The 5 Year Plan

[pedro25]

Central midfield Randy/ M'ON bought Petrov (8 mill), NRC (8.5 mill), Ireland (8 mill), Delph (8 mill), Sidwell (5 mill), Salifou (1 mill), yet the 2 best centre mids we have had in the last 5 years were converted wingers, one inherited, and even after Houllier spent another 6 mill on Makoun and bought in Bradley and Pires we are left with Petrov and NRC as our 1st choice pair.  This was not good enough at any time over the last 4/5 years, as we could only get away with one of them and a Barry/ Milner, so it certainly shouldn't be good enough in year 5.

[Mazrim]

Nearly £5m in transfer fees, and £30K a week.  Close to £10m of money out of the door on Marlon Harewood, which is OTT by any sane standard.

A bargain when compared to the £14.4m Heskey will have cost us.

[pauliewalnuts]

Wasn't much made, earlier in the season, of the fact that no Blackpool player earned more than 10k a week?

I bet that was a comedown for Marlinho

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Very good, Maz.

[UsualSuspect]

For a club hoping to break the CL and needing firepower up front, Marlon was never in a million years going to be much use.

We had just finished 11th when we signed him.  But as I said earlier once we did become that perenial 6th placed team that was when he needed moving on and better brought in.

He was never good enough in the first place, which is why he was on his way to Wigan from West Ham when we bought him.

It's all well and good saying he had some impact off the bench, but it wasn't much of an impact, and didn't O'Neill pretend he didn't exist for months after he came off the bench at Spurs to give them a penalty?

30k a week, say, for three years? so that's 5m in wages, plus 4.5m in fee with no sell on, so the best part of 10 million pounds Marlon cost us. In return we got 5 league goals.

I can't believe anyone doesn't think we've been wasteful with wages looking at figures like that.,

The best one is Salifou and Beye

10 MILLION

[Mazrim]

I'm getting a bit woozy, here.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm getting a bit woozy, here.

[Mazrim]

We had some use out of Davies  though and, to be fair, I was happy we'd signed him.
But yes, another transfer that cant be viewed as anything other than misuse of resources.

[Concrete John]

Central midfield Randy/ M'ON bought Petrov (8 mill), NRC (8.5 mill), Ireland (8 mill), Delph (8 mill), Sidwell (5 mill), Salifou (1 mill), yet the 2 best centre mids we have had in the last 5 years were converted wingers, one inherited, and even after Houllier spent another 6 mill on Makoun and bought in Bradley and Pires we are left with Petrov and NRC as our 1st choice pair.  This was not good enough at any time over the last 4/5 years, as we could only get away with one of them and a Barry/ Milner, so it certainly shouldn't be good enough in year 5.

Man Utd have just won the league with how manay millions spent of their central midfield (Carrick alone was £18m) and yet their best player in there was a converted winger who was a youth product.

The point being that sometimes the end justifies the means.  OK, we didn't win the league, but we did win a lot of games and qualify for Europe under MON's methods.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

For a club hoping to break the CL and needing firepower up front, Marlon was never in a million years going to be much use.

We had just finished 11th when we signed him.  But as I said earlier once we did become that perenial 6th placed team that was when he needed moving on and better brought in.

He was never good enough in the first place, which is why he was on his way to Wigan from West Ham when we bought him.

The Dog Shit were after him as well and many on here were laughing about it.
When news broke that he was signing for us, he mysteriously became a great player all of a sudden.

It was the sort of signing I would have expected under Ellis and O'Leary.
Remember, at the time everybody was feverishly talking about Champions League, this was the first sign that we were not going to make the signings that would get us there.

[Concrete John]

Remember, at the time everybody was feverishly talking about Champions League, this was the first sign that we were not going to make the signings that would get us there.

Sorry, but who was talking about CL in a summer after finishing 11th? 

[FatSam]

I'm just posted on the summer transfer rumours a story on Taiwo and Mexes going to Milan on free transfers. The Serie A winners are obviously a very attractive proposition to most players, and I'm sure they're going to be well rewarded, but this still sounds like a good piece of business for Milan.

Based on this you would imagine that they would be on a maximum of around £4M (EUR4.5M) per year, perhaps with a signing on fee. Its still a lot of money, but compared to Harewood et al! I had been looking forward to some more calculated, incisive, transfer dealings from Le Gaffeur after MON, but it looks like its not to be.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Remember, at the time everybody was feverishly talking about Champions League, this was the first sign that we were not going to make the signings that would get us there.

Sorry, but who was talking about CL in a summer after finishing 11th? 

Sorry, but many on here were talking about Champions League, the minute Randy took over.

[Chris Smith]

I doubt that "get through 4 managers, spend most of the season locked in a relegation fight and give the impression to the outside world of a club that doesn't know its arse from its elbow" was on the agenda for year 5.

You can argue all day about share but the reality is that everyone from Randy down has to take some of the blame and along with it responsibility for ensuring that they all do better next season.

[Concrete John]

Remember, at the time everybody was feverishly talking about Champions League, this was the first sign that we were not going to make the signings that would get us there.

Sorry, but who was talking about CL in a summer after finishing 11th? 

Sorry, but many on here were talking about Champions League, the minute Randy took over.

That's true.

But then Man City, with all their resources, have shown it takes time to get there.