50% Villa: Assou-Ekotto on not becoming us

[Risso]

Can't argue with anything that he's quoted as saying.

Spurs hung onto their best players, whereas Villa sold two of their's

This time they did but in recent times they've sold Berbatov, Carrick etc and unless something remarkable happens Bale and Modric will also leave.

Carrick has been at Man U for 5 years now. They have sold some decent players, but not as many as we have in as short a time.  They've largely been better at replacing them as well.

[Eigentor]

Can't argue with anything that he's quoted as saying.

Spurs hung onto their best players, whereas Villa sold two of their's

This time they did but in recent times they've sold Berbatov, Carrick etc and unless something remarkable happens Bale and Modric will also leave.

Carrick has been at Man U for 5 years now. They have sold some decent players, but not as many as we have in as short a time.  They've largely been better at replacing them as well.

The point about replacing players is a valid one.

Replacing Barry with Milner didn't work to badly. Replacing Milner with Ireland proved to be madness. Replacing Downing AND Young with N'Zogbia was insufficient and has so far not worked at all.

[Jimbo]

It is not a question of the economy of Abu Dhabi collapsing, it is a question of it taking flight.   There is a lot of purring and mutual back patting going on about the is so called "arab spring".   If the civil unrest spreads to the really big centres of oil wealth, especially Saudi Arabia, the ruling families will scatter, taking their money with them.   They will want their multi billion dollar nest eggs invested in something more secure than football clubs.

Abu Dhabi is a different kettle of oil to Saudi Arabia. Who is going to rise up there? The grossly overpaid and pampered locals - what's their gripe? The well-paid non tax-paying ex-pats? The subcontinental workers in labour camps - is it worth them risking their lives for the good of a country that isn't theirs? The money pumped into Man City by Abu Dhabi is but a particle in a drop in the ocean. They have a long-term plan for the emirate - unlike Dubai - and they want to be taken seriously.

Many of the multi-million dollar projects already completed there have been done so merely to boost Abu Dhabi's prestige and credibility. The international publicity, attention and kudos they're getting back from Man City far exceeds any of the initiatives they've already undertaken. There's an endless stack of cash with which to push it onwards. They are loving it. And they aren't getting out any time soon, no matter how hard we hope and pray that they will.

It wouldn't surprise me if they pursued this until Man City are 'bigger' than Real Madrid/Barcelona/Man United all rolled into one. Either football implodes there and then, or Qatar and Saudi enter the fray and it gets even sillier. I don't like it any more than you do.

[GJH]

Truth hurts!

2 years ago we were competing with Spurs now we are worlds apart.

There midfield includes Van de vart and Modric, ours is Heskey and Herd. Say no more

[saunders_heroes]

Can't argue with anything that he's quoted as saying.

Spurs hung onto their best players, whereas Villa sold two of their's

This time they did but in recent times they've sold Berbatov, Carrick etc and unless something remarkable happens Bale and Modric will also leave.

Carrick has been at Man U for 5 years now. They have sold some decent players, but not as many as we have in as short a time.  They've largely been better at replacing them as well.

That's true. Tottenham lose their top players as well, but at least they reinvest the cash back into the team. We certainly don't.

[Chris Smith]

Can't argue with anything that he's quoted as saying.

Spurs hung onto their best players, whereas Villa sold two of their's

This time they did but in recent times they've sold Berbatov, Carrick etc and unless something remarkable happens Bale and Modric will also leave.

Carrick has been at Man U for 5 years now. They have sold some decent players, but not as many as we have in as short a time.  They've largely been better at replacing them as well.

That's true. Tottenham lose their top players as well, but at least they reinvest the cash back into the team. We certainly don't.

That's not strictly true, in recent years we've signed Milner, Downing and Bent after selling players. Even this year when we're cutting back we've spent decent money on NZogbia.

They've now decided that they need to put the wages in order so we're having to live within our means. Spurs sell out every week and charge higher prices, how do you suggest we match them?

[saunders_heroes]

Can't argue with anything that he's quoted as saying.

