Well, you brought City into the fray, so it's only right to point out that what City were able to do was not only change personnel over time, but change personnel after Hughes from very good players to world class players. And they continued to strengthen in all areas under Pellegrini and Guardiola. It takes about half a billion quid....and they never get their players poached.
We will never be in that position.
To make the leap back into the elite we needed a takeover by an individual or group who are fantastically wealthy beyond imagination. We got Moshiri, and that's not a game changer.
It's toe curling now to go back and read the projections about how far we'd progress under Moshiri made in the summer after his arrival. They really do need to be read again and again as a salutary lesson in humility.
Two and a half years on and we're lost. Nowhere. Fighting for an identity.
His time here can only be judged as a failure, though I'm sure I'll be given a battery of data on finances to "prove" it otherwise.
Hard to disagree with the thrust of your argument here.
However what jars me is your ensuing hostility towards Moshiri purely because he isn’t sufficiently wealthy. As far as I can ascertain he is currently trying to sensibly ‘grow’ the club to a better position. A cohesive and modern management structure , the injection of as many financial resources as current regulations allow and the building of a modern, hopefully profitable, stadium , all point to an ambitious and considered strategy which has a good chance of bearing fruit.
It is a frustratingly slow process,no doubt, but over 30 years of neglect will take time to cure.
More to the point when Moshiri purchased the club ,and at any point before for that matter, none of these super rich entities showed any palpable interest in us.
For that matter the same was true when both Kenwright and Johnson became our owners. They weren’t the best of a bad bunch they were the only bunch.
If anyone is ultimately responsible for our current malaise it is our former owner and benefactor J. Moores and his protege P.Carter.
Moores at the end failed to have the foresight to put in place a robust enough structure that would ensure our future. Our decline began with his death.
Carter ,for all his efforts, failed to remedy his former masters failings.
We have a long way to travel to recover those several lost decades of opportunity and we can only hope Moshiri is astute enough to lead us to a better future.
At this moment I would argue the signs are promising.
In any case there are no signs of any other white knights riding to our rescue.
