Questions for Mr. Lerner Sir

[Chris Smith]

That's one player, it doesn't really warrant a likes of.

Yaya Toure, Robinho, Kolo Toure, David Silva, Tevez, Balotelli.

They were all players that for varying reasons their selling clubs were happy to see move on (Tevez was only on loan at Manu).

Of course Man City's money has distorted the market but being able to offer Barry and Milner CL football I believe would have kept them here.

[Risso]

You really would argue black was white rather than admit you were wrong.

[WarszaVillan]

You really would argue black was white rather than admit you were wrong.

The David Starkey of H&V

[pauliewalnuts]

That's one player, it doesn't really warrant a likes of.

Yaya Toure, Robinho, Kolo Toure, David Silva, Tevez, Balotelli.

They were all players that for varying reasons their selling clubs were happy to see move on (Tevez was only on loan at Manu).

Not really relevant to what you were talking about, which was the willingness of players to move to a non CL club from one in it, not the desire of the club to sell.

[Chris Smith]

You really would argue black was white rather than admit you were wrong.

I'm not wrong, I said players RARELY move from a club in the CL to one that isn't and I stand by that. Who have Manu or Chelsea had to sell?

Man City have been able to take advantage of clubs who need the money or want players off the books but it isn't a common occurrence.

I can't understand why anyone would argue against the idea that if we'd got into it then it would have helped us in our attempts to hold on to our better players and attract others, it seems obvious to me.

[pauliewalnuts]

Man City have been able to take advantage of the fact they've got a near bottomless pit of money and can pay players 200k a week.

That's got far more to do with it than fortuitous circumstances involving selling clubs.

[Chris Smith]

Man City have been able to take advantage of the fact they've got a near bottomless pit of money and can pay players 200k a week.

That's got far more to do with it than fortuitous circumstances involving selling clubs.

That's what I meant by  "they can take advantage of". The have the finance to do it but in most cases there has been a willing seller.

For some reason you all seem to what to get bogged down in detail to distract from the real argument that if we'd qualified we'd have a chance of holding on to Barry in the first season. If that had seen us improve again, Milner might have felt he was better off here etc etc.

It's not a certainty, of course, but neither is your "no chance".

[Risso]

So players won't leave teams who are in the Champions League to join ones that aren't, unless of course it's Man City who come calling.  Who was it who Barry and Milner joined?

[Macho Man Randy Savage]

I think we would have struggled competing on both a PL and CL front under O'Neill. He could put out a side that could get results, but he didn't show any obvious skill in making use of a squad and I think we would have struggled towards the end of the season playing that many games with the same team. In my opinion, financially we would always have been in trouble because even if we had made it to the Champions League we wouldn't have stayed there.

[villan1975]

Can we have another £100 million please Mr.Lerner as arsenal look like they there for the taking?

[ktvillan]

I think getting into the CL proper might have helped us hang on to players a liittle longer, and attract some new ones, but only as long as we reamined a CL team.  However if O'Neill's squad weren't tehcnically and tactically astute enough to get past a rather average European outfit like Rapid Vienna (twice), it has to be doubtful whether they would have been equipped to get through the qualifying round of the CL even if we had managed a 4th place finish. 

[cheltenhamlion]

What players would we have attracted? We certainly wouldn't have signed them from any further afield than Lands End or John A'Groats.

[ktvillan]

What players would we have attracted? We certainly wouldn't have signed them from any further afield than Lands End or John A'Groats.

Actually that's a good point, even with the lure of CL football, MON was more likely to have still gone after Aiden McGeady and Robbie Keane than Rafael Van der Vaart.

[Concrete John]

So, is the argument that the good players we have lost would have gone anyway if we had gotten 4th?  That we wouldn't have qualified anyway?  In that case, what difference does it make whether we got there or not?  And do you all retract the criticism of MON for not getting there? 

Personally, and I said this at the time, if we did qualifying for the CL the mot important thing is then doing it for the next season aswell.  In one year and then out again won't keep players, attract other players or overly improve the club financially.  However, if you can stay there for a while and establish yourself, that will.  We probably would have spend the first few years getting knocked out in the group stages, but as a learning process that would help us and the continued revenue and exposure would make us be seen as a bigger club and that added profile helps when trying to retain your best players and negotiating with top level signings.  In the same way a club promoted to the PL thinks about staying there only for the first couple of years and then the increased revenue and stability allows them to start progressing up the league, a club like ours would have to take the same approach to the CL.       

[cheltenhamlion]

Let's say we had a few seasons in there. Whilst that may make us an attractive proposition to a Van Der Vaart, do you honestly believe MON would have tried to sign him?

I would suggest he would have been far more likely to tell Randy that the increased revenue means we should pay the stupid wages that Jermaine Defoe wants.