Carlito
Player Valuation: £40m
Internal candidates have worked time and time again, at least as often as bringing someone in from outside. Everyone on here wants Europe, good football and a team we are proud of. The manager is just part of the equation, and we can't get bogged down in how it looks if it turns out to be right. None of us know, but if we get on the back of the team because it feels conservative then it will be really counter-productive. We are in the unusual situation with a new manager of building from some strength so just want to make sure that any manager understands the strengths and weaknesses more than their own philosophy
I assume you have a list of (fairly) recent examples of internal candidates working time and time again. I can think of Guardiola and Villanova at Barcelona, both of whom happened to inherit three of the top five players on the planet.
It really doesn't seem to work in England anymore. Tony Adams, Ricky Sbragia, Terry Connor, Chris Hutchings and Sammie Lee were all disasters, while Brian McDermott and Chris Hughton did OK but ended up getting sacked.
People are talking as though Moyes has left behind some sort of sustainable, long-term system, when really the club's chances of improving the team is totally reliant on the manager's ability to buy and sell intelligently - even Moyes was forced to go three years without money to spend after wasting almost half of the Lescott money on Bilyaletdinov (I don't think Heitinga was a particularly good buy either, especially considering that Yobo had just been given a huge contract).
Throwing a novice in at the deep end would be disastrous.