Net spend

[ghostrider]

To be fair, I can't disagree. Last season to this season wasn't the argument though was it?

That seemed to be the crux of it, yes.

The net spend figures are from a few years and the squad would be better if we had been able to spend more.

A few years?

We did spend more years ago and the squad, on paper was better. In reality it was worse. Not because of the quality but because of the attitude and the mindset of wantaway leap frog players.
Spending more money guarantees you nothing unless it's spent wisely and for a specific goal to hit as a matter of ultimate priority with a contingency plan in case it doesn't quite work out.

Ever heard of Occoms Razor?

We'll in this instance...I know we've been less competitive since Ashley has been in charge. I Know that the club makes less money in merchandise, marketing, advertising etc. I know the training facilities have been downgraded during his time here.

It would make sense that if he spent more then the club as a whole would be looking better on and off the pitch.

Not necessarily.
Many clubs thought that and many clubs are playing in lower leagues with great facilities but struggling to pay bills...especially for players.

You can speculate all you want on how the club would have folded if he hadn't bought it...that the club would drop down the leagues if he had more ambition or another owner had taken over and tried to win things...but there are more variables there...

Of course I can speculate, just as you can speculate that it would have been fine if he hadn't taken it over.
The reality of that will never be known but the thought process behind it all is pretty clear from that time. It was in grave trouble and was totally reliant on a takeover because there was no more money to borrow by those in charge at the time.

Would someone else have come in? Could they have done better?
We'll never know this.
What we do know is very simple. We're a north east club in the premier league under an owner who did take over and has done for over 11 years...and yet we've had some good times and bad times under that tenure...and still do.......BUT.......we are still in the premier league.

I'd hazard a guess that Q.P.R fans were dreaming of champions league and league titles, in short order, when they were taken over. I can imagine Fulham fans under Fayed at first thinking this was their time but then being disappointed, only to get a second breath with multi billionaire Khan.
The list goes on and on with clubs like these.
I remember fans going off it because Southampton were so well run it made us look like third world.
I remember Bournemouth were supposedly spending 20 million at a time on players and they were so ambitious, supposedly leaving us behind.
I could go on and on...and yet here we are.
Put it down to Rafa miracles on zero spends if you feel that way. I put it down to us being better run than people realise. We're just not ran like the gungho club that many want us to be, just to follow what the rest of the clubs do in trying to keep pace with the blank cheque brigade.

Nibbling away and building your own quality with a manager willing to do so will give us a much better chance of holding our own in a league that most want us in.
If we want better then we simply have to have a blank cheque owner who has the ability to buy what is required and offset it to a massive sponsor deal.

Anyway...that's judt my opinion of course! And what do I know? I believe a giant purple lettuce masterminded the building of the pyramids!

You are entitled to believe what you want to.
That's the beauty about a person's belief system. They can go with what fits their logical mindset.
There's no right or wrong way about a belief system, until physicality shows it to be right or wrong. This is where the issues really lie and generally it comes down to hindsight.