so what next?

[sirblue57]

another almost season? or missed opportunity? so where do we go from here? some fans are saying sell, but who? rodwell? fellaini? our most promising young players, arteta, baines and jags have been mentioned as well. have we really sank that low? have we become a club that can no longer hold onto talent? that will sell our future to the highest bidder?
lets look at this from another angle. we have no money, why? reasons that have been talked to death on every forum, we know the problem, yet we, the supporters, do nothing. oh some are selling scarves, very....nice, i bet bills sh###ting his pants over that one.
we laugh at the Rs and their protests, as if its uncool. IT GOT RESULTS. as much as i hate to admit it, maybe their supporters have more passion than ours. oh we skit them and call them norway, ho ho fu##king ho. well surprise surprise, once again they are above us. even when things go wrong for them, they are above us. now we can bitch about the manager all we want. but the real problem is the board, and lack of resources and financial planning, hell ANY planning.
we cannot even build a f###king annexxe without embarrasing ourselves. and yet our supporters do.......? oh yeah, sell scarfes.
im afraid if our supporters dont come together and act, soon, we will end up like sheff wed, or worse.
i have stated that this summer will be a watershed in the clubs history, and like others have heard rumours if investment. and like others have become sceptical of even the most trusted source.
i ask the supporters of this club to let the board know we are dissatisfied and angry, that we expect better, and if that means getting from behind a keyboard and doing something,DO IT.
its up to us to instigate a change, it can be done, it needs to be done. and for those who say there is no one with money out there, we have two wealthy men on the board. the finance is within the club, and im sure outside. it depends on what kind of supporters we have, those who want the club to be ambitious and successful. or those who think a day out at wembley once in a while Is success. your choice.

 

[Summerskin]

We sell Yakubu, Yobo, Heitinga and Vaughan, if push comes to shove we sell Rodwell. As much as I love the guy Billy looks like he could be off too.

With the £30+ million out of that we re-build the squad with one £10+ million striker being THE IMMEDIATE PRIORITY.

We buy a full-back that can cover the left and put serious thought into a wide midfielder, a £4-5 million pound bid for Roger Johnson/Liam Ridgewell would not go a miss either.

If the board aren't gonna stump up any cash then we shouldn't be ashamed of selling to buy, we'll have to bite the bullet.

If Moyes finds a pair during the summer he'll hopefully work on a few more formations, as i'm getting sick of seeing a 35 yard gap between a fat oaf of a striker and his supposed support in midfield.

 

[daz4matty]

The most important thing we have to do is make sure david moyes stays and doesn't get his head turned by spurs or such like.
Seen as we are stuck with the lying,stealing fat mincer we will have to leave it to mr moyes to wave his magic wand as per usual.

 

[Cookachoo]

Everyone knows things need to change if we are to challenge in the European places. The squad needs freshening up, ultimately we find ourselves closer to the relegation battle than the Champions League battle. And without investment, its only going to get worse. I'd rather start next season without Fellaini and Rodwell, amongst all the deadwood we are getting rid of, and have 5 or 6 new players come in, because its all a bit stale.

You mention the protests by Liverpool fans, they were drastic, an entirely different situation to ours. According to Brian Reade, they were a few hours away from going into Administration and getting a points deduction before their current owners took over. The action they took was bombarding banks to ensure they couldn't refinance, or form blockades around Anfield so it wasn't safe for them to even attend matches. I'd hope we'd do the same if our club was under the same threat from foreign ownership. But it'd be rather drastic to take that action against Bill, who despite what we think of him, is still a lifelong Blue.

Under Kenwright our situation isn't as desperate, though it is preventing the team from progressing on the pitch at the rate we'd like. I don't think its a question of our fans ambition, everyone wants the club competing at the top level, its just not feasible at the moment. The main issue really is that it would take an awful lot of money in a takeover for anyone to see any sort of return. I'm sure we added it all up in another thread and it came close to £500m needed to be spent in acquiring the club, paying off debt and building the stadium, without taking into account investment in the team.

As you mentioned, there are very wealthy people on the board, though they don't seem willing to invest that money into the team, for whatever reason. Perhaps there are varying opinions on how much money is required to take the team to the next level, i don't know.

