We've seen multiple times the reason why they cannot.
Southampton of the last 10 years or so are a great example. Shaw, VVD, Lovren, Clyne, Lallana, Chambers, Schneiderlin, Mane, Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott...
Leicester will have their stars picked off. Same with any other club not in the 'Top 6'. Traditionally tthese clubs try to hang on to the player by putting what they think is a ludicrous valuation on them, only to see one of the giant clubs pay that anyway.
Southampton had a good thing going. They were building towards something in a way that was respectable. The money they received from those transfers should have been reinvested in the same way they managed to sign all of the above players. What let them down and prevented them moving onto the next level was their own shortcomings.
They kept up a good transfer and youth strategy for years that has fallen away. They brought in Lovren, Clyne, Wanyama and Gazzaniga one season. The next they sold Shaw, Lallana, Lovren, Lambert and Chambers the next, bringing in Mane, Tadic, Alderweireld, Long and Bertrand. The next they sold Schneiderlin and Clyne and brought in van Dijk, Romeu and Soares. The next they sold Mane, Wanyama and Fonte, then they sold van Dijk. The issue is their youth academy has dried up and their transfers have been less prolific, but in that time they've sustained themselves as a Premier League club.
Their issue is they steered away from a strategy that was working to build the club from League One to Premier League top half. The supporters got fed up with being a selling club, but I'm sure they'd rather be that then nobody wanting their players. They brought in Mark Hughes and brought short-term signings. Only now are they starting to find their way again but I think they are in a position with Hassenhuttl to restablish their former strategy and move up the table.
That is a very successful decade for a club. You couldn't ask for much more.
The same is true of Leicester. They assembled a title winning squad and manager. They lost a few players, but reinvested well and now have a fantastic young squad, with one of the highest potentials of any squad in Europe, with a fantastic manager too. They lost Mahrez and Maguire recently, but look better for losing them, in a similar way to how we looked better post Coutinho. Selling and not sitting at the top of the food chain doesn't mean you can't build your way there, but why should it be easy. Surely you want it to be tough, take years of building and clever strategy to get there so the top trophies reward the best in the business?
I see no reason why Leicester can't sell a vision to their players to stick around. The only thing that holds them back is the size of the city they represent, not the money they can bring in. And if Leicester can do it, why not Wolves? why not Southampton? and especially why not Newcastle?
Spurs as an example have had every opportunity to try to expand, move players on and rebuild. They're doing a terrible job of it and will not be challenging any time soon because of it. But whatever way would you have it.
I don't think this is correct. I think that this is a symptom of the problem. Clubs outside of the elite (and their supporters) have accepted those realities, but if you told them that they could compete on a fairly even field and not have their best players cherry picked away from them by the insanely wealthy, I'm certain they'd much prefer to try that reality instead.
Clubs obviously would prefer to be winning top trophies but they have to be realistic and know that is a long term goal not one that'll happen with one or two seasons work. Meanwhile, just try for promotion, try to establish a foundation at a new level, try to push for top half and a cup, try to build momentum behind a club, a level of positivity around the project that will attract players so you can push for Europe, try this for a few seasons, maybe get a long run in Europe and expand your reach, do this once, twice, three times, your reputation grows and you can push for Champions League, with that brings money, prestige and an attractiveness that allows top players to come and you can make that final push to challenge.
We've had to do that over 10 years. We've had to go from consistent 7th and 8th place finishes, to a point where we could establish champions league football, build excitement around a project and then challenge. None of that was handed to us. And there is very little reason a team like Wolves couldn't follow the same trajectory.
I don't know what else these people want.