Spurs hung onto their best players, whereas Villa sold two of their's

This time they did but in recent times they've sold Berbatov, Carrick etc and unless something remarkable happens Bale and Modric will also leave.

Carrick has been at Man U for 5 years now. They have sold some decent players, but not as many as we have in as short a time.  They've largely been better at replacing them as well.

That's true. Tottenham lose their top players as well, but at least they reinvest the cash back into the team. We certainly don't.

That's not strictly true, in recent years we've signed Milner, Downing and Bent after selling players. Even this year when we're cutting back we've spent decent money on NZogbia.

They've now decided that they need to put the wages in order so we're having to live within our means. Spurs sell out every week and charge higher prices, how do you suggest we match them?

We could try and match them by not selling our best players. Perhaps then our crowds wouldn't have dwindled to what they are now. Thanks Randy.

[Chris Smith]

We had Downing, Young and Bent in the side last season and still crowds dipped so that argument doesn't really stack up. There's a hardcore of about 30k who will turn up every week but in the current economic climate we can't rely on much more.

Spurs even when they had poor seasons before Redknapp still sold out every week and at higher prices than we could get away with.

If we want to pay the wages that the top players expect we need to bring in more money. That's the crux of the problem that Randy has to deal with. We have a huge fan base but not that many who will turn up every week. He needs to find other ways of bringing in money, investing that in the team and then hoping that will persuade more of the floating support to make the effort. I don't envy him the task.

[Risso]

We have paid the top wages and big transfer fees, it's just that for the most part we've paid them to the likes of Heskey and Beye and spent it on the likes of Davies rather than players who would help us improve as a team.  it's not that our turnover is particularly low, it's that we've wasted a silly amount of money on crap players.

[pauliewalnuts]

We have paid the top wages and big transfer fees, it's just that for the most part we've paid them to the likes of Heskey and Beye and spent it on the likes of Davies rather than players who would help us improve as a team.  it's not that our turnover is particularly low, it's that we've wasted a silly amount of money on crap players.

Bingo.

The claim that you can't compete with your neighbours is somewhat hollow if you're doing your weekly shopping in Harrods food hall.

I remember when we were signing dross like Heskey and Harewood, people on here were sneering at foreign show ponies of the likes of Modric.

Spurs turned down 40m for Modric in the last window. We, on the other hand, couldn't wait to cash in on Stewart Downing at 20m (and pocket the money), and had a director of our club asking (on VT) "if the club can get 20m for a player, I do not understand why any fan would want us not to do that"

That says it all.

Assou-Ekotto is dead right. We've consistently sold our best players, and this time not bothered replacing them, and as a result, we're fading away.

Over the period Lerner was throwing money at O'Neill, the whole venture was so badly planned and abysmally run that it was effectively "shit or bust" - with the result that we are now clawing back the money so desperately that the only manager we could get to take on the job was Alex McLeish.

How many of us would have believed that a year ago?

[PaulWinch again]

We have paid the top wages and big transfer fees, it's just that for the most part we've paid them to the likes of Heskey and Beye and spent it on the likes of Davies rather than players who would help us improve as a team.  it's not that our turnover is particularly low, it's that we've wasted a silly amount of money on crap players.

Bingo.

The claim that you can't compete with your neighbours is somewhat hollow if you're doing your weekly shopping in Harrods food hall.

I remember when we were signing dross like Heskey and Harewood, people on here were sneering at foreign show ponies of the likes of Modric.

Spurs turned down 40m for Modric in the last window. We, on the other hand, couldn't wait to cash in on Stewart Downing at 20m (and pocket the money), and had a director of our club asking (on VT) "if the club can get 20m for a player, I do not understand why any fan would want us not to do that"

That says it all.

Assou-Ekotto is dead right. We've consistently sold our best players, and this time not bothered replacing them, and as a result, we're fading away.

Over the period Lerner was throwing money at O'Neill, the whole venture was so badly planned and abysmally run that it was effectively "shit or bust" - with the result that we are now clawing back the money so desperately that the only manager we could get to take on the job was Alex McLeish.

