Interesting read people, enjoyed that
Personally I think there is a few ways to look at where you are as a football club, how you are viewed and what you perceive yourself to be
Now I love this football club, along with my family it's my main concern in this life but I honestly think we have been unfortunate at when the money flooded into the game, when the premier league was formed in '92 we had got to the stage with our team at that point where we had been so successful but we had grown old together and the amount of rebuilding that squad needed then was a big job, so at that point where we were the biggest club in the land and had the biggest pulling power one of the highest spend we could have afforded a couple of years of rebuilding and it probably wouldn't have affected is too much.. However Utd got fairly lucky with that group of players who came through that year from their youth system at a time in English football when you could give them time to blood in the first team, they certainly 100% couldn't do it now, as is being proved.. Then the money flooded in, they were wining things, they grew in Europe and the rest is history.. While the f**k ups we made in that period we probably haven't really recovered from.
We were the biggest pull in the country, players were happy to come here and achieve all they wanted in the game from a domestic point of view, we didn't really have the global foreign influx we now have as European football was banned at that point, once it came back and the CL was starting to become what it is now we had fallen behind Utd, and the London based clubs as a place the best of the foreign talent saw as a place to go.
That for me is unlucky, had the '92 football world come in say '88 then we would be different to what we are now..
Now we are a massive club still but we are a club who have attempted to build and restart what 6 times or so in that period when we have financially been behind the rest, Utd in a squad sense are facing what we did in '92 but are a financial power house as they have ridden the football boom over the last 20 odd years and can pay their way through the issues more than we could or can.
In terms of players I get what Rush is saying and I agree to a certain extent, this squad is currently taking a lot of stick but can you imagine this base with 3-4 world class finished articles on top of what we have? A couple of Suarez abilities added? They are out there, other 'big' clubs add them, I'm afraid our mentality and ownership structures have not allowed us to think that's even possible and by proxy have convinced the majority of us that we shouldn't expect it.. That it's not really sensible business or we can't compete with those clubs in those markets..
Well you know what? If you don't compete with those clubs in those markets you won't f**king compete with them on the field
You know what I feel we need to get away from? We need to stop being that middle club in terms of transfers, we are seen as a great stepping stone nowadays for talent to get to one of those glamour clubs [as much as that hurts to admit] or we are somewhere the next level come to and think they have made it and peaked and it doesn't get any better than this.. Well the work shouldn't stop when you get here, it should only just begin.. I've seen Johnson mentioned in this thread, yeah right, perfect example.. It doesn't get better for him than this, he didn't get much of a sniff at Chelsea and was fu**ed off to Portsmouth and then gets a go here.. f**king hell I've made it, well in Glen, top money great club.. I'm happy with this, I don't want to go 'higher' again as I might not play...
Welcome comfort, welcome taking his foot off 5%.. Welcome us not pushing on again
Repeat that 50 times with the likes of Downing, Adam,Skrtel, Lovren and keep going
For those players they have made it being here, the hunger slightly goes
Tell you what give me 30 Suarez's who still have hunger to push on.. But rather than one at a time give me 5.. It may cost but we may actually have a chance to get back to that top table and stay there because one or two of them may still move but three may stay and we can continue to attract the next five.
Because I can guatentee that buying 16 Markovic's won't have us with a permanent brass name plate on that top table, but 4 Suarez's would
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