by Basil » Mon May 14, 2012 8:52 am
Rafa took us to 7th place in his last season as the H&G regime took hold and Alonso, Hypia, Arbeloa, Pennant, Dossena, Voronin, Leto etc left and were replaced by Glen Johnson, Aquilani and Kyrgiakos for a net spend of MINUS £8M.
FSG took over and appointed Roy, we lost Mascherano, Benayoun, Riera etc. and signed Joe Cole, Meireles, Poulsen, Konchesky, Jovanovich, Shelvey etc. Roy's net spend was another MINUS, about £7M and we were bottom half of the table.
Kenny came in and just after we lost Torres and Babel but signed Suarez and Carroll for a net spend of about £2M, finishing 6th place.
We then had a major clear out and got rid of Poulsen, Konchesky, Jovanovich, Ayala, Insua, Ngog, Kyrgiakos, Meireles, loaned out Cole and Aquilani and brought in Henderson, Downing, Adam, Enrique, Coates and Bellamy for a net spend of about £35M. In a disappointing season we have just finished 8th in the league and got to 2 cup finals.
Our squad is now younger than last season and the wage bill is lower but I don't understand how anyone could argue that the squad is weaker than it was last year or that a lot of money has been wasted.
The squad does need strengthening in certain areas but you can't build a new squad over one summer and if we make the right signings over this summer and have more luck with injuries, we should be a lot more competitive next season.
I don't think I'm being biassed her or having rose tinted specs or is it just that I see my glass as half full whereas some people see there's as half empty or perhaps even bone dry in some cases ?