2014 was a good vintage... Cresswell / Kouayte / Sakho / Valencia / Jenkinson / Zarate / Song (1st one which was good..) / Morgan... A big step up quality that summer year...
btw I am not Rainman, just found this nifty website...
Here's a list of clubs who might be considered similar to us, with comparative spending in the 2 years since Slav joined.
Only one club has spent more than us, Leicester, and that by less than £5 million
I think it is time to stop claiming Slav hasn't had proper funds, unless, by definition, none of the other clubs gave their manager's proper funds either.
It isn't net spend. I thought I made that clear in previous replies to you. Perhaps you didn't read them.
The simple fact is that our spending matches any of our realistic rivals in the 2 years since Slav got here. He has had the same chance, or better, than other managers of similar clubs to spend money to improve the squad.
If the squad isn't better, that is down to how the money was spent, not that it wasn't made available.
I believe Slav has been pretty well backed. You could say the daves needed to pull out one or two £30m signings to shift us towards the top 7 or 8, but the fact is probably that may be beyond them. Which is fair enough, it's their club. The real problem is we can't seem to fill any of our first team positions with players who have come through the junior ranks (putting aside the noble argument). Which in theory means they need to shell £10m plus on each and every position to make a decent fist of things (plus more to create a squad). It just ain't gonna happen.
But I think the lack of £30m signings has more to do with the insufficient appeal of the club to players worth this amount than the lack of the money from the Daves. That's the true cost of the poor refereeing (mainly over that run of draws in the Spring) last season that caused us to miss out on a Champions' League place. I think we should sue the referees' association and Olympique Marseille at the same time.
I think something else interesting is that only one of Leicester's new signings can currently make their first team. They spent an absolute fortune and didn't improve their side.
For what it's worth, I just took a look at the net spend this season for every club, according to Transfermarkt. Only 5 teams had a greater net spend than us, and two of those are below us in the table currently. I even made it into a handy little graph.
The other thing that people commonly mention is that other clubs are regularly paying significantly higher fees for players, the old 'marquee' signing thing. So, the table below shows the largest fee spend on a player by each club this season, and the % that signing made up of their overall spend.
You'll notice that we are 10th, with the traditional big clubs (Utd, City, Arsenal, LIverpool, Chelsea & Spurs) the top 6. Leicester were in the Champions League and had cash to blow, so I think the only comparable ones above as are Everton and Palace.
So, basically, we spend in line with or more than the majority of our competitors. The issue this season simply isn't that we didn't spend money. Because we did. Loads of it.
Completely agree. But that doesn't mean that we didn't have money, it means it wasn't spent wisely, which is a totally different complaint.
As an aside, I (personally) cannot be too frustrated about the players we signed, because individually I agreed with almost all of the signings (I had my reservations about Tore, Calleri & Zaza, but the rest I was happy with).
Spot on yeold - if you take out of the equation the enforced purchases of snodgrass and Fonte the only changes to last season have been Feghouli and ayew. And ayew hasn't started much. The rest of them have hardly impacted the first team in a positive way
I thought Feghouli would be good from what I had seen from his time at Valencia.
Wasn't convinced by Zaza even during the Euros he looked Pony. Tore seemed like a gamble considering all the rubbish that seemed to have come with him "Sakho mk 2" again didn't seem like a player we should recruit.
Ayew just seemed a panic buy after everything else fell through. I think he's a top quality player, and sorry i'm sure people will point out at Swansea he played up top though I dispute this... His best position whenever I had seem him play was on the left of a front 3, or tucked in behind, and we are not using him in either of those positions or even at all.
Masuaku I actually think did okay before he got injured.
January window still think Fonte and Snodgrass were poor signings. Can understand why as a replacement for Ogbonna and Payet. But I don't think shelving the 8m for a 33 year old and Snodgrass who imo isn't a top 10 player. Just didn't seem like good money spent.
Fonte is an accomplished CB, current International, EuropeanChampion and is probably thinking, like the most of us, why hasn't he got a RB next to him.
Portugal played trash one of the worst winners of the Euros to have ever happened. An achievement of luck akin to Chelsea winning the Champs league by sitting on their goal line against Barca and Bayern if I remember right.
Comments
btw I am not Rainman, just found this nifty website...
http://www.transfermarkt.nl/west-ham-united/transfers/verein/379/plus/0?saison_id=2014&pos=&detailpos=&w_s=
I came across that a few days ago to.
