Match Reaction vs Citeh (home).

[Power n Glory]

I don't think Spurs will be looking to win the league, getting top every season is good for them, for now. Chelsea need to up their game for sure to win the league which they expect to. United and City will beat us without strengthening. Top 4 is going to be difficult to achieve although Spurs might implode, we can but hope.

Spurs have played a wild gamble to not spend a penny on their team when the level of competition is so high. They’re banking on us or Chelsea to finish outside of the top 4 again.

Top 4 is going to be tough for us. But the point I’m trying to get across is that it’s not just us that hasn’t spent a lot on new additions this summer. Chelsea have a new manager too and the red carpet hasn’t been rolled out for him despite this being the 2nd time this particular crop of players have finished outside of the Top 4 and ousted a manager.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Man U need a different manager but there squad absolutely should be challenging. Chelsea are a top forward short, but they pretty much have everything else and a well balanced squad on paper.

Spurs are lacking a little something something in attack.... They have a well balanced side but to bridge the gap you need to increase the quality where ever you can.

I think we had more work to do than others, but we didn't do it because we are clearly setting out to sneak top 4 rather than compete for the league.

I don't think we should be reliant on the benevolence of the owner to compete or spending 200 million every single window to infinity and beyond to stay competitive and that shouldn't be necessary anyway with the range of revenue streams.

I do think Oblak, Torreira, Litch, a top CB and a top Wide player may have been enough to see us challenge, but we will never know and that would have cost too much, but I do think we should have not signed Leno unless we were
convinced of his quality and signed a wide player. He wouldn't have had to be world class but if he could have added dynamism to the attack and/or goals & assists from wide like Theo did, that would have been very useful.

[Bumble]

Man U need a different manager but there squad absolutely should be challenging. Chelsea are a top forward short, but they pretty much have everything else and a well balanced squad on paper.

Spurs are lacking a little something something in attack.... They have a well balanced side but to bridge the gap you need to increase the quality where ever you can.

I think we had more work to do than others, but we didn't do it because we are clearly setting out to sneak top 4 rather than compete for the league.

I don't think we should be reliant on the benevolence of the owner to compete or spending 200 million every single window to infinity and beyond to stay competitive and that shouldn't be necessary anyway with the range of revenue streams.

I do think Oblak, Torreira, Litch, a top CB and a top Wide player may have been enough to see us challenge, but we will never know and that would have cost too much, but I do think we should have not signed Leno unless we were
convinced of his quality and signed a wide player. He wouldn't have had to be world class but if he could have added dynamism to the attack and/or goals & assists from wide like Theo did, that would have been very useful.

i liked perisic (sp) at the world cup but reckon he would have been too much, bt I can see where you are coming from with regard a wide player. if we are going to play a high pressing game then it cant be done with ozil and mukhi. a £20m keeper does seem a luxury signing although 2 keepers being signed for £70m... maybe we did get a good deal but he has to play to be seen and perhaps its a case of waiting for the cup games before he can start performing and forcing his way into the league side. Cech is still a decent keeper, so not like its Almunia we are trying to replace.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

It's a good deal if he's a top keeper....but at the moment he's not deemed better than Cech despite Cech's dodgy kicking and his very astute kicking.

Also worrying reports on the Arseblog podcast that he hasn't impressed in training and that is why he didn't start.

[Power n Glory]

Man U need a different manager but there squad absolutely should be challenging. Chelsea are a top forward short, but they pretty much have everything else and a well balanced squad on paper.

Spurs are lacking a little something something in attack.... They have a well balanced side but to bridge the gap you need to increase the quality where ever you can.

I think we had more work to do than others, but we didn't do it because we are clearly setting out to sneak top 4 rather than compete for the league.

I don't think we should be reliant on the benevolence of the owner to compete or spending 200 million every single window to infinity and beyond to stay competitive and that shouldn't be necessary anyway with the range of revenue streams.

I do think Oblak, Torreira, Litch, a top CB and a top Wide player may have been enough to see us challenge, but we will never know and that would have cost too much, but I do think we should have not signed Leno unless we were
convinced of his quality and signed a wide player. He wouldn't have had to be world class but if he could have added dynamism to the attack and/or goals & assists from wide like Theo did, that would have been very useful.

They all have balanced squads and should be capable of pushing for the title but considering they all failed to get close to Man City last season, what’s going to be the difference this year? They’ve all done the bare minimum when they all could have done so much more. But it might just be down to the fact that they can’t spend as much because of wage restrictions which brings us back to the point I was making. Yes, they all have good squads on paper but they’ve stood still and not really looked to the transfer window solve any issues.

We have more work to do than others to be title contenders but we should have enough to make top 4. It’s a bit of a stretch to think we’d be aiming for a quick rebuild within one season to be title contenders. Isn’t that tad unrealistic? Especially when we talk about our rivals having more balanced squad and their transfer activity this season. There has been a building process for all of them. Most of the managers arrived at their clubs 3-4 years ago and have only just put together a balanced team. Yet there is an expectation that we’ll do in one transfer window? Come on now.

[I am invisible]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.i...741.html%3famp

http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/l...heir-ffp-rules

It seems so. Found these. Clubs can't increase their wage bill by more than £7m each year.

