Spent 121.5m Recouped 39m

[Concrete John]

I think the difference is that Chelsea still recruited players and spent money while those contracts were being run down, which is something Randy wasn't prepared to do.

[Chris Smith]

A net spend of £80m over 4 years is not enough to turn a 16th placed team into one who should be assured of a CL place. A good return on that investment would be one that was able to challenge for 4th place and be in with a shout in the cups. Which would also give it a good foundation for pushing on with the right amount of further investment.

[Concrete John]

But to be even fairer to the original point, if we sell Milner and Young for around $50mill we would then have to buy replacements.  Which would cost us how much?

Well, you could argue with MON in charge that the replacements would cost £12m and £9.65m respectively, still leaving us with a net spend of around £52m.

[Arsey]

To be fair to MON If we sold Young and Milner the net spend would be about 30mil which wouldn't be too bad over 5 years.  That said I don't want to be fair to him, we couldn't make a profit on almost every signing he's made.

But to be even fairer to the original point, if we sell Milner and Young for around $50mill we would then have to buy replacements.  Which would cost us how much?

You could argue we have replacements with Albrighton and Downing.... Milner has mainly been a right sided midfielder for us.  He never replaced Fat Baz.  That said your point is valid.

It is an interesting point though, is there another player MON has bought that we could now make a profit on?

[Risso]

A net spend of £80m over 4 years is not enough to turn a 16th placed team into one who should be assured of a CL place. A good return on that investment would be one that was able to challenge for 4th place and be in with a shout in the cups. Which would also give it a good foundation for pushing on with the right amount of further investment.

That's misleading though.

We still had players of the class of Barry, Mellberg, Gabby, Laursen, Bouma etc.  That team should never have been 16th in the first place.

[Fingers]

Anyone know Saggyface's net spend at Tottenham?

[DrGonzo]

Old hangdog's spend will be balanced a bit by the sale of Berbatov, nut I'd be willing to bet it would still be 50 mill.

[Chris Smith]

Anyone know Saggyface's net spend at Tottenham?

In the same 4 year period Spurs have roughly the same net spend as us but were clearly starting from a much higher base as they've been investing at that level for longer.

[Chris Smith]

A net spend of £80m over 4 years is not enough to turn a 16th placed team into one who should be assured of a CL place. A good return on that investment would be one that was able to challenge for 4th place and be in with a shout in the cups. Which would also give it a good foundation for pushing on with the right amount of further investment.

That's misleading though.

We still had players of the class of Barry, Mellberg, Gabby, Laursen, Bouma etc.  That team should never have been 16th in the first place.

We had some good players but lots of average ones, it was definitely a bottom 8 squad.

[Fingers]

Anyone know Saggyface's net spend at Tottenham?

In the same 4 year period Spurs have roughly the same net spend as us but were clearly starting from a much higher base as they've been investing at that level for longer.

Just interested to see what it was if anyone has an idea

[Concrete John]

We still had players of the class of Barry, Mellberg, Gabby, Laursen, Bouma etc.  That team should never have been 16th in the first place.

Three of which he lost for no incoming fees, which only goes to further justify the need for a significant net spend to get us to where we are now.

[Risso]

A net spend of £80m over 4 years is not enough to turn a 16th placed team into one who should be assured of a CL place. A good return on that investment would be one that was able to challenge for 4th place and be in with a shout in the cups. Which would also give it a good foundation for pushing on with the right amount of further investment.

That's misleading though.

We still had players of the class of Barry, Mellberg, Gabby, Laursen, Bouma etc.  That team should never have been 16th in the first place.

We had some good players but lots of average ones, it was definitely a bottom 8 squad.

Was it heck.  The same side had finished 6th and 10th in the two seasons before.  Players like Davis and Cahill might have been "average" but then the players who immediately replaced them like Sidwell and Knight/Davies are no better.

Nobody's denying that O'Neill had a good bit of rebuilding to do, but things weren't as bad as you're painting, and if he hadn't wasted a good 50% of his transfer budget, he'd maybe still have a job, and we'd be in the top 4 instead of Spurs.

[brian green]

What also has to be considered is that MON took over from a very unpopular manager in an era of great optimism at the end of the Ellis soap opera years.   Any competent manager would have found it almost impossible not to get into the top half dozen

Martin O'Neill's persona as the reincarnation of Brian Clough is a media myth spun for the consumption of armchair football watchers.   If he is the incarnation of anybody he is the incarnation of Kevin Keegan - always provided that incarnation means the embodiment of somebody not yet dead.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Martin O'Neill's persona as the reincarnation of Brian Clough is a media myth spun for the consumption of armchair football watchers.   If he is the incarnation of anybody he is the incarnation of Kevin Keegan - always provided that incarnation means the embodiment of somebody not yet dead.

Sense, as ever from Mr Green Snr.

[Percy McCarthy]

A net spend of £80m over 4 years is not enough to turn a 16th placed team into one who should be assured of a CL place. A good return on that investment would be one that was able to challenge for 4th place and be in with a shout in the cups. Which would also give it a good foundation for pushing on with the right amount of further investment.

That's misleading though.

We still had players of the class of Barry, Mellberg, Gabby, Laursen, Bouma etc.  That team should never have been 16th in the first place.

3 of them left for nothing and only me and O'Neill thought Gabby was any good at the time.