I remember talking to a forest fan at the time of the great 88 side in his opinion we had bought the league to an extent he was right relative to other clubs we were either the biggest spenders or certaintly at the top level. The same could be said of shanklys and paisleys sides perhaps to a lesser extent
Yes, partially correct. Certainly Dalglish's the 87/88 side whne we brought in Beardsley, Barnes, Houghton and Aldridge in a short space of time. But I'm not sure I'd agree about prior to that.
We bough the odd top player but we weren't the riches club in the league and we often made stars out of players who were little known when we bought them.
We also bought up and coming players off the back of selling 'star' players just past their peak, like we sold Keegan & bought Dalglish, we sold Souness, Rush etc. We also bought from what we earnt, from winning things and selling players, as a business, we didn't have sugar daddys like Man City/Chelsea have now.
As for Forrest, they did the same, they were well managed by Clough and won leagues/EC, then they used that success/money to go and break transfer records and buy the likes of Trevor Francis & Shilton.
The difference is now we are up against teams who have owners who will bank roll the team and are not restricted by the clubs revenue/business, look at yhe players Man City could bring on yesterday like Gundogan/B Silva/Toure, while leaving Aguero on the bench, they would be automatic starters at most clubs.