They can if it’s funded through increased revenue from commercial income, player trading and Match Day income (second para from that second link) - it looks like £7m is just the maximum you can increase wages by if your income remains the same.

I wonder if this is why we’re seeing teams like Fulham and Wolves splurging hundreds of millions? They’re going from Chamionship revenue to Premier League revenue, so their jump in income (and the margin for wage increases that they’ll be working with) must be huge!

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

They all have balanced squads and should be capable of pushing for the title but considering they all failed to get close to Man City last season, what’s going to be the difference this year? They’ve all done the bare minimum when they all could have done so much more. But it might just be down to the fact that they can’t spend as much because of wage restrictions which brings us back to the point I was making. Yes, they all have good squads on paper but they’ve stood still and not really looked to the transfer window solve any issues.

We have more work to do than others to be title contenders but we should have enough to make top 4. It’s a bit of a stretch to think we’d be aiming for a quick rebuild within one season to be title contenders. Isn’t that tad unrealistic? Especially when we talk about our rivals having more balanced squad and their transfer activity this season. There has been a building process for all of them. Most of the managers arrived at their clubs 3-4 years ago and have only just put together a balanced team. Yet there is an expectation that we’ll do in one transfer window? Come on now.

I am in a minority as I think the squad was good enough to challenge last season let alone this one. The management is the difference and our away record was the hyperbolic opposite to the home one. Had we’d have made the signings and managerial appointment I wanted I’d have expected an immediate title challenge or let’s call it a challenge for second place as City set a new high last season. There are loads that think we will finish 3rd this season and we don’t have a single defender we’re all confident in, the defence is a car crash and Emery has just come in.

[Chippy]

I am in a minority as I think the squad was good enough to challenge last season let alone this one. The management is the difference and our away record was the hyperbolic opposite to the home one. Had we’d have made the signings and managerial appointment I wanted I’d have expected an immediate title challenge or let’s call it a challenge for second place as City set a new high last season. There are loads that think we will finish 3rd this season and we don’t have a single defender we’re all confident in, the defence is a car crash and Emery has just come in.

I guess your not very confident of a top 4 finish then?

[Power n Glory]

I am in a minority as I think the squad was good enough to challenge last season let alone this one. The management is the difference and our away record was the hyperbolic opposite to the home one. Had we’d have made the signings and managerial appointment I wanted I’d have expected an immediate title challenge or let’s call it a challenge for second place as City set a new high last season. There are loads that think we will finish 3rd this season and we don’t have a single defender we’re all confident in, the defence is a car crash and Emery has just come in.

I think there were some hopeful of a title challenge last season and thought we may have finally found the final pieces. If not a title challenge, at least a squad capable of getting Top 4 or winning the Europa League

Saying that, I still don't understand why you think we need major signings this season if you say you thought we were capable of challenging last season. On paper, we have a stronger team this year than we did last season.

Our defence has always been in bad shape and last year it was even worse. We didn't have competition for Cech. Kosienly and Mustafi were an aboslute shambles. Merts was semi retired. There was no competition for Bellerin, Monreal was our best defender by a clear distance. This season we've added Sokratis to the line up along with Lichsteiner and Leno as keeper. Emery is cla better coach than Wenger when it comes to organising a defence so we should be in a better position. Sceptics talk of the lack of pace from Lichsteiner and Sokratis on here but Lich definitely showed a few doubters that he's not finished at this level and despite being up against pace, he knew how to deal with it. He wasn't getting skinned or backing off leaving too much space like we saw from AMN.

In midfield we've added Guendouzi and Torreira. You can already see that they add a lot more to this midfield than players like Xhaka and Ramsey. They seem to understand their prime functions as CM players. That has to be a plus on last year.

The one downside is us losing Sanchez, Giroud and Theo. But all three players divided opinion on here and it was debatable whether they are suitable for the squad. On paper, you can't say Aubameyang, Lacazette and Mkhitaryan are downgrades in that department. It's debatable on how they will function as a unit but I think it should be easier getting them to function as unit over Giroud (slow), Theo (inconsistent, can't dribble) Sanchez (selfish). Not saying we won't miss what those players offered but last year, I guarantee people would have taken a swap deal for three we have now over the three we had then. You know I'm fan of Sanchez and Theo as well. But if you were leaning on the optimistic side last season, I'm not quite sure why it's as negative now when we have improved the squad on paper. I guess it boils down to how badly we performed last year under Wenger.

Which manager did you want instead of Emery? I think we've discussed the players you wanted but I didn't know you weren't swayed on Emery.

[Power n Glory]

They can if it’s funded through increased revenue from commercial income, player trading and Match Day income (second para from that second link) - it looks like £7m is just the maximum you can increase wages by if your income remains the same.

I wonder if this is why we’re seeing teams like Fulham and Wolves splurging hundreds of millions? They’re going from Chamionship revenue to Premier League revenue, so their jump in income (and the margin for wage increases that they’ll be working with) must be huge!

Yes that's right. With newly promoted teams like Fulham, I believe they can increase their bill by a much higher threshold than others. It's way more than 7%. I think around 40% to 60%. The exact figure is in that second article somewhere.