General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

His style of football is such a perfect vision it simply wouldn't work at other clubs ,

I honestly believe he is the best manger in the world for the best players ,like the Everton Job there if you said pick Pep or Dyche to save them id pick Dyche all day Peps football wouldn't work his had would explode watching them trying to perform what he wants in training ,

When United dominated in the 90s, they were only the highest spenders in 1 out of 9 seasons. They had a handful of expensive signings but most of the squads were homegrown or bargains

I tried to google it, without success. did find a comparison to liverpool, but that is only comparing two sides.

Not sure on the numbers - 13million for United for 98/99 season? Didn't we sign Stam and Yorke that year for 27million?

even if seasons if it is financial accounts it could be money actually spent that year rather than transfer fees agreed that year. (ie. Unite dbought Yorke and Stam for 27million but maybe the deals were agreed in two payments - so 13.5 million that season and same again the following season). Seems a likely answer.

Overall the numbers are probably close, given the timeline.

Yeah, you'd think so. Keane was the first 50k footballer in the PL iirc, though United almost lost him over that one.

As far as I could see United had the 6th highest cumulative spend in the Premier League by the end of the 90s (mainly due to 98/99).

United were the 19th highest spenders in the PL in 95/96 (pretty sure Sunderland outspent us in the Championship as well) and went on to win the double.

TBF Man Utd also the 'luxury' of having 6 important first team players for this whole period that came through their academy. Obviously it was a luxury gained, through successful youth coaching but in the context of looking at transfer spend for clubs throughout a decade, not having to buy a new spine of a team every time the manager changes helps. It was a once in a generation occurrence, and taken advantage of to great success.

You could frame it that Man Utd had the 6th highest spend while only mainly buying supplementary players as they already had their key players in place.

Clubs go through periods where they have 2 or 3 important first team players come through their academy at the same time, but having 6 at the same time is relatively unheard of, bar Barcelona in the 00s & 10s.

That stat about having a very low spend in 98/99 is a bit skewed too. You could say that the majority of that team was bought the season previous when they had the highest. It's like Man City now having a lower net spend after a decade of sustained heavy investment with all those players now making up the squad. One swallow doesn't make a summer as the saying goes.

Consistent spending is far more noticeable rather than an up and down model as it allows sustained squad refreshment rather than once every 5 years and a stop-start rebuild IMO.

Was asking that the other day about Foden. Pep hasn’t played him since the World Cup. He might have been injured initially but recently he’s just been benched. I don’t get it, he’s far superior to Grealish. City are so strong Pep can get away with chopping and changing things that he might say keeps them all fresh and on their toes but at times it just seems whimsical.

When it comes to the business end of the CL in particular they’ll put the ball into space for Haaland to latch onto and the whimsical tinkering will stop. That or they’ll fail to win the Champions League again.

The unsubstantiated rumors are he is on the naughty step. My guess reading between the lines(and a few city fans are thinking the same) is that there may have been a falling out between him and cancelo. In the derby game they noticeably didnt pass to each other on a few occasions. One has since left and the other has barely played. Add in Fodens form since the world cup has been awful, has looked like he wasnt trying in some games which the fans have picked up on. Foden usually gets a free pass from city fans so it shows how poor hes been that its been talked about alot recently.

I think Arsenal will get around 80-85 points. Don’t think they are capable of 90.

wonder is it an accountancy thing? Becuse the fee is after January does it count in the Summer window? Maybe it makes no difference. Only reason I can think of for it to be so easily triggered.

Accepting the 90 point plus requirement without addressing the elephant in the room is silly though.

There is very little most teams can do so get 90 plus unless you are city (aot Liverpool striking gold in three seasons).

You state it like it's the new target teams will have to achieve but I doubt anyone other than City ever will.

You can see it in recent posts in their thread. The justifications will be immense. All those years saying all those things about how City were a fake club, etc. Forgotten in the blink of an eye.