Anonymous wrote: ↑Sat Oct 22, 2022 12:16 pm
That doesn't really make sense in the context of his tenure so far, though. He wouldn't have employed Bielsa in the first place, or bought the stadium, or improved the training ground etc, if he didn't intend to develop the club. I'm not a fan of him, particularly, but credit where it's due.
Similarly, there was a plan in place to develop in the Prem; the Leicester model, if you like, bringing through young players, expanding the stadium etc. They got it wrong thinking one year's investment would carry two seasons, and they got it massively wrong with the managerial switch.
Still, mistakes, or even complacency, are not the same as aiming to perpetually finish 17th. Anyone with half a brain knows that isn't a sustainable approach; if you stand still, you go down.
I don't have a problem with the kinds of players we are buying, either. Young, talented first team starters like Aaronson, Sinisterra and Adams are the way to go for a club in our position.
They threw money at the striker position with Rodrigo and got that wrong too. It happens with signings, even if you're buying an experienced Spanish international.
Most of the ingredients are there imo. What's missing is someone to put it all together into a palatable whole. We had that, and threw it away. They probably genuinely believed Marsch could do it; I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn't merely signed as a 'yes man'.
He needed to get out of the Championship so appointing Bielsa was an investment into that and the training ground improvements were linked to that (Bielsa demanded it).
The stadium purchase, much is made of that and it looked good from a PR point of view but ultimately it was purely done for a business perspective and it isnt yet known far as I know if the club pays rent (we only had the non rental agreement till 2020) so we don't know if we pay rent far as I know.
But given Radz I assume always planned on going cap in hand to the Venture Capitals he needed assets aside from players to attract them, having stadium ownership is a hook for a fund like that, it's an asset, its a thing to go look we own this and it is worth this.
No work has been done to the stadium, falling down by all accounts.
But on paper it is an asset with value, its made minimal difference to the club financially given the rent over the last 5 years I would imagine is worth less than the purchase price.
The fact Radz had to go to the 49ers Venture Capital fund in the Championship showed the very limited finances he was working with even back then (nobody uses Venture Capital funds if they can avoid it). They only invest in startups and distressed sellers which shows where we were.
Radz could never sustain a Championship club never mind a Premier League one.
He is utterly convinced according to Martyn Ziegler, a journalist who has interviewed him before that Radz can run us purely on sales alone.
That model in the Premier League no matter how well thought out or planned will struggle to sustain much more than a lower quarter Premier League club.
You will get the odd exception every few seasons like Leicester but even teams like Leicester or Brighton or even Brentford who seem to be running this sustainable model Radz wants, if you dig deeper they have had phenomenal funding over the years, running into £100s of millions each.
I hope Radz knows this, he is an intelligent man, but if he thinks teams like those 3 (all of whom he has mentioned as models he wants to follow) are and always have been self sustaining then he is simply wrong.
They aren't, Brighton have one of the highest club to owner debts in the world.
Brentford's owner has invested well over £100mil and perfected there Recruitment over many years.
Only really since they became Premier League Winners have Leicester been sustainable, between 2010 and 2020 they had almost £400mil of owner investment which was the 8th most in Europe.
So it worries me that Radz has named each of these teams as models he wants to follow because I am concerned he doesn't really know what he is talking about.
We've had Wolves to in the past and now Red Bull.
I just think he names a flavour of the month team doing OK who he thinks will sound good tbh.
Fundamentally the idea of being a truly self sustaining club and progressing up the league is a lovely idea (apart from selling our best players).
But in practice as even Leicester have found it isn't sustainable at the Premier League, there is to much money about and far to many owners willing to bankroll there teams.
We are one of only 2 or 3 non Billionaire owned majority shareholder clubs in the league.
It's a different ball game to 20/30years ago and to Serie A and La Liga where Radz wanted to be a mid table owner with his self sustaining model originally.
Selling players to fund the club and progress is possible in those leagues, many do it, but the Premier League is a different beast entirely where even teams like us can in theory compete financially with a team like AC Milan.
Apologies for the length of the post
The issue is imo Radz had a plan pre ownership, he said as much himself and people who've spoken to him like Martyn Ziegler have backed this up.
This self sustaining, sell to buy, bring through kids to flog later dream.
It's a plan he originally thought of for a club in a League where that is a viable plan and is perfectly normal (Sevilla where Orta learned his craft used to do it to great success in La Liga).
But he hasn't or can't adapt it to the total different animal he has bought into.
It's maybe a bit daft to say Radz aims for 17th, he has already said 10-14th tbf.
But his business model in this league is one that will always have you very close to 17th and likely at best 15th.
And whilst he wouldn't be happy as such it still means he owns a Prem club which is worth a he'll of a lot more than any mid table Serie A team so as such he is happy to just survive.
Hence the 17th aim.
Not a specified aim but one that ultimately his business plan will have you at best and one that ultimately keeps Radz where he wants to be, in the Premier League where the money is.
He said 10th to 14th was the aim, the difference financially between that and 17th is minimal, £5-10mil at best.
He can't specifically say he wants to survive only, there would be uproar, but it is basically his aim because he simply doesn't have the wealth or inclination to push any higher unless his self sustaining model comes off for him which in this league it won't.
For an example of the decline of this model Southampton are the best example.
From 2012-2017 they finished top 10 4 of 5 times. Radz became our owner in 2017 so he will have seen the successful side of that sort of model.
Since then they've finished 15th or below 4 of 5 times.
When Radz arrived and decided on his model teams like Southampton had shown the self sustaining model could work in the Premier League.
Unfortunately took ownership of us at the tail end of that and whilst his plan hasn't moved on, the Premier League has.
Hoorar for GD , the games are shite but hooray for GD 
...That Ayling goal and "You couldn't script it 
