History shows how badly we conduct our business. That's why we are crap. Man Utd clearly have people who can conduct better business than us. Football is a simple thing but made complicated by fools managing our club.

So just because Carroll, Henderson and Downing to a certain extent had failed to live up to their price tag, does that mean we shouldn't spend big anymore? Cause in my opinion, that is what FSG seems to be doing right now... MU failed with Juan Sebastian Veron, Chelsea with Adrian Mutu and Shevchenko, Man City with Robinho, still they go on spending in the following few years... Kenny and Comolli are both gone, you can't punish Rodgers for their mistake... That is unfair, he wasn't the one who spend 35 mil on Carroll. Bad signings will happen, it is part of football. Besides, 6-7 milion for Dempsey is hardly overpaying, MU paid 24 million for a 29 year old Van Persie, who coincidentally scored a hattrick to save MU yesterday. Dempsey who scored close to 20 goals last season, is surely worth a quarter of Van Persie price... I personally don't think it is unfair to ask the owners to show a little more desire to succeed, to sacrifice a little more to achieve success.

I was being sarcastic, bro

the serial spitster cost 10 mil la, not 20mil. but yeah, our scouts & nego teams sucks

yeah, this very much sums it all

Yup that is true but at least u are paying more for something in return rather than paying half that amount for nothing in return. Aguero's wage of lets say 160k is worth it considering he won City the title while Carroll's 80k got us an 8th place finish. If finishing 8th is what I wanted I could've gotten another player for far cheaper than 35m and 80k per week.

This post has been edited by Cloud0890: Sep 3 2012, 03:22 PM

True. If we dont sign Adam, Downing, sold Babel and Torres, you think we cant pay Kun's wages? Better to sign 1 world beater than a group of world class crap.

You have to know though that by the time Aguero, Young and co were sold to their current club, our club were lingering in relegation zone. We dont have that attraction to attract these players anymore. Thus, we went for lower team and poach their best player. That's why it cost us a bomb.

Plus, the likes of Downing, Carrol and Henderson are English, Thus the inflated price. Carrol was scoring goals for fun back then, taking down Arsenal and us. Henderson was easily the best young player around when he was playing for Sunderland. Downing was player of the year for Villa, scoring 10+++ goals for them in the whole season, even helped his team to beat us.

The fact is, we bought them when they were in their prime and best form of life for their club. Thus, the club is unwilling to sell. Then, they quote us a hell of a price and with us having no other better option since BETTER players DO NOT WANT TO JOIN US (refer to Sahin case when he preferred Arsenal over us only to join us cos he dont want join Arsenal permanently)....

At the end of the day, we have to be REALISTIC. If today, City sells Tevez for 4m pound, even if we have the money and can pay his effing wage, we have to be realistic that HE WONT COME to us... BE REALISTIC.

True, I guess it's still back to the management being unwilling to pay the high wages (or couldn't afford to?)

Then again.. perhaps they were thinking why splurge it all on a single player when they could get several to fill up other positions on the field?

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Added on September 3, 2012, 3:29 pm

Thoughts on this, guys?
He does make a pretty strong case.

This post has been edited by ihatemyguts: Sep 3 2012, 03:29 PM

If we cant attract top players as what you said, then we still shouldnt pissed away the money for 2nd rated crap out of desperation. Caroll for 35m and Downing for 20m? What were we thinking?

All I am saying is, if we had managed our finances carefully and the choices of players better, we wouldnt be where we are now. It didnt come from just Kenny. It came all the way since GH's era.

To put it in simple term, we were just wasteful.

Abramovic were wasteful with Shevchenko and Mutu but he can afford it. We cant!

