It came as no surprise to feel an immediate wave of negativity following Declan Rice’s announcement that he wants to win the Premier League during his career.
Determined never to disappoint, a few immediately reminded him and us that this would presumably be achieved when he had moved on from West Ham.
Others showed the usual enthusiasm to claim it would take between a quarter to half a million pounds investment to move the club to the famous next level. A relentless and ageing argument that needs discussion.
It’s a money mad mindset and it also needs to be pointed out that only one club can win the league and the hopes of half of those involved in the competition are ‘backed’ by bookies odds of 20/1 or much longer!
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
But the real irony for me in such comments is that Declan Rice (centre right) himself proves the point very conclusively that top players – if we are fortunate to unearth them – completely disprove the ‘spend spend spend’ argument anyway.
Ok, they may not win you the league but such as Nathan Holland (top right) , Josh Pask (bottom right), Josh Cullen and just maybe Reece Oxford are clearly players who can give you a pretty decent team.
There are others such as Marcus Browne, Dan Kemp, Vashon Neufville and Joe Powell whom most observers close to the under 23s reckon have big futures.
It’s been so long since the academy produced youngsters of real quality that we have forgotten this is the default position of our club.
Coupled with a sensible signing policy under David Moyes and a decent director of football, I see a club on the up with so many gifted youngsters on the way through.
I remember a certain club who were told you never win the league with kids.
They did and whilst we may not do the same, but I really don’t buy into this “it’s gonna take massive spend up” claim beloved by those in the main who may have an axe or two to grind.
A Half a £Million Investment!!!!!!
That’s just crazy money Hugh and you know it!!
This is a 2 pronged attack, in that money must be spent in partnership with developing our own players, but the more we home-produce the less the onus is on the spending.
Quite agree that we are showing signs of getting back to where we could surprise a few people during the next few years by achieving without being rich oil shieks.
With oxford possibly gone, Josh Pask is at last coming through ( despite a stream of injuries ), and the team showed last night that they are good at going anywhere and engineering a result. With that being inbred we have a chance in the near future, to break through.
So please stay Declan.
By the way I totally agree about David Moyes. Already people are being unfairly sceptical and insulting to his abilities as a manager. We should give hime a chance to get things in gear.
The half £million investment was actually half £billion and was a tongue in Cheek reply to a comment saying the board need to spend if we are to win the league, seeing as city have spent £280 million since Pep took over and he had part of the team already