If we put ourselves in position in the long term where we are constantly Challenging.. That probably would not happen..
Champs League and the commercial revenue that come from it gives the club a larger global appeal
By not qualifying for the Champs League last Season we set our selves back a few years..
Speculate to accumulate.. We are paying catch up again..
We pay probably the 4th (maybe 5th) highest wages in the league, we pay within our means like every club does (including those above us), we have less revenue and it's not just down to last season, it's through years of squandering it, of being complacent, of being poorly run, of having a gate revenue that are alot less. It's not a case of speculating to accumulate, we buy big enough, the problem is that we very rarely get to attract the big names for all of the reasons stated and then some, players want guaranteed success, bigger wages again (than the generous ones we pay) and nice locations to live in.
If it were a case of just throwing the money at someone I'm sure we would have - don't forget, while some of you are critical that we missed out on the likes of Willian, you're not quick enough to acknowledge that we were interested in the first place when we buy poorly because we miss out. Willian, Costa etc would have improved us no end, we went for them and lost out, same with Sanchez. All good players identified by the club.
No one is saying we haven't bought poorly at times through no one else's fault - we have, loads of times for years, but we've sometimes had to buy to make up the numbers in many cases and with many managers because the attraction just isn't there for many players at the top end of the market. That's the reality. We need a bigger stadium to generate bigger funds, we need to get behind the side and allow someone to build it, even if it does take time (and patience), we need to allow it to click and
then we'll have foundations to build on. You make it sound like fantasy football at times, throw money at this, sack the manager after a few weeks of shit form, fuck this player off, buy this player that every other better positioned club can easily out muscle us for. We're only playing catchup if you believe that every fuck up means a mass overhaul, it doesn't, we've got the basis of a good team and squad, we just need to finish it off with a couple of players who will make a difference, either technically, in terms of goals or in giving us a spine back. We need to buy clever and sometimes that is Johnny foreigner, and sometimes it isn't.