My point with the Dawson and Lennon comment was to compare what you're asking with something I think is equally unrealistic to ask for.
Yes Arsenal have kept their players a bit longer, they've also been more successful and paid more money than us. This is natural.
Arsenal are actually of a good illustration of my point. They haven't replaced any of those players adequately and have gone from regular title contenders to 4th place contenders. From a financial perspective, finishing 4th rather than 1st pales in comparison to finishing 5th rather than 4th. They've now bought Ozil, who will probably take a season or two to get going but are still lacking a top class CF. If Ozil is fantastic next season but they continue without a CF, they'll probably finish 4th again. If they then sign a world class CF, but let Ozil go, they will still finish 4th again the season after that because although they have this new shiney CF, they won't have Ozil. It's not building a team, it's re-cycling a team.
Turn that round to the situation Spurs are currently in. We are trying to go from 5th to CL regulars, a massive financial difference. Do you not think that the risk of forcing someone to stay for a couple more seasons then losing them at less value if we don't do it is worth it? It's not like we are struggling financially and knowing Levy he'd still get a good deal anyway.
There just aren't that many clubs I can think of that get successful over time because they're stubborn about who they sell, by keeping wantaway players against the pressure of bigger, richer clubs. I just don't see it as a viable solution, it sounds so simple "just don't sell your best players", but I really don't think that's a massive oversimplification.
I agree, but in our case its not necessarily about being successful over time, it's about taking that next step, becoming CL regulars and then having the pulling power to replace the unhappy players that want to go with players of equal or better ability. Once we are there, we can worry about long term success.
There are clubs punching above their weight though (at least for periods), and the best way of doing that I think is to make sure your production and purchasing lines are working. Bring in more quality, bring up more quality. That brings the club forward.
Again, I agree. But this notion of 'punching above our weight' frustrates me a little. We are a big club, with a large fan base, in one of the most attractive cities in the world if we could break regularly into the CL we would go from strength to strength. In order to do that, the first key step has to be get a good manager and allow him to build a team around this crop of players we have. That means holding onto the best ones for as long as it takes.
Your "like for like" example with Sandro doesn't really work either. I know we wouldn't be able to buy another world class defensive midfielder, but I don't think people are saying that we can. The point is that we must have other top class players breaking through. When we eventually got over the loss of Berbatov it wasn't by signing a world class striker, it was by having functional strikers in Crouch and Defoe and having players in other positions signed and/or grow into top class players. Modric, Bale, VdV.
Again, that's my point. Had we held on to Berbatov or replaced him with someone in a similar class rather than 'functional'
whilst allowing Modric and Bale to grow into the players they became, my opinion is we'd be CL regulars right now. Bale and Modric may have still left, but we could replace them with ready made players of similar quality due to the attraction of the CL.
We never had to replace Bale with a like for like replacement. But others had to step up and fill his shoes, players that were already at the club that had the chance to settle in. This is what happens at Dortmund, this is what happened at Atletico with Falcao to Diego Costa. You have to get ahead of the curve.
As per the above, we would have a better chance of replacing him like for like or at least a couple of players with similar quality if we were in the CL. I do appreciate what happened at Dortmund and at Athletico though. If we can manage that kind of system then yes I'm over the moon with it, but Cl qualification will certainly make this easier. The quickest way to that for me is to hold on to our current key players, get a good manager and add a couple more players with potential in the hope that in a couple of years time these players fulfill that potential at the same time that our key players are in form and we finally
finally have built a team with 8+ top class players all playing well at the same time.
By the way, in your ten fingers eleven holes analogy the boat still sinks in the end no matter how hard and long you shove those 10 fingers in there. But if you're a touch proactive, free your hands and fix one of the holes you might be onto something.
Not if you repeatedly sell the best thing you come up with to fix the hole for gold. You'd spend periods of time looking like your boat is going to float to the top and periods of time looking like it's sinking but all in all, never actually going anywhere.
