Get promoted, spend £100m + wages on new players, have a chance at staying up. Invest well, manage well, make a few moves for small upgrades, maybe cash in one major signing to improve two places on the field for the greater good. That's a successful manager and owners point of view, the club is established as a PL concern. Maybe it's good for 12th - 16th. Maybe*.
Spend another £100m and possibly see an improvement if it ALL goes well, to say 8th-11th. It's easier improving the quality to separate from the relegation favourites than to do well and be assured mid table. So then £100m again from 8th-11th to have a bash at a go at 5th-7th? Who are the rivals here, who do they have on the books already that someone would need to catch up with or buy better than? If someone has a deal with Adidas for £90m a year, and an airline for shirt sponsor similar, and flog thousands of shirts in Asia and the middle east, naming rights on the stadium, naming rights on the training ground, 80k attendances, creative bookkeeping using sides abroad in different leagues and jurisdictions, then maybe someone can try to go toe-to-toe financially to become established contenders. This example is tied to one club alone, chelsea were rinsing dirty russian oligarch monies, city have off the books oil monies, arsenal can't keep up - they've sacked the tea lady and dippy the dinosaur and the car park litter picker, then there's the unwashed over the way - they put the coutinho money on the roulette table and let it ride and won every spin - good for them. Recently we've seen villa and newcastle have a go for the higher reaches and then suffer with forced sales, their business model wasn't sustainable, so now they're hamstrung to cover it for a season. Money has implemented a yoyoing of efforts for clubs to try for the top spots, similar to the yoyoing all through the league, mid table, relegation battle, relegated promoted. Clubs are defined by their financial capability, the boundaries are becoming more stark and reinforced. Once in a while a perfect storm will occur but it's back to business the season after.
What can management be worth? 10%? 20%? 100%? It's hugely oversimplifying but a side put together for example £150m with a manager that gets 100% more out of them, then it's a £300m side. Up against a £700m side it's still underpowered, and that doesn't take into account the manager of said £700m side and their influence... 10%?
Football was easier in the past, it was a Saturday afternoon and some chatter over a few pints in the boozer after and that was that, unless a cup run of sorts meant a bit extra now n then. No rolling news, no 24 hour social media commentary, no forums, no experts, no insiders, no fakes, no celebrity agents, there was club call, rumours in the back pages of the gutter press, and maybe an interview with a manager before a big fixture.
It cost a lot less time, effort and money back then.
TLDR, jumpers for goal posts, World cup Willie, Pickles the dog, Cup final day, the chainman has a new car...