This post has been edited by dillonyong: Sep 3 2012, 03:34 PM

Have to agree with that. It is as if we can no longer attract top players so we are trying to pretend to still be a big club by paying big money big wages for sub-par players to create the impression that we are signing top players.

scout prob.....probably during benitez era we had a good scout...our target was villa, simao , alves etc...these days our targets are mediocre players

I disagree that we can't attract great players, most players are like mercenaries, if you offer them high enough wages they will join your club. Who would've thought that Ramirez will sign for Southampton of all teams? Our problem last season was the high wages and transfer fees were spent on the wrong players. But Rodgers this season seems to have spent his money more wisely. I think a lot of people would agree if I said Allen for 15 million was a steal the way he is playing right now, Sahin on loan was a good deal. Only Borini for 11 million remains unproven.

End of the day boys, it was our own stupidity that brought this downfall today. If Man Utd did the same thing that we do, they'll be in the same shit that we are facing now.

We cannot afford to be wasteful with money. Man Utd is not rich as well, apparently they are still in lots of debts but they were smart and careful.

i'd say just pay the damn wages for owen or drogba.......

right now we cant even seem to get a good strike from within the box.

give em till january or a year at best.

Dropping Stevie down to holding midfield may not be the best option - this is why:

The system employed by BR is essentially moving the ball up quickly, this required the back 4 to play their part. Allen now assume the role of initiator or instigator, the person with the vision to play or hold the game, switch direction and also to have a bit of skill and ball playing instinct to open up channel - but SG is not good enuf for this role, he is taking too much time, as i said time and time again, we cannot rely on SG, and have him play the role anymore - furthermore, BR's system is based on collective movement - if it's not tiki taka, it is very familiar with Arsenal's movement during their peak - where u have at least 3-4 players moving into space - but based on current Lverpool - only Suarez, Borini or Sterling are doing it - this is also the reason why we are seeing potential, but still not able to score!! Enuf of SG being the orchestrator, he was the orchestrator last time and we are simply to slow then to move into penetrative zones....

By moving SG up the field- yes- he may not have the pace nor stamina to last full 90 min, but i feel he can compensate with shooting with both legs, power-packed shots, still effective technique, ability to volley and maybe sudden surge of movement - plus he should be ready to be taken off towards the end - to allow fresh players in....or alternatively move him to right flanks where his cross can be better use...altho without Carrol, it's a waste to have so many crosses coming in..for Suarez...

Drogba won't be available as he is not a free agent during the transfer period

It's pointless for us to look back at our signings and compared with those that we missed but have emerged and succeeded.

The fact that with every new manager coming in, the team is gonna start anew with different ideas and tactics and there comes the "tiki-taka" of player transfers.

When you look back at our post Benitez era, the club nearly gone into admission. We could count our self lucky that FSG acquired the club and clear us off from heavy debts. It's a rational move this season that FSG is not pouring anymore huge sum into the transfer market.

For the past 10 or 15 years, our transfers dealing has been lack of conviction & consistency of which causing a lot of damage to the club. Very often, we pay huge amount for players to come in and get little for players that left us.

We have to be financially healthy before we can talk about making huge signings and pushing for new height in the league and European competition. Of which, the system already imposed by FSG and for BR to follow. We can't repeat our mistake and spend our way into admission again.

So just let go of those high hopes and be real. BR is no magician and the young players he's bringing in, is not hard to think that he's building for the long term and future. It's gonna be a season or two before we can start reaping the desirable results

It's useful to look back at the mistakes we made (though I hope the management does that). The point is, whenever we have the money, we were wasteful. We cannot keep affording multi-million pounds mistake.

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Added on September 3, 2012, 4:16 pmShenhua is currently having board trouble. It seems that they cant honor the wages which will naturally make the contract null and void. Still waiting for further development on this. If it happens, then Drog becomes free agent.

This post has been edited by dillonyong: Sep 3 2012, 04:16 PM

In which I case I hope we grab both Owen and Drog. I don't think they're the solution we need, but they can be what we need right now

Dont be too happy yet. It will still be a bloodbath battle. I am sure PSG and all the wannabes will move in for Drog once he is a free agent.
As for Owen, he's got Sunderland and Stoke on the table.

And judging by our recent form in transfer battles, we are French in Battle of Waterloo (lots of noises, no substance).