 

[Brennan]

I'd rather start next season without Fellaini

Can't take anything you say seriously ever again.

 

[sirblue57]

Everyone knows things need to change if we are to challenge in the European places. The squad needs freshening up, ultimately we find ourselves closer to the relegation battle than the Champions League battle. And without investment, its only going to get worse. I'd rather start next season without Fellaini and Rodwell, amongst all the deadwood we are getting rid of, and have 5 or 6 new players come in, because its all a bit stale.

You mention the protests by Liverpool fans, they were drastic, an entirely different situation to ours. According to Brian Reade, they were a few hours away from going into Administration and getting a points deduction before their current owners took over. The action they took was bombarding banks to ensure they couldn't refinance, or form blockades around Anfield so it wasn't safe for them to even attend matches. I'd hope we'd do the same if our club was under the same threat from foreign ownership. But it'd be rather drastic to take that action against Bill, who despite what we think of him, is still a lifelong Blue.

Under Kenwright our situation isn't as desperate, though it is preventing the team from progressing on the pitch at the rate we'd like. I don't think its a question of our fans ambition, everyone wants the club competing at the top level, its just not feasible at the moment. The main issue really is that it would take an awful lot of money in a takeover for anyone to see any sort of return. I'm sure we added it all up in another thread and it came close to £500m needed to be spent in acquiring the club, paying off debt and building the stadium, without taking into account investment in the team.

As you mentioned, there are very wealthy people on the board, though they don't seem willing to invest that money into the team, for whatever reason. Perhaps there are varying opinions on how much money is required to take the team to the next level, i don't know.

and this is the crux of my argument, we are not that bad, and bill is a blue. sums it up for me, our fans need a short sharp shock. i only hope its not moyes leaving/relegation/administration type of shock. then it could be to late.

 

[RyanGordon]

Can't take anything you say seriously ever again.

Agreed, Fellaini will be one of our best players next season!

 

[Cookachoo]

and this is the crux of my argument, we are not that bad, and bill is a blue. sums it up for me, our fans need a short sharp shock. i only hope its not moyes leaving/relegation/administration type of shock. then it could be to late.

We are nowhere near as bad as they were. If there is little to no investment, then your only going backwards. It's a case of sell to buy, so we have to buy really well, and buy players who we can sell-on for more than we paid for them. Moyes may eventually jack it in if an ambitious club with a bit of money to spend comes along. But we are a way off relegation and certainly well enough run to avoid adminstration.

Agreed, Fellaini will be one of our best players next season!

Again, that argument doesn't hold much water, when we've gone on our best run of the season without him. He's played only half the season and managed one goal. Again it depends how highly you rate him, it varies from person to person. If we got a solid offer of £15-20m for him, i'd take it, same with Rodwell and Baines.

 

[Brennan]

You say my 'argument' doesn't hold much water, but you don't even have an argument.

You're basically saying that because we've strung together a couple of wins in-between getting embarrassed by West Brom and Wigan, Fellaini needs to be sold because he's detrimental to the team. The reality is actually the opposite.

But hey, i guess all of the rumours of transfers to clubs like Real must be because he's a bad player. I mean after all, teams like Madrid love signing players who are detrimental to the team who are apparently better off without them.

Anichebe has featured often in this 'run' since Fellaini has been out, i guess we should keep him and sell Saha. Oh, and get rid of Seamus Coleman too, seeing as he hasn't featured much. While you're at it lets get rid of Cahill and Arteta. Hell, let's sell everybody who hasn't featured in this 'run'.

What a load of rubbish.

I would honestly love to get a hold of some of the fine class A drugs you must be smoking to think that selling the best Left back in the premier league and a player who is rumoured to be a transfer target for top European clubs makes sense. You do realise that a lot of the money from those sales would go into funding the massive debt the club has anyway, right ?

This is the plan for the Summer lads. We'll sell the one player who has held our team together this season and spend £5m or so from the £15m we'd get for him on a replacement who may or may not be any good. We'll also sell a player who the majority of sensible people think is great for some more money to buy another couple of players who may or may not be any good.

Sounds like a plan lads, we'll be like the cheap version of Man City.

