The paranoia and mistrust of FSG on here is scary. Can only hope it's just the ramblings of internet nutters and the wider fan base are thinking a little more sanely.
FSG have messed up, as they've admitted in the open letter, but they seem to be learning from their mistakes and will no doubt continue to do so. One of their biggest mistakes was appointing Commolli and/or Kenny (the latter at the behest of much of the fan base), depending on which one was fundamentally behind last Summer's spending, but that was a mistake and not an intentional ripping off of the club. I was hugely disappointed by them not signing Dempsey and regard it as a schoolboy error by them, but again it was a mistake and as long as they learn from it I can forgive that. We are where we are now and need to bed in for a tough season, I suspect, and support the team and manager now as best we can. It's a bit depressing and not easy but bitching about things to try and drive a wedge between the fans/manager/owners is certainly not the answer.
True. Very worrying, especially since the actual situation is very on-the-fence. They made a mistake, and while that's certainly reason for concern, the hysteria around here would make you think it was the return of H&G. The fact is, the club is currently relatively financially secure. We as a club are not in fear of no longer existing. That fact alone makes the H&G comparisons laughable. There are problems with management in the higher positions in the club. It remains to be seen whether these problems will be resolved. I don't see how it's rational to be calling for a witchhunt on FSG before they're given a chance to fix their mistakes. Especially since they do seem willing to learn from the past. Compare our transfer policy to the transfer policy last season. Aside from the giant fuck up with Carroll-Dempsey, which is an entirely new mistake, they didn't sanction any transfers that were overpriced, they didn't pay over the top wages, and we bought some of the best young talent around. If FSG now fail to act and make zero changes to the board and we make no signings in January, maybe some of the almost hysterical arguments here could be justified, but until then, there's no evidence supporting any of this FSG = H&G shit I keep seeing. For me, it's innocent until proven guilty, and the fact is, FSG haven't been proven guilty of anything other than occurrences of incompetence as of yet, and if they're going to be able to sort this stuff out, they're going to need time, but some people seem intent on depriving them of that if at all possible.
The other thing that annoys me is that on one hand, we have everyone calling for the club to be sustainable, but at the same time, people are dancing around the issue that what they actually want is a sugar daddy pumping money into the club. People can deny it all they like, but it's true. You get the snide remarks about not having a striker, and then complaining in advance that whoever we get in January, for example, Walcott or Sturridge, won't be good enough. It makes me furious. How short are people's memories, that they can't remember the position we were in 2 years ago, and how we got there? Even with all the wage cutting, it's evident that we're on Champions League wages without the CL. The fact is, if we're going to be sustainable, there is no short fix. It's going to take years of steady, careful, clever building if we're going to get to where we want, and until the Carroll-Dempsey fiasco, there were promising signs of that. I suggest people focus on the positives for now, give FSG time to sort it out, and if they don't, then they can grab the pitchforks.
