The Magic Money Tree

[kpbw]

Can somebody tell me where it is? Amongst all the predictable clamour for a stronger squad I think the economic reality for our club is that we simply don't have the multi-millions of pounds sterling down the back of the KP sofa to splash out on the calibre of player we require. Diamonds in the muck like James Justin are rare indeed and we have to pay much bigger money, as we have recently, to land the likes of Fofana (a risky investment in itself given his inexperience but a gamble that's paid off and a testament to the soundness of our scouting team) and Castagne. We'd all like a squad with the quality in depth of Man City (see my 'Man City bench' post earlier) but ours will take time to evolve within our financial limitations. We simply can't buy our way to success like they can and have. Get used to it.

We have been inordinately unlucky with injuries (has any other Premiership squad suffered so badly?) and have done brilliantly this season in spite of that. Unfortunately, as Rodgers says, the players aren't robots and the strain is very clearly showing. Alas the gamble on relying on what players we do have looks that it might have failed. As LGFox and others have said we're definitely better off out of the EL in the circumstances.

'Dishy' "Man Of The People" Rishi may have miraculously found the imaginary oak that Teresa May said didn't exist and splashed billions out accordingly, but it will have all to be paid for in the long run. We simply don't have the wherewithal to buy ourselves out of trouble. Evolution not revolution pop pickers!

As a pragmatic optimist I still hope we have the necessary desire and energy to succeed. The next four games are critical. If we don't do well in those I may have to reluctantly join the doom mongers.

 

[sixthswan]

Even if we had the richest owners in the world, we are not allowed to inflate our wage bill beyond a certain limit. This was fixed with FFP and set to allow the "big" clubs to always have an advantage over the rest.

 

[Club_B00k_Crutchless]

Can somebody tell me where it is? Amongst all the predictable clamour for a stronger squad I think the economic reality for our club is that we simply don't have the multi-millions of pounds sterling down the back of the KP sofa to splash out on the calibre of player we require. Diamonds in the muck like James Justin are rare indeed and we have to pay much bigger money, as we have recently, to land the likes of Fofana (a risky investment in itself given his inexperience but a gamble that's paid off and a testament to the soundness of our scouting team) and Castagne. We'd all like a squad with the quality in depth of Man City (see my 'Man City bench' post earlier) but ours will take time to evolve within our financial limitations. We simply can't buy our way to success like they can and have. Get used to it.

We have been inordinately unlucky with injuries (has any other Premiership squad suffered so badly?) and have done brilliantly this season in spite of that. Unfortunately, as Rodgers says, the players aren't robots and the strain is very clearly showing. Alas the gamble on relying on what players we do have looks that it might have failed. As LGFox and others have said we're definitely better off out of the EL in the circumstances.

'Dishy' "Man Of The People" Rishi may have miraculously found the imaginary oak that Teresa May said didn't exist and splashed billions out accordingly, but it will have all to be paid for in the long run. We simply don't have the wherewithal to buy ourselves out of trouble. Evolution not revolution pop pickers!

As a pragmatic optimist I still hope we have the necessary desire and energy to succeed. The next four games are critical. If we don't do well in those I may have to reluctantly join the doom mongers.

As said above, it's not how much money our owners have to chuck around that's the issue. There's a few we could probably do with offloading to bring the wage bill down a bit but FFP does seem to be weighted in the favour of the bigger clubs. Even if they bend the rules they seem to be able to get away with it, cough Man City.

 

[Filbo65]

Does anyone know the details of how much Top has been putting into the Club recently from outside (ie excluding Macquarie factoring, etc), and how much he theoretically could put in?
I keep reading about FFP, but rarely any figures...

 

[LGFOX]

The problem as I see it is that as Kev says we’ve been very unfortunate with injuries. They’ve not been tweaks but 4/6/8 week injuries. The added problem of being down to the bare bones means the players are carrying small problems ( seems both HB and Evans were) so it seems a case of when not if. I think the next one on the injury tightrope is Vardy. Fortunately after Saturday we have a run of games with nothing midweek. Also as I’ve said BR needs to do a Fergie and ensure a few of our lot don’t go off on international duty.
TBH I’m bloody fuming about these games. Not only are they mixing players from clubs all over Europe ( Covid) but the extra pressure of more games isn’t helping.

Edited to add. With a fit squad we’d have got top 4 easily

 

[GTIF]

The problem as I see it is that as Kev says we’ve been very unfortunate with injuries. They’ve not been tweaks but 4/6/8 week injuries. The added problem of being down to the bare bones means the players are carrying small problems ( seems both HB and Evans were) so it seems a case of when not if. I think the next one on the injury tightrope is Vardy. Fortunately after Saturday we have a run of games with nothing midweek. Also as I’ve said BR needs to do a Fergie and ensure a few of our lot don’t go off on international duty.
TBH I’m bloody fuming about these games. Not only are they mixing players from clubs all over Europe ( Covid) but the extra pressure of more games isn’t helping.

Edited to add. With a fit squad we’d have got top 4 easily

And with all those injuries we still buckin will

 

[DagenhamFox]

As we finish higher up the league we’ll command more money from sponsors and commercial ventures. Prize money will be larger as will revenue and profit from a European campaign or two.

This will help to redress the FFP balance a little for sure.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey. We can only do what we can do. The training ground is a long term investment that will reap rewards and when the stadium is expanded that too will help to bring in more money.

Every club is suffering through Covid that we’re still doing pretty well is a testament to everyone involved at the club.

We might not have much spare cash that we can spend on a player or two. Rodgers wanted another attacking midfielder in January but presumably wasn’t able to find and attract someone with the money we had under the FFP rules.

We’re achieving all this with one hand behind our backs yet we won’t go away.

Come on Leicester dig in and let’s put two fingers up to the system when we finish 4th.

 

[Filbo65]

Of course, if we had had a fit squad, you have to assume others would too. It's a bit of nonsense to compare one fit squad with others decimated by injuries. So would the scallies have imploded like they did with VVD playing, etc...

 

[DagenhamFox]

No they would be towards the top of the table, but it shows even with the riches they have that their squad is flawed. If they’ve struggled is it any surprise that we are too? (just with less moaning)

 

[Filbo65]

Absolutely no surprise; I just think it's a waste of time to speculate where we'd end up if we hadn't had the injuries. As someone else asked, it's only really Man City and possibly Chelsea who have two first-string sides they can call on.
They also now both have Grade A managers...

 

[hackneyfox]

Man U are hardly short of players.

 

[hackneyfox]

Of course, if we had had a fit squad, you have to assume others would too. It's a bit of nonsense to compare one fit squad with others decimated by injuries. So would the scallies have imploded like they did with VVD playing, etc...

They’ve played almost the same team for a long time now with a very high press. They were always going to blow at some point. He has a history of this.

 

[LGFOX]

They’ve played almost the same team for a long time now with a very high press. They were always going to blow at some point. He has a history of this.

Also with a fit squad there would have been rotation. But even so, our other problem is that most of the 2nd string are not up to the standard needed for a top 4 finish. Vardy has no real help whatsoever and players like Perez, Ünder and Nacho ( all forward players) have woefully underperformed this season.

 

[Filbo65]

Man U are hardly short of players.

True, but they often seem to include people who seem to be ridiculed as a bit crap (eg Bailly) or that I've never heard of (eg Tuanzebe, Williams, Shoretire). TBH they should have two 1st strings, what with their revenue etc...