When the oil rich slave operators came in and took control of Man city it had a fundamental impact on Lerner's ambitions at Villa park. He realised that the game was up and money required to compete at the highest level was out of his reach. Let's hope the same doesn't happen to NSWE and we go back to square one.
Lerner was a combination of the monetary issues highlighted by others (divorce, family trust, loss of cash etc) and the fact that he had a manager who spent a fair bit of money on a defence one year (eg Cuellar, Davies and Shorey) decided they were all mostly shit, so replaced them all next year (Warnock, Collins and Dunne). He was therefore in a position that he couldn't really afford it any more, and had a manager he didn't trust who wasn't going to advance past 6th place, but who still retained a Brian Clough God complex. All of the good players like Young and Milner realised it too, so that was the beginning of the end. It was just a shame for us at the time that Lerner didn't put the club up for sale there and then, rather than trying to keep at it for another 4-5 years before selling to Shitty Shoe Bastard Tony X.
Staverley has gone all Krulak, proclaiming world domination in 5 to 10 years. Go find a decent manager first. The Toon army deserve a bit of joy for once but not with those murdering fucks in charge.
Quote from: Steve67 on October 09, 2021, 10:14:26 PMStaverley has gone all Krulak, proclaiming world domination in 5 to 10 years. Go find a decent manager first. The Toon army deserve a bit of joy for once but not with those murdering fucks in charge. On what basis do they ‘deserve’ anything?
Quote from: Richard E on October 09, 2021, 10:19:19 PMQuote from: Steve67 on October 09, 2021, 10:14:26 PMStaverley has gone all Krulak, proclaiming world domination in 5 to 10 years. Go find a decent manager first. The Toon army deserve a bit of joy for once but not with those murdering fucks in charge. On what basis do they ‘deserve’ anything?I was going to ask that.
Probably more worrying for the likes of Leicester, Everton Spurs and Arsenal than the big4 i'd say in the short term. Maybe us I guess.. None of the big 4 get their own way with bringing in players and lose out to each other. Will need a good 5-10years of consistently challenging/winning the pl/appearing in the CL before they can attract the top players with brand recognition and persuade them to travel to the "back of beyond". I'm not sure ManCity can even attract those sort of players yet.
I'm intrigued to see with the Saudis specifically target their Qatar 'brothers' - bidding for their players, competing for other potential incomers; and whether that becomes slightly obsessive for them.Regardless, until they can get into Euro football comps they are - like us - somewhat limited in likely success in hiring the very best.I notice the Grauniad has reported today that the other 19 clubs in the Prem, are up in arms about the takeover: a tad hypocritical in the case of some, surely?!