 

[RFUS]

We are nowhere near as bad as they were. If there is little to no investment, then your only going backwards. It's a case of sell to buy, so we have to buy really well, and buy players who we can sell-on for more than we paid for them. Moyes may eventually jack it in if an ambitious club with a bit of money to spend comes along. But we are a way off relegation and certainly well enough run to avoid adminstration.



Again, that argument doesn't hold much water, when we've gone on our best run of the season without him. He's played only half the season and managed one goal. Again it depends how highly you rate him, it varies from person to person. If we got a solid offer of £15-20m for him, i'd take it, same with Rodwell and Baines.

Er... what?

He's a defensive midfielder, you know?

 

[Brennan]

Er... what?

He's a defensive midfielder, you know?

Irrelevant, he needs to be scoring 10 goals a season to justify staying. But regardless he's crap, apparently.

 

[sirblue57]

We are nowhere near as bad as they were. If there is little to no investment, then your only going backwards. It's a case of sell to buy, so we have to buy really well, and buy players who we can sell-on for more than we paid for them. Moyes may eventually jack it in if an ambitious club with a bit of money to spend comes along. But we are a way off relegation and certainly well enough run to avoid adminstration.

really? remember rooney? and i cannot imagine them to have as many failures regarding building work, stadiums etc as we have, and how far, exactley, are we from administration? do you know? how many players will we have to sell to stave it off this year, and next? before we can buy as well. and we are not as bad off as them, f###king clueless. no wonder BK feels safe if thats what our supporters think.




Again, that argument doesn't hold much water, when we've gone on our best run of the season without him. He's played only half the season and managed one goal. Again it depends how highly you rate him, it varies from person to person. If we got a solid offer of £15-20m for him, i'd take it, same with Rodwell and Baines.

yes lets sell our best players to what?
A) improve the team
B) pay off loans to prevent administration

hmmm tough one that.

 

[Brennan]

I should also add that if anybody wants to place accolades for our recent performances it should be on players who would feature regardless of Fellaini's inclusion or not.

Baines has been crucial for the team this season, as has Distin who despite a few mistakes (understandable after playing in every match) has put in some fantastic performances. Neville has upped his game and Hibbert has been dependable as ever. The removal of Fellaini from the squad has not led to the inclusion of a player who has shone in his usual position.

It would be like saying we should sell Saha because we've done better without him, despite the fact that our wins have not been a direct result of the players who have taken over his position (Beckford, Anichebe).

We've done well because the whole team in general has stepped up, not because Fellaini is some detriment.

 

[Cookachoo]

I never said his job was scoring goals, i simply listed his contribution to the season. So what if he's been linked with Real Madrid ?! That doesn't qualify you as a world class player, every player who has a decent run of games gets linked with Real Madrid for gods sake, all that means is a journalist had a space to fill in his "transfer gossip" column. Like i said, Fellaini is a good player, but to say he's essential to this team when we've played our most effective Football without him, it just makes no sense. And £30m + for two players, with 3 or 4 players coming in for £8-10m each. Smart business sense to me, it'll improve the team and freshen us up, which is what we are crying out for.

The key issue, is if the money went back into the team. If the money from Yobo and Yakubu is enough to service the debt, then selling a couple of big players to fund a few new faces makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[RFUS]

I never said his job was scoring goals, i simply listed his contribution to the season. So what if he's been linked with Real Madrid ?! That doesn't qualify you as a world class player, every player who has a decent run of games gets linked with Real Madrid for gods sake, all that means is a journalist had a space to fill in his "transfer gossip" column. Like i said, Fellaini is a good player, but to say he's essential to this team when we've played our most effective Football without him, it just makes no sense. And £30m + for two players, with 3 or 4 players coming in for £8-10m each. Smart business sense to me, it'll improve the team and freshen us up, which is what we are crying out for.

Goals are almost irrelevant for him now, though, as a DM. It was a moot point you brought up just to reinforce your comparatively negative view of Fellaini.

To be fair, this good run of form has seen us beat some pretty piss poor teams, and then fold to teams who put up a fight. Fellaini offers so much grit in the center, and unlike Heitinga and Neville he doesn't get a nosebleed in the opposition's half, and he's comfortable on the ball.

Maybe you're trying to belittle his importance as a means of bracing yourself for his departure, but if you genuinely believe what you're saying then I have to say your estimation of him is far too low.