Originally Posted by
JoesphNdo
For me it's less that I'm confident we will be challenging, and more that if we're not, management has failed. Think of what we've done
- Played the transfer market like we're playing a video game on cheat mode. Seriously, lighting money on fire with Jozy, wasting a DP on Soteldo and that mess, and getting players in like the Italians we have in isn't outspending our competition like Real Madrid does to Valencia, it's more like Real Madrid to a Segunda team. We have an absurdly unfair advantage over the vast majority of the league and are not competing on a level playing field whatsoever. And we still have an open DP slot to spend even more!
- Absolutely gutting our team to write off a season so we're ready for next. Things like jettisoning all full backs without much of a plan, trading players like Pozuelo and Delgado, and not investing in our areas of weakness so we weren't weighed down with bad contracts. If we didn't do that we'd be in the play offs this season, that's fine, but it gives us a blank slate for next season we need to use. BB is being allowed mould the team to his image, he needs to show results for that - writing off this season is only justifiable if we can do something next season
- Trading our future for our present to an extent by getting rid of Shaff and a big money move spending alot of resources and sending a very promising young player away in exchange for a better player today (Hopefully...). That's a 'win now' strategy. Which is fine, but yeah, you better then 'win now'
In short, Bob has been given a blank cheque like nobody else in the league, he has resources that almost nobody else has, and has been given carte blanche to absolutely rip the team apart and build it in his image even if it utterly breaks us in the short term - including trading future pieces away for ones who should come good now. With all that in mind, anything less than in contention is failure next season. Do I think we'll do it? I don't think so, but Bradley lives and dies on next season for me. Nothing less than in contention (Not winning necessarily, but one of the teams in the running) is a complete failure of management. To me, there are no more excuses