Are we content with staying as the best of the rest?
Or do we want to challenge the 2 top teams? Before it was Mancs and Chelsea and now it looks like it will be the 2 Manc clubs.
We do the bare minimum each season to get CL. If we did more, maybe we could challenge for the title again
Well sure. No, we're not content with that although given what happened last summer and our start to the season I'd have taken 3rd. Wouldn't you? We need to build on it of course but for years other teams have been "on the up" while we've been "in decline". As for Spurs. Consider this. Their final places in the years following the Invincibles:Originally Posted by Ach
14th - 2004
9th - 2005
5th - 2006
5th - 2007
from Spurs fans about a shift of power, they'll soon overtake us:
11th - 2008
Plus Arry is due to bankrupt them any time now. That'll be funny when it happens.Yeah yeah, they'll overtake us like people have been saying they will for years.
They will become a more attractive prospect for players of course but I don't think they're going to go nuts in the transfer market either way. Even if they do they've outspent us for years. In brief: Meh. It's not a good enough reason for me to countenance the idea of Chelsea winning the thing
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To me it'll be like if Man City win. It doesn't really count. If the thought of Cashley or Terry or whoever lifting the CL is too painful, watch/do something else on the night.Yeah yeah, they'll overtake us like people have been saying they will for years.
They will become a more attractive prospect for players of course but I don't think they're going to go nuts in the transfer market either way. Even if they do they've outspent us for years. In brief: Meh. It's not a good enough reason for me to countenance the idea of Chelsea winning the thing
I don't want Chelsea to win, but I approach the game as a complete neutral. I can see the good and bad of it. I'd rather spuds not have the extra financial boost of being in the CL because, unlike us, they will actually make it count in the transfer market. And probably nobody was more confident of finishing above the spuds this season than myself - but we did only finish 1 point ahead; there's not too much in it. The spuds getting stronger would be a problem. Obviously it's not in our hands and we should only be looking to strengthen ourselves and not care what others do....but we're not going to strengthen this summer - we all know that. So it'd be handy if the spuds didn't either. Chelsea and Ambramovich will go off and buy whoever they want. They've got the money to piss away.
The strongest counter-argument that I can think of is that balancing league form and the CL is not easy. And if the spuds do qualify for the CL it's possible their league form will suffer. But for progress, being a regular fixture in the CL is important. You can't plan any progression without being in the CL.
If Obsini spends another fortune in the window then city will have to carry even more mercenaries and prima donnas. It'll catch up with them in the end and we'll catch them too. Utd aren't all that, the 19 point gap was more about us than it was about the manchester mob. The points we threw away could be recovered with just a couple of quality signings and some tactics and maybe a gameplan and a bit of training and possibly a few lessons on passing and defending and shit like that.
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Look - all we need is for Chelsea to lose in the final and for the Spuds to go out in the qualifiers - hardly a longshot given we drew Udinese last season.
so a 19 point difference again next year then?
Well, I'm not sure we'll finish 19 points above them, but it'll be in that ballpark
i'm liking your thinking
I disagree on what you think Chelsea will do, they haven't had a splurge on multiple players for a long time now and that's with being in the Champions League. They did spend on Torres and David Luiz in January '11 (and for a lot) but that was only on two players, which actually put them back in to a loss. I don't think they will do that again and they have already signed one player for the summer already.
I take issue with what 'strengthening' means, strengthening does not just mean adding players. As stupid as Wenget sounds when he talks about 'like a new signing', you can understand the logic. In fact adding players can have the opposite effect (sorry Ngibbles). I certainly don't think we'll let things go as badly as they did last summer.
On a general note, I think it will be a mad scramble to broach an agreement for the players clubs want before the Euros, far before any potential CL money will take hold (for the Spuds particularly), should as expected player prices rise significantly.
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