Quite understandably, there has been much discussion surrounding the projected £75 million transfer kitty allegedly being handed to new manager Manuel Pellegrini this summer.
There is also the agreement between him and the board that he will receive all the proceeds from outgoings although we don’t see the likes of Sam Byram, Robert Snodgrass, Reece Burke, and one or two others increasing that by too much.
The hard line view is that £75 million is a pittance when put alongside the Manchester City, Man United and Chelsea type spends and were we making an immediate attempt to join that exalted company it would be entirely the case.
However, something close to £100 million – in the hands of a man who clearly knows what he is doing – may stretch further than many believe is possible.
That’s my hope anyway and it’s based solely on the thought that a guy with such a world wide reputation isn’t likely to risk seeing it demolished in Bilic-type style were he not certain he could do a job at the club.
It also rests on the fact that he has a network of contacts where very decent players may well be available at cheaper rates than is commonly paid.
We ran a piece from The Coaches’ Voice recently where Pellegrini made it clear that the key to building a club was based on available finance.
That the club has made him the third highest paid manager in the Premier League behind only Guardiola and Mourinho, to then hand him a budget with which he can’t work, seems bizarre and brings Pellegrini’s job choice into question along of course with his judgement.
Best for now to sit quietly and adopt a watching brief although of course social media where a comment becomes a war cry within a few hours makes that difficult .
For me, the fact that Pellegrini has accepted the job at all is something of a miracle, and I respect his intelligence and record too much to start giving it large about what he needs or doesn’t need.
That’s a bit like a wages clerk handing a brain surgeon a scalpel so patience is the key I reckon.
COYI
The club has reiterated a goal to push for Europe, which given the performance of the current squad last season, you’d argue is not achievable without investment in quality players.
I’m not sure comparisons with the 2 Manchester clubs work, however a gradual growth strategy, driven by increasing revenues as well as success on the field, similar to that employed by Leicester, or Spurs (or even Burnley), over a number of seasons, has to be the right approach for a club in West Hams position.
DG has linked further investment in playing staff to increases in loans at the club, which as we know, previously resulted in the directors charging significant interest to the club. A variant of this (no interest), may well be appropriate this season, but really needs to be followed up with a sustainable plan to grow the revenue of the club.
Nice comment that
Does anybody remember the season Tony Fernandes took over at QPR & threw a fortune straight down the pan? I can’t remember the amounts involved (which would be worth a lot more under today’s transfer levels).They splashed out, but the agents saw them coming a mile off. The best players were not going there. Mediocre players would only go for massive wages. Poor old Harry ended up with a team of skivers & frauds which pretty much broke him.
My point is that a ‘statement of intent’ of a war chest chest of say £200m will leave you branded as desperate, not as a side headed for big things. It could be easily frittered away. £75m is I think a reasonable target sum. Well spent it could begin the ‘gradual growth strategy’ tw refers to above & which has to be the route we go down. More important even than whether the owners commit £50m,£75m or £150m in the next year is whether that money is spent well & whether the structure of this club is modernised to bring us in line with the likes of the more successful ‘second rank’ teams. We were offered a ‘ magic coin’ with the LS. That turned out to be a dud, so we now have to do it the slow,hard way. That could tbh bring better long term results. I just hope Pellegrini is in it for the long haul & he is given every opportunity to ‘do it his way’. ‘You know it makes sense Rodney’ as they used to say.
Or indeed when the Icelandics had the reigns and signed players like Dyer, Ljundberg etc on very fat pay packets. I think we already pay very well so unlikely to be any huge changes there, hope this rumour is true about the Brazilian kid in defence, looks a proper unit, typically Brazilian on the ball and good defending, based on his youtube anyway but they are all Worldbeaters on that I guess.
Let’s face the real facts ! We’ve only really got 3/4 decent players , so it’s a total squad overhaul required….is 75mil going to cut the mustard ? It’s going to take some shrewd business acumen/ wheeling and dealing to get us to anything like the players we’d love to get …just hope the connections Mr pellegrinni has works well in our favour …..but he’s here now and it’s over to him….but we all know he definitely has a job to undertake…….
Super Mario and a few players of the likes of Cairney, Fredericks, dendonker etc would have allowed progress for a reasonable cost but I think things have changed now. I think we will be going for a different type of player.
pellegrini might well attract better foreign players but at the same time he might attract higher prices.
At the end of the day we are never going to compete with the big boys with 75 million for 4 or 5 players. The big boys will spend that much on 1 or 2 players. So what we all need to do is stop raising our own expectations the whole time. Right now I think the target for a club like ours should be to be the best of the rest. To finish in 8th place would be an achievement.