At the end of the day we finished 4th better placed than L'pool.
Which to me shows over the season we were better.
But fair point L'pool's name will be engraved on a trophy for all to read for year's to come.
All we will remember is how we finished 4th and didn't get a CL place!
A question I ask is has Harry got as far as he can with our squad and will he still be with us?
Arry has taken our squad as far as any manager could. There isn't enough quality in depth for us to achieve any more than we have already. Unfortunately, without CL football and with Levy's reluctance to spend any money we have gone as far as we can do. Next year Liverpool will have a better manager and would have spent a lot more money. Chelsea will have strengthened, Ars*nal have already bought wisely, and the two Manchester clubs speak for themselves. I believe that will leave Newcastle and ourselves fighting for sixth position.
OH NO I may have to agree with you on some of this. Harry did get the best from the squad he had, it is the depth and a couple of key players that we continue to need.
However, if we kept the same squad we would be capable of repeating this years performance and may even pip 3rd without the England distraction. Just because other sides spend more than us, it does not guarantee they will finish above us. This year Chelski and Liverpool have done and it did not work. Yet for Man City it has; it is not just the money that counts, but who you spend it on and who decides where to spend it.
The question is, what kind of squad will we have? I think that Levy may have to finally reconsider some of his tactics, he must be beginning to realize that his strategy has some flaws, for all his good intentions. (of course I mean he will rue the amount of money he has missed out on from the CL, and may start to wish that Saha was not the caliber of striker we needed in Jan!)
For sure Harry has gone as far as he can with this squad. Chelsea, despite finishing below us, are a far better side all round. Could we have beaten Barca, then gone to Munich and won ? Face it, we couldn't even go to Villa and win when we needed to.
The question remains, what can be done.
Well I believe that football is primarily about money. In an even field, which it isn't, we would be paying Bale and Modric £ 200 k a week, and they would probably stay.
The CL is a secondary consideration IMO. Look at Chelsea, they have just won CL and already the manager is under threat, Drogba is leaving for more money, Torres is unhappy, WTF is going on ?
We have to up the ante big style. Bale and Modric must be offered £ 150 K to start with, as they are our top 2 players by a mile. Then we must set about getting a 25 goal striker, top CB, and LB and right sided midfielder.
Get shot of Bentley JJ Saha Gio
The alternative is as has been said. Slugging it out for top 6 every year with Newcastle and Everton.