xmiles wrote: Michael Bolton wrote: We had no young players to build the team around.
Nolan was only 24. Newcastle were and the current West Ham are largely built around him.
Referring to Allardyce having a "short term" strategy is ridiculous. He was with us for 8 years and took us out of obscurity in (what is now) the Championship into Europe, the top six in the Prem and a serious contender for both the League and FA cups. How is that short term? You cannnot maintain that level of success without money and for what ever reason that money was not forthcoming. I don't blame Allardyce for trying for the England job (he could hardly have been worse than McClaren) or walking away when he did.
I will tell you why big sam's strategy was always short term, it was because big Sam signed players with no resale value, other than Anelka. We signed some good players on big wages but how much money did we get when the likes of Djorkaeff, N'gotty, campo, speed, hierro, stelios, okocha, etc left?
We were left having to replace quality players with bargain bucket players who were cheap - Gavin McCann, andy o'brien, CID, braaten, helguson, sweet boy Samuel, etc. the sales of Nolan, diouf and anelka basically was used to fund a new team under mugson.
Under BSA the average age of the team was always very high and we were always going to come unstuck. Look at united, their success is due to always bringing in youngsters and youth players through, and it means the future is always looking healthy. Do you see what I mean? Every club should use united as an example of how to run a club.