Alrog

The ambitious goal of our owners has been to establish LCFC as a team that is regularly involved in European competition. Sadly, for those who favour feelings and opinions above facts, across Europe, the teams that regularly qualify for European competition also happen to be towards the top of the possession stats in their leagues. Put another way, a team’s ability to hold on to the ball is likely to have a significant impact on their *long term* European success. For this reason, I am guessing the club’s management has decided that the goal - which has already defeated Ranieri, Shakespeare and Puel - is to transition the club from a counterattacking, possession-lite team to a possession-heavy, goal-scoring squad. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we are finding the latter part the biggest challenge. The simple fact is that it’s hard to find players with the technical ability to control and move the ball accurately with speed that we can afford….and then keep them. Brendan may not be able to get us where we want to go. However, whoever replaces him will, I suspect, face exactly the same challenge. Our only hope in achieving that goal may well be managing to find the Jürgen Klopp of the 2020s….a young, inspiring manager who wants to show his prowess by becoming a club legend and, in this case, one who wouldn’t be tempted away by a bigger budget after two years of success. If anyone’s got any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them. In the meantime, I’ll make do with a European semi-final and an injury-ravaged 10th place in the EPL for this year, given that for half of the time that I’ve watched City they have been in the second and third tiers of English football.

The simplistic response to my earlier contribution - of facts - to the debate confirmed why I have avoided online ‘debate’. There is clearly not a direct correlation between financial expenditure and league position - or even in the result of any particular match….the current Man U team demonstrates that! However, it is not unreasonable to suggest, surely, that when the team with the 9th highest expenditure finishes 5th, it is performing well. And to expect a club to compete closely with teams with two-and-a-half times its budget is expecting quite a lot. The key word is “expecting”. I’m always hoping we’ll beat these teams, but don’t expect it….which makes the joy when we do all the more unconfined! As I have said, we have already shown that the impossible is possible….but not, I suspect on a regular basis.

I’ve read this forum for many, many years and never been motivated to do more than swear at the screen as I read some of the crazy opinions on display. But I can’t stop myself now, as I’m so aggravated at some of the opinions that seem unconnected with reality. To illustrate my point, I went to the ‘spotrac’ website, which gives info on clubs’ wages and transfer outgoings. It has the following info for the current season: 1 Manchester United F.C. £208,415,000 2 Chelsea F.C. £162,642,000 3 Manchester City F.C. £142,944,000 4 Liverpool F.C. £134,518,000 5 Arsenal F.C. £80,941,273 6 Everton F.C. £71,479,000 7 West Ham United F.C. £59,630,000 8 Tottenham Hotspur F.C. £55,295,200 9 Leicester City £54,525,000 10 Crystal Palace £51,765,000 11 Newcastle United F.C. £46,606,200 12 Aston Villa F.C. £44,921,396 13 Southampton F.C. £43,790,000 14 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. £43,055,600 15 Brighton & Hove Albion £33,407,333 16 Burnley F.C. £32,548,000 It has a lot more detail, but my limited keyboard skills mean that I have just copied the minimum. In the light of the above, I would be interested in how the people raging at our inability to be ‘up there’ with the top four clubs justify their fury. Yes, we defied the odds once, but that very fact increased the financial gap between those top-spending clubs and the rest of us - thus making a repeat even less likely.