No problem - happy to open the discussion on those areas a bit more.
1) Well I think the context for clubs extends beyond Chelsea - for us I believe it should extend toward any title competitor. City managed to improve their squad significantly (they also splashed a ridiculous f*ck ton of cash). Even the mancs made vast improvements to their squad just from Lukaku and Matic (IMO one of the league's best players). Spuds were roughly where they needed to be anyway and Chelsea even depleted as they are still have an equivalent, if not better squad to us. Their starting lineup doesn't have as many holes especially when Bayakoko steps in and Rudiger settles in.
I just don't think that our squad is competitive with the established title contenders yet. I think our playing style along with a few pieces (Couts/Mane/Lallana) have pasted over a lot of issues with our squad.
2) As for the Plan A - that was in reference to first choice targets. Context/interpretation is certainly tricky here so it's up for discussion, but I think many of us took it as: Keita/VVD is our Plan A. If they're not available to us, then we're done looking for CM's/CB's and are happy with what we have. And the actions to this point have matched up with that interpretation.
Meanwhile there are plenty of CB's/CM's out there who would be at the very least critical improvements to our squad - let alone to our starting XI. I think a lot of us would like to see us making real, serious efforts at these players, rather than recycling VVD and Keita for 3 months after being told very early on that we wouldn't land them.
1) I honestly don't think we're very far behind the "monied" clubs, but the fact is that they can blow us out of the water when it comes to spending power.
It's not a fact I'm happy about, but I have to accept it.
Money being the power it is in the modern game, we have to do things differently, and although I think we could be doing better, I'm certain we could be a lot worse off.
This isn't a new thing, this has been going on for close to 30 years now, and we had an owner and CEO who basically couldn't be arsed bringing the club into the commercial era, and were content to rest on their laurels, which in turn has brought us to the position we are in today.
I look at the team we have, and at the squad, and I see a mixture of some good, some not so good, with weaknesses that need to be addressed.
Patently, the club has tried to address the priorities the manager has identified, but for one reason or another, haven't been able to, but we're not the only ones having difficulties, so clearly there is more going on than just incompetence on our part.
Utd may have got Lukaku, but they wanted Morato. God knows why Chelsea thought it was a good idea to sell them Matic.
City have bought badly imo, and spent a shitload in the process. No one will ever convince me that Kyle Walker is anything other than average (in premier league terms), but they wanted another English player for their quota, and they also have a shitload of players returning from loan.
2)I don't think Klopp can be held responsible for how people choose to interpret his statement, to be fair.
I took it to mean one thing, and others took it to mean something else.
Like all top people these days, he will have a philosophy that can be easily put into a Mission Statement; I took it to mean that his Mission Statement (whatever it is) is Plan A, and there's no need to deviate from it.
On top of that, he's clearly getting pissed off with all the "what about Plan B" stuff that Journo's throw at him constantly.
Maybe he should sit down and explain, but on the flip side, why should he? Plan A (as far as I can see) for Klopp is about succeeding, and everything else is a tool to reach that goal.
No doubt there are players who could improve the squad, but Klopps teams have always been more than the sum of their parts; it's crucial to his philosophy that he gets not only the talent, but also the mentality, and that's a lot harder to find.
We also have no idea what the club are doing as far as recruitment goes, and the feeding frenzy over Keita was largely driven by Leipzig, who it appeared to me, did it for publicity.
No one really knew if we were in for VvD or not, until Saints had a pop at us for tapping up.
My point is that the club tend to keep things very quiet when it comes to transfers these days, so until the window closes, I have to assume that we are pursuing other options, and hope that we will sign them.
We don't need a lot, despite what some may tell you, but we definitely need more cover, at the very least.
