Quote:
Originally Posted by MrKingsley
'Buying' success has been around for decades at this stage. The richest clubs will always want the top players and be willing to pay the top prices to get them. Of course theres different ways of doing it.
- United have time and time again out spent everyone in the transfer market but because its been over 15/20 years it seems people give them a pass on it.
- City and chelsea have spend roughly the same amount of money as them but done it in a 4/5 year blitz so it appears that theyve bought theyre success
- Real and Barca and historically always looked to get the best players in the world and spent massive amounts of money doing so
However I hold absolutely no grugde towards city or Chelsea. The fact is that the traditionally bigger clubs have over the past 15 years inflated the prices in the transfer market so in order to get competitive quickly they had to equal their opponents spending power but over a shorter period of time.
To be honest if spurs had spent their money more wisely over the 07-10 period (Bentley, Bent, Crouch, Pav, Giovani, hutton, Woodgate for example) we could have been accused of doing the same thing.
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Actually, there is a huge difference between what United do and how City and Chelsea have behaved. The former have a sustainable business model and fund their massive outlays on players through the profit that they make every year (Ok, the Glazer situation has complicated things, but they are still a well-run club). I have absolutley no problem with a club doing that, as you reap the rewards from running a healthy business.
City and Chelsea, however, are completely different: They haven't earned the money that they spend, and indeed lose every year. It's tantamount to financial doping as neither club have a realistic chance of ever breaking even. Hell, City spent 106% of their
turnover in 2010 on wages alone! Personally I wouldn't like if Spurs went down this route. My firm belief is that a club's success should be because of what they themselves have earned through careful management or implementing a long-term plan, etc. Otherwise the club loses a lot of its soul, for lack of a better word. I couldn't really value Spurs' trophy wins if they were taken over by an oligarch since, if the owner had of taken a liking to another team's kit, it could have been Everton or Wigan or whoever else's name on the cup instead.
Besides, with FFP coming in, Levy's financial prudency will hopefully be vindicated. I'd much rather that we live within our means than potentially end up as another Leeds United in our quest for glory.