The People's Forum: For me it’s about investing in a group of improving players who come good at the same time…

…ie spending the same money on a couple of experienced players willing to sign for us vs more players with a much higher ceiling.

There is potential for a far better outcome on the pitch with the latter. Ideally this lifts the team to a European place etc and defers them wanting to leave but if someone leaves you’re at least compensated and can start the cycle again.

Gradually over time you hope to lift the club further up the table, and hopefully win something along the way.

Sure there is always scope for someone experienced to come in and do a job as cover or in some cases (like Gareth Barry) they’re just clearly going to lift us and be available for a few years.

Previous Message

I was thinking about some of the argument's for signing mostly younger players. A couple Im not on board with at all....building for the future, or building a team around a bright young star.....that might work for one of the rich clubs, but not us, if a young player has a good enough season or seasons they are off, good for the bank balance but not necessarily for the team.
Finances are a different matter, buying young gives you a chance of a profit to reinvest....I cant argue with that one, but a bit shit isnt it, looking at players in terms of balance sheets.

I hope someone at that club is long term planning, but as a fan I want them to buy or loan the players to give us the best chance of winning a cup....not next season, this season. To be honest Ive pretty much given up on us building back to competing for the top spots year in year out, I dont think any amount of long term planning gets us there......but we could win a cup in any given season, so buy the players to increase the chances of that, if they are late 20s early 30s, so be it.