Not with the players.
Not with Lage.
And not with Fosun.
But with football.
It's clear we hit our ceiling those first two years in the Prem. Europa League QF, FA Cup semi-final. Massive nights at Molineux, and an exciting team with promise and talent.
A lot think Fosun should have invested to push for the top four. But it would have been ludicrous. We'd have had to spend around half a billion on players alone, and our chances of qualifying for the Champions League would still have been slim. Then what? A club with enormous debts and a (relatively) small stadium with minimal commercial appeal: we'd have been in desperate financial trouble and almost certainly unsellable. What a lot see as Fosun's betrayal has probably saved the club. (I do think they're risking too much with their current transfer policy, but that's a different argument.)
And that's it. Great, isn't it? We spend so much time and money following a club we love. And for what? The occasional tilt at the Europa (Conference) League and a decent cup run. Maybe the odd win against the Sky Six.
Until the bottom falls out of the football market, the European Super League happens, or we get bought as the soft power vanity project of an authoritarian regime that'll continue to be it. The last would be ethically troubling, and the former two risk a crisis of domestic professional football.
I'm finding non-league and women's football increasingly appealing because, though they both have their problems, there's more of a meritocracy and more to be gained by sustainable investment.
The best case scenario for the club now is that Fosun get outside investment which 1) pays for the players to guarantee our Prem status and 2) stadium enlargement/upgrade (or a move). We'd then be an attractive proposition for a mega-investor. But is this really what we want?
Not with Lage.
And not with Fosun.
But with football.
It's clear we hit our ceiling those first two years in the Prem. Europa League QF, FA Cup semi-final. Massive nights at Molineux, and an exciting team with promise and talent.
A lot think Fosun should have invested to push for the top four. But it would have been ludicrous. We'd have had to spend around half a billion on players alone, and our chances of qualifying for the Champions League would still have been slim. Then what? A club with enormous debts and a (relatively) small stadium with minimal commercial appeal: we'd have been in desperate financial trouble and almost certainly unsellable. What a lot see as Fosun's betrayal has probably saved the club. (I do think they're risking too much with their current transfer policy, but that's a different argument.)
And that's it. Great, isn't it? We spend so much time and money following a club we love. And for what? The occasional tilt at the Europa (Conference) League and a decent cup run. Maybe the odd win against the Sky Six.
Until the bottom falls out of the football market, the European Super League happens, or we get bought as the soft power vanity project of an authoritarian regime that'll continue to be it. The last would be ethically troubling, and the former two risk a crisis of domestic professional football.
I'm finding non-league and women's football increasingly appealing because, though they both have their problems, there's more of a meritocracy and more to be gained by sustainable investment.
The best case scenario for the club now is that Fosun get outside investment which 1) pays for the players to guarantee our Prem status and 2) stadium enlargement/upgrade (or a move). We'd then be an attractive proposition for a mega-investor. But is this really what we want?