The money has been spent, and spent on wages..... you really think, in all honesty we have spent wisely over the 6 years?

A club with 8th highest wage bill languishing around 17th all season?

This was once a quality forum....

Yup, correct.. but wasn't the point i was making.

This was once a quality forum....

I seem to remember that most HOL'ers were pleased when we signed Sako on a free plus Mutch but we can all criticize with the benefit of hindsight.

Something that hasn't been mentioned is the fee that we paid for Sakho which was very large by our standards. Sakho was obviously a Parish purchase and I recall last season that a number of quality central defenders' names were touted in the media all much cheaper than what we eventually paid for Sakho but Mr P was single minded as he only seemed to want the most expensive one

I didn’t think the guy was complaining if the money was spent well or not. He seemed to suggest money hadn’t been spent in the last 6 years. At least that’s how I read his posts.

Has it been spent well?

Some of it has, some of it hasn’t... Which clubs get all there transfers right?

Not sure our league position last season had much to do with the players we’d purchased but much more to do with the manager we employed...

Would we have fought back and finished 11th if we didn’t have the players we do? Who bought them?

There's a very good article here about how we are now suffering from leftover players signed by previous managers. Plus also the furore WE all made about signing Sakho.

[Link]

Would anyone genuinely think that any other chairman (Jordan/Goldberg anyone?) would be a better option than Steve Parish?

Steve is learning on the job but I have 100% confidence in what they are all doing.

Four wheels drives the body - Two wheels drives the soul

This post has been merged from a topic called 'Stability vs Turnover.' by bexleydave

We could do with a couple of good signings, but if that doesn’t happen (and we don’t sell anyone crucial of course….) let’s remember that we will be going into the season with a very settled side which just achieved another 11th place finish, with a very comfortable top-10 points-per-game ratio once Roy had come in and got them organised.

With no new faces we’d have a team who know each other, and Roy’s system, inside out already. This is a squad who have all been available for training ground work from day one of pre-season as none of them went to the World Cup (Luka aside, but he returned fairly early and a little underused).

Unlike some, our players haven’t got to spend three or four weeks desperately trying to incorporate new signings who know nothing about their new team, league or Country. Ours haven’t been flogging themselves on the far side of the world in a high-humidity jetlag-fest which leaves little or no time for training. One little trip to Sweden, and otherwise they have been home with their families, going to work on the training ground every day, with the same manager they did so well with last year doing the same work that they already believe in.

Compare this settled environment to our opponents over August and September: Fulham have brought in 4 new 1st team players who may all make their debut together against us. They have lost two of last season’s first choice players too, so half their team may change.

Liverpool are plainly very strong, but they’ve had to leave a number of World Cup internationals out of pre-season and are already saying that they may not have them available until closer to September, so again, half a new team with a good few missing when we play them.

Watford, as usual, are churn-central, with six new fist team players in and seven out (three of which at least were first choice last year). At Southampton its 4 new ones in with a massive 13 out, at least 4 of which were first teamers, whilst at Huddersfield it’s a whopping 7 new faces in.

The lack of numbers will bite us if we get injuries of course, but with three league fixtures per month in August and September the games hardly come thick and fast, and Roy greatly prefers a settled team anyway. Our squad may not be great, but our team is proven, and a good start goes an awfully long way.

We might just have more of a head start than we appreciate.