There is no such thing as NET spent from a supporters point of view
Supporters with that point of view are not particularly good supporters, are they? They don't consider that the manager has to get the funding to buy players from somewhere. When you have a decent amount of money added to your transfer budget each window, net spend is indeed irrelevant. But when the owners of the club are not investing in the squad, then net spend is critical.
You can't buy anything in the football world without money, and that stuff doesn't grow on trees; you must not have studied economics. A manager without financial backing can't realistically aim at expensive (and therefore top-drawer) players, because he would have to sell half his squad to even compete in the market. Instead he has to take chances on younger or promising players (perhaps mainly from other leagues where you have a better chance of signing them), and if he buys rubbish (inevitable) then he must try to recoup as much as possible from the sale of those players so that he can try again.
Guy, you (and emp and the other Rafa-haters) need to start looking at the whole picture.
As for this thread, well, Rafa is gone and for good reason. So there's no point begging for his return. If he does ever have the opportunity to return it will hopefully not be with this squad (who he ultimately failed and will therefore struggle to perform for) but it will hopefully be with owners who will support him.