How many of us would have believed that a year ago?

Yep it leaves a bitter taste him saying it, but he's pretty much bang on.

[pauliewalnuts]

We had Downing, Young and Bent in the side last season and still crowds dipped so that argument doesn't really stack up. There's a hardcore of about 30k who will turn up every week but in the current economic climate we can't rely on much more.

Last season we averaged 37,194. The season before that it was 38,573, so it dropped 1,400 or so.

This season we've averaged what, about 31,000? And that including two games against local rivals, one of which was 8,000 down on last year.

Last year was a horrible season by and large, and you're right, the economy is playing a part, but the economy was bollocksed last year as well. It isn't as if this downturn suddenly happened over the summer.

[pauliewalnuts]

We have paid the top wages and big transfer fees, it's just that for the most part we've paid them to the likes of Heskey and Beye and spent it on the likes of Davies rather than players who would help us improve as a team.  it's not that our turnover is particularly low, it's that we've wasted a silly amount of money on crap players.

Bingo.

The claim that you can't compete with your neighbours is somewhat hollow if you're doing your weekly shopping in Harrods food hall.

I remember when we were signing dross like Heskey and Harewood, people on here were sneering at foreign show ponies of the likes of Modric.

Spurs turned down 40m for Modric in the last window. We, on the other hand, couldn't wait to cash in on Stewart Downing at 20m (and pocket the money), and had a director of our club asking (on VT) "if the club can get 20m for a player, I do not understand why any fan would want us not to do that"

That says it all.

Assou-Ekotto is dead right. We've consistently sold our best players, and this time not bothered replacing them, and as a result, we're fading away.

Over the period Lerner was throwing money at O'Neill, the whole venture was so badly planned and abysmally run that it was effectively "shit or bust" - with the result that we are now clawing back the money so desperately that the only manager we could get to take on the job was Alex McLeish.

How many of us would have believed that a year ago?

Yep it leaves a bitter taste him saying it, but he's pretty much bang on.

Worth bearing in mind - we were paying Steve Sidwell more than Spurs were paying Modric.

[Chris Smith]

We had Downing, Young and Bent in the side last season and still crowds dipped so that argument doesn't really stack up. There's a hardcore of about 30k who will turn up every week but in the current economic climate we can't rely on much more.

Last season we averaged 37,194. The season before that it was 38,573, so it dropped 1,400 or so.

This season we've averaged what, about 31,000? And that including two games against local rivals, one of which was 8,000 down on last year.

Last year was a horrible season by and large, and you're right, the economy is playing a part, but the economy was bollocksed last year as well. It isn't as if this downturn suddenly happened over the summer.

Crowds are back to how they were before MON and Randy arrived after peaking 3 years ago. We kept crowds up last year by some heavy discounting, which a lot of people moaned about, but with the price differences our match day income will be far lower than Spurs. Surely nobody is going to disagree with that.

[Risso]

We had Downing, Young and Bent in the side last season and still crowds dipped so that argument doesn't really stack up. There's a hardcore of about 30k who will turn up every week but in the current economic climate we can't rely on much more.

Last season we averaged 37,194. The season before that it was 38,573, so it dropped 1,400 or so.

This season we've averaged what, about 31,000? And that including two games against local rivals, one of which was 8,000 down on last year.

Last year was a horrible season by and large, and you're right, the economy is playing a part, but the economy was bollocksed last year as well. It isn't as if this downturn suddenly happened over the summer.

Crowds are back to how they were before MON and Randy arrived after peaking 3 years ago.

Considering we've had two derby games, our average attendance so far is terrible - 32,447.

There are the average attendances of the last decade:

10/11 - 36,883
09/10 - 38,573
08/09 - 39,811
07/08 - 40,397
06/07 - 36,214
05/06 - 34,111
04/05 - 35,270
03/04 - 36,621
02/03 - 35,975
01/02 - 35,011

So we've pretty well been a nailed on 35/36K crowd club, and I think that the effects of "belief" on crowds are easily seen.