The Athletic have put out an article this weekend that is pretty damning for our squad build.
It goes into detail the ages of the players we have signed since 2023 and the money we have spent on them.
We have signed 42 players in three years. Yep, you did read that correctly. 42 bloody players!! And on those 42 players, we have spent ‘more than £1billion’. Wow. Just wow. And it gets even more ‘wow’ when you read on…
More than half of those players (23) were signed between the ages of 18 and 20. A further nine were 21 or 22. Of the remaining 10, who were recruited between the ages of 23 and 26, only Robert Sanchez (signed at 25), Tosin Adarabioyo (signed at 26), Pedro Neto (signed at 24) and Joao Pedro (signed at 23) are part of this season’s squad.
How damning is that? Yikes. I knew it was bad, but reading it like that is absolutely terrible.
Imagine though, if we had spent some of that ‘more than a billion’ on some actual elite difference makers? Some players who have been there and done it. Some players with plenty of international and European apps under their belts? Some older heads. Some proper quality experience. Some mentality monsters. Some influencers (and no I don’t mean social media hipsters). Some proper quality players who know how to see out a game and can motivate those around them on the pitch. Imagine that? Imagine building that squad with balance? I have no doubt at all that we would be much better off now and would have completed our squad build and still not need to sign another 4/5 players this coming summer if we had done this with pure balance from the off. Sigh. Huge bloody sigh. And it wont change, because we know this model very well now.
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