net spend.

Rather than philosophising over the usual excuses, research the actual numbers and see for yourself. You might feel pretty certain, but you're wrong.

The fact is we have never been abel to compete with Man U for players and our most expensive player before Torres was 14m

They have had many players for more then 20m

They are far richer then we are and have been for a long time.

That means they can spend very differently and as said before on far more expensive players.

[Tee]

The fact is we have never been abel to compete with Man U for players and our most expensive player before Torres was 14m

They have had many players for more then 20m

They are far richer then we are and have been for a long time.

That means they can spend very differently and as said before on far more expensive players.

Which was the whole point in getting new owners in.

It is all about money and resources.

[Slim]

United were able to go out last summer and spend over £30m on two virtual unknowns - Nani and Anderson.

Now whatever way you look at it, that is hard to compete with.

[Guest]

The fact is we have never been abel to compete with Man U for players and our most expensive player before Torres was 14m

They have had many players for more then 20m

They are far richer then we are and have been for a long time.

That means they can spend very differently and as said before on far more expensive players.

Sydney, take note.

[fred_plasticine]

it's not about the money, i'm not having that.
2006 we finished a point behind united. both them and us have kept their key players from that season.
united bought only added carrick, a player who hardly set the world on fire, kept it simple and was rather laughed at than anything else.
the main differnce is that their key players have gone from strength to strength ever since while some of our's had inconsistent seasons.
united's success this season has been first and foremost built on an excellent defence, as excellent as our's in 2006. yet our defence has been shakey and while injuries haven't helped, it's rather down to player's performances.
you can add 20-odd million men each season it won't improve your overall performances if other key players lose their form which is what happened to us.
pako said the squad's not mentally ready for a title push just yet.
the performances vindicated him i'd say.

[BFG]

it's not about the money, i'm not having that.
2006 we finished a point behind united. both them and us have kept their key players from that season.
united bought only added carrick, a player who hardly set the world on fire, kept it simple and was rather laughed at than anything else.
the main differnce is that their key players have gone from strength to strength ever since while some of our's had inconsistent seasons.
united's success this season has been first and foremost built on an excellent defence, as excellent as our's in 2006. yet our defence has been shakey and while injuries haven't helped, it's rather down to player's performances.
you can add 20-odd million men each season it won't improve your overall performances if other key players lose their form which is what happened to us.
pako said the squad's not mentally ready for a title push just yet.
the performances vindicated him i'd say.

Not really, we just don't have quite enough quality at the moment. Mentally we're fine as a CL semi final in a year where we've been in the papers every day, our assistant manager left etc etc proves.

Next season Babel will be better (just as Ronaldo has improved greatly since 06) Torres will be more settled and if we add another player or two with similar quality to Nando we'll continue to improve as a whole.

It is about the money. If we spend the same as Utd but it's spread over 5 or 6 players and theirs over 2 or 3 their individual quality of purchase will be better. Rafa now has the squad so he can start spending big on one or two as long as we have some of our loan money left.

[Rishi73]

Another way of looking at this situation is the players we missed out on. The two big one's were Vidic and Evra, there is no doubt these two would of improved our team greatly (luckily we found a jem in Agger) but Man U's outbid us coz they had the money to spend. We also missed out on Augero who has been immense at Athletico, we also missed out on Simao who would of given us that all important width. I think Rafa has done well with the amount of money we have had to spend but unfortunately we have been unable to compete with the Mancs and as a result have missed out on players that would have us challenging for the title. However I think we are at a point where we have a strong enough squad to splash out the season's budget on one or two quality players to help bring us closer to the title.

I also agree with fred_plasticine and that our defence has been weaker than previous seasons which was previously our strength, I think this has mainly been down to injuries. On the other hand Rafa has improved our attack greatly, I think once the defence is settled again I expect us to be challenging for the title next season.

[einar]

Another way of looking at this situation is the players we missed out on. The two big one's were Vidic and Evra, there is no doubt these two would of improved our team greatly (luckily we found a jem in Agger) but Man U's outbid us coz they had the money to spend. We also missed out on Augero who has been immense at Athletico, we also missed out on Simao who would of given us that all important width. I think Rafa has done well with the amount of money we have had to spend but unfortunately we have been unable to compete with the Mancs and as a result have missed out on players that would have us challenging for the title. However I think we are at a point where we have a strong enough squad to splash out the season's budget on one or two quality players to help bring us closer to the title.

I also agree with fred_plasticine and that our defence has been weaker than previous seasons which was previously our strength, I think this has mainly been down to injuries. On the other hand Rafa has improved our attack greatly, I think once the defence is settled again I expect us to be challenging for the title next season.

Alves, Villa

[rage]

i expect us to compete. we've failed to do so since roy evans!

its not about the money, we've spent plenty -net, gross however you want to describe it since the premiership was created we've been up there with the biggest spenders. the problem has been the mistakes at managerial level and the shipping out of one manager's squad players to be replaced by the next manager's squad players.

Rafa has had 4 years to build his foundations imo we will have a chance to compete next year if he does the following:

- concentrate on buying first team players in the window, prioritizing fullbacks, a right sided midfielder and a striker - no more squad fillers or tomorrows heroes and definitely no more central midfielders!
- adapt his squad policy and change it to one of minimal changes after our first 11 has settled in the premiership instead of chopping and changing early on in the season
- the **** at board level being sorted

[rage]

Alves, Villa

compete

[AFII]

Third as best is what we should expect until DIC buy the club.

You can't just take figures on how much we and United have spent. United had a far better squad when they started to spend the big bucks and also the same manager with the same system.

They also had a lot better youth system than us and that also means that they will get more for the youth team players they sell on.

Rafa for example had to build up the whole club again from top to bottom and couldn't afford to gamble on quality before quantity because it would be a disaster if we missed out on the CL.

There are so many things you will have to count in, not just how much money you spend.