Daniel Levy - Former Chairman

[Baleforce]

I think so much of Levy’s thinking was also shaped by not ‘doing a Leeds’ because he came into it around the time that they were risking everything and ultimately came up short. I think through his lens, the stadium was ultimately something that would mean the club was on a stable footing for years to come. We could fully maximise the fanbase, and it had the nice consequence of boosting the value of the club.

But he just didn’t look at it like ‘now we’ve built the stadium, let’s push on’. That thinking is really clear to see. And I think it’s just an extremely Levy centric way of looking at things to assume his way was the only safe way to run a club. Liverpool paid Mane a lot of money, and they won the biggest trophies. And they’re still here. There’s definitely a middle ground between the Levy and Leeds extremes, and it’s high time we moved toward it.

The good thing is, because we’ve been so far on the Levy side for so long, there should be plenty of slack to allow us to move toward the middle and still be perfectly safe and sustainable.

my worry is it will go to their heads and we will do a Leeds, when you spend 25 years doing something that works, stick with it

 

[Baleforce]

Liverpool won both the Premier League and the Champions League with Mané playing a central role. I'd say that worked out pretty well. Compare that to Clinton Njie, who was signed because he represented better value.

As for recklessness, where are the PSR breaches? Where are the UEFA sanctions? These clubs aren't gambling their futures; they're investing intelligently and backing their football departments.

I've already named them: Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan. They've all won major honours while operating within financial constraints. The evidence suggests they've found the balance between prudence and ambition. We've spent years congratulating ourselves on the prudence part while largely missing out on the ambition.

but the difference in what we have won and they have won is a rounding error, compared to the difference in spend, from an ROI we are outperforming most of them

 

[Jurgen the German]

not a proven ready made player no, we should get all of them that we can, but van Hecke is nowhere near that

he's a punt

A lot of transfers are ultimately calculated risks. Liverpool took one when they paid a world-record fee for a defender in Van Dijk. Arsenal took one when they spent £100 million on Rice. At the time, neither deal came with guarantees. The point is that every major signing carries an element of uncertainty. If clubs only pursued players who were certain to succeed, no significant transfer would ever happen.

 

[Baleforce]

A lot of transfers are ultimately calculated risks. Liverpool took one when they paid a world-record fee for a defender in Van Dijk. Arsenal took one when they spent £100 million on Rice. At the time, neither deal came with guarantees. The point is that every major signing carries an element of uncertainty. If clubs only pursued players who were certain to succeed, no significant transfer would ever happen.

and the game would be better for it, and fewer clubs would get into financial difficulty

 

[Jurgen the German]

my worry is it will go to their heads and we will do a Leeds, when you spend 25 years doing something that works, stick with it

It’s not worked very well for the last 7 years. It very nearly culminated in relegation.

 

[Baleforce]

It’s not worked very well for the last 7 years. It very nearly culminated in relegation.

thats a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, and still includes a cl qualification year

 

[Jurgen the German]

but the difference in what we have won and they have won is a rounding error, compared to the difference in spend, from an ROI we are outperforming most of them

Call me eccentric, but I'd rather be celebrating league titles and trophies than debating return on investment. Last time I checked, we're a football club, not a hedge fund.

 

[Jurgen the German]

thats a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, and still includes a cl qualification year

Seven years is not a short period of time. One Champions League qualification in seven seasons for a club built and budgeted for European football cannot be considered a successful return. A manager would not survive at our club with just one top-four finish across seven seasons.

 

[Legohamster]

they pass on players they can't afford too, they don't get everyone in the manager wants

also, Liverpool and Dortmund both came close to financial collapse in the last couple of decades

Munich are bankrolled by the national tech and insurance industries of Germany

there absolutely is a balance, and I think we have been closer to it that any other club in the game over the last 25 years

We are nowhere near that.

If you say we spent 52 million on 3 players, 2 of which are arguably starters it puts a different spin on it.

Thats before any out goings as well.

 

[glasgowspur]

How recently did Dortmund nearly go bankrupt? That was more than 20 years ago.

They don't get every player they want, but they don't spend months haggling over every deal either. Liverpool signed players like Mané rather than settling for Clinton Njie. Arsenal identified Declan Rice as a priority target and got the deal done, rather than filling the squad with 18-year-olds who might not be ready for another three to five years.

Liverpool and Dortmund have both won league titles within the last 15 years. Arsenal have won multiple major trophies during that period as well. None of these clubs are reckless, but neither are they paralysed by the pursuit of perfect value in every negotiation.

Sorry, but your last paragraph doesn't hold up. Clubs that have won significantly more than one trophy in the last 17 years have generally struck the balance between financial responsibility and ambition far better than we have.

Stretching it a bit with arsenal there.
I think it's fair to say that under wenger at the end the board were not really backing him.
They never backed emery, yes they've backed Arteta and yes two can be considered multiple trophies, but six years apart and almost £1b to achieve them.

 

[glasgowspur]

A lot of transfers are ultimately calculated risks. Liverpool took one when they paid a world-record fee for a defender in Van Dijk. Arsenal took one when they spent £100 million on Rice. At the time, neither deal came with guarantees. The point is that every major signing carries an element of uncertainty. If clubs only pursued players who were certain to succeed, no significant transfer would ever happen.

VVD is mentioned a lot in these conversations, what about the lad they signed from Germany that was going to dominate midfield for years, keita (?) something like that.
Spent a fortune on him, played less and done less than ndombele.
There is no guarantees, these clubs can afford to write off their mistakes, we can't.