You can get a .uk version to see the fees in £ sterling.
I notice the loan price of Zaza cost more than the Purchase price of Cresswell...
It's a funny old game...
Left wing defender doesn't sound as much fun, does it?
Thank to 20years living in the lowlands... ;cool
;yercoat
One thing these owners are great at doing is talking the talk, especially when there is tickets to sell.
Ayew was a clear panic buy. Also 20m isn't much these days. Palace spent 60m on Benteke, Schlupp and Van Anholt... Average premier league players.
Until we have a transfer window when we invest proper money on a number of players ill keep moaning at the board.
20m on Ayew surrounded by loans and free transfers... It's hardly a shock we've gone backwards when other teams have got stronger.
A proper right back, winger, centre midfielder, striker all need to come in the summer. Not 'stop gaps' but first team players.
Do i have faith in this board to do that? No. Would love to be proved wrong though ;ok
I don't think you agree a fee with a club for a player you have no intention of signing.
I don't agree that the club have not given Slav 'proper money'.
If Ayew, signed for our record fee, was a 'panic buy' then who was doing the panicking?
I certainly wouldn't put too much trust in a manager who OK'd spanking £20m on a player he didn't want or rate.
;yercoat
Here's a list of clubs who might be considered similar to us, with comparative spending in the 2 years since Slav joined.
Only one club has spent more than us, Leicester, and that by less than £5 million
I think it is time to stop claiming Slav hasn't had proper funds, unless, by definition, none of the other clubs gave their manager's proper funds either.
(All figures taken from: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/transfers/wettbewerb/GB1 )
It isn't net spend. I thought I made that clear in previous replies to you. Perhaps you didn't read them.
The simple fact is that our spending matches any of our realistic rivals in the 2 years since Slav got here. He has had the same chance, or better, than other managers of similar clubs to spend money to improve the squad.
If the squad isn't better, that is down to how the money was spent, not that it wasn't made available.
(You said about how much he has had to spend... without mentioning the players we have sold. Which is quite an important part IMO )
I'm not saying Bilic deserves a free pass, because of course he is to blame as well. But so are the board. This is just my opinion though ;ok
You can blame who you want.
But if you persist in claiming that the board have not backed Slav with proper funds, you are flying in the face of the evidence.
Whether or not the board could have given him more - that isn't really the point?
Unless you are arguing at cross-purposes. ;hmm
The Hammers are also considering a move to sign Juventus and Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic, 30. (Sun)
Only problem is hes more of a second striker then lone front man but if he's affordable then I'd be keen
Mandzukic is out of our league I think but hopefully Bilic can convince him
I think something else interesting is that only one of Leicester's new signings can currently make their first team. They spent an absolute fortune and didn't improve their side.
The other thing that people commonly mention is that other clubs are regularly paying significantly higher fees for players, the old 'marquee' signing thing. So, the table below shows the largest fee spend on a player by each club this season, and the % that signing made up of their overall spend.
You'll notice that we are 10th, with the traditional big clubs (Utd, City, Arsenal, LIverpool, Chelsea & Spurs) the top 6. Leicester were in the Champions League and had cash to blow, so I think the only comparable ones above as are Everton and Palace.
So, basically, we spend in line with or more than the majority of our competitors. The issue this season simply isn't that we didn't spend money. Because we did. Loads of it.
Completely agree. But that doesn't mean that we didn't have money, it means it wasn't spent wisely, which is a totally different complaint.
As an aside, I (personally) cannot be too frustrated about the players we signed, because individually I agreed with almost all of the signings (I had my reservations about Tore, Calleri & Zaza, but the rest I was happy with).
Wasn't convinced by Zaza even during the Euros he looked Pony. Tore seemed like a gamble considering all the rubbish that seemed to have come with him "Sakho mk 2" again didn't seem like a player we should recruit.
Ayew just seemed a panic buy after everything else fell through. I think he's a top quality player, and sorry i'm sure people will point out at Swansea he played up top though I dispute this... His best position whenever I had seem him play was on the left of a front 3, or tucked in behind, and we are not using him in either of those positions or even at all.
Masuaku I actually think did okay before he got injured.
January window still think Fonte and Snodgrass were poor signings. Can understand why as a replacement for Ogbonna and Payet. But I don't think shelving the 8m for a 33 year old and Snodgrass who imo isn't a top 10 player. Just didn't seem like good money spent.