If I am given a little license to slightly change the question to.... Do we have a better starting 11? Then I think we do. There is more quality in our line up under Rogers than under Kenny and we actually look some of the time like we are an unpredictable handful. That is a far cry from the robotic pensioner pace side that we appeared to be the majority of the season under Kenny and all the predictability of a politician preaching he's doing the right thing throughout.
The league position argument is a good one but we the season hasn't finished and I'd rather give him the benefit of the doubt until it has.
Yes we have a better starting 11 probably because we have had a net spent of about 45m
A lot less than what Kenny spent.
Not a lot less in net.
That's a meaningless argument to me. Kenny still spent 120 million pounds, whether he had torres, meireles, and Babel's sales to prop it up or not.
Kenny Spent 120 million on: Suarez, Downing, Henderson, Adam, Carroll, Doni, Coates, Enrique, and Bellamy.
Suarez, Bellamy, and Enrique are the only three signings that most would consider worth what we paid (and Bellamy we got for free). Even now with downing and hendo playing well, does anyone think they're worth what we paid? They certainly weren't last season anyway. Adam was dire, and Coates hasn't shown us whether he's right for us or not, and Lord knows where Doni's been.
He sold Torres, Meireles, Babel, Konchesky, Poulsen, Kieragos, Jovanavic, El Zhar, N'gog, Ayala, Insua, Ince, degen, Hansen, and Bruna. He also loaned Cole and Aquilani.
That's 75 million worth of club assets that he wasted, leaving our squad incredibly thin. A lot of this was dead wood, but Meireles and Torres were important first team contributors, and apart from Carroll N'gog was our only back up striker. None of them were replaced. Were Carroll, Adam, Hendo, and Downing better than Torres and Meireles, or even Babel and N'gog last season? Was Coates really any better than Soto? Ince wasn't given a sniff and sold, but now we seem to want him back. Carroll wasn't even much better than N'gog, certainly not 35 million worth.
Brendan on the other hand spent 45 million on Allen, Sturridge, Assaidi, Yessil, Texiera, Coutinho, and Borini. Also Sahin on loan.
Sahin looked a sure bet when we got him. Bundesliga player of the year, RM prodigy, but it didn't work. Allen was very good at the start, but faded with injury. Still could do well. Borin started slow and has been unlucky with injury, but he could come good. Sturridge has been great, and Coutinho's been great. Assaidi cost nothing, so not worried if he doesn't make it. Yessil looks bright.
He sold Cole, Aurelio, Aquilani, Amoo, Darby, Eccleston, Adam, Maxi, Kuyt, Doni, and Bellamy. He also loaned out Spearing, Carroll, and Pacheco.
That was only about 10 million worth of resources.
Most of the outgoing were frees, loans, or small transfers for aging players. Kuyt, Maxi, and Bellamy were good players for us, but they were old (with the exeption of craig), slow, and their time had past. Bellamy and Maxi wanted to go home, and Kuyt, though clutch in a few big games, was not the contributor he once was. Furthermore, they've been more or less effectively replaced by Coutinho, Sturridge, and the rise of Sterling.
Br has also made Hendo, Downin, and Suarez into far more effective players than they were last season. He's also brought Sterling, Suso, and Wisdom into the fold as valuable squad members.
Net spend is a loaded and useless term. Kenny used and wasted more of the cub's resources, full stop. 120 million. Compared to that, BR hasn't spent anything. Br had lest to work with from the get go, and a better percentage of his buys worked out. His failed buys were also a lot less costly.
