Looking at Bayern, Bayern are just a well run club. Fan owned by majority, similar to us. Their major signings since 2021 (5 year span), no signing under 15m.
2021/22
Upamecano 43m.
2022/23
De Ligt 67m.
Mane 32m.
Tel 20m.
Gravenberch 18m.
2023/24
Kane 95m.
Kim 50m.
Boey 30m.
2024/25
Olise 53m.
Palinha 51m.
Ito 23m.
2025/26
Diaz 70m.
You add all that and they spend on players in the last 5 years exactly 552 millions.
AND, they won CL in 2020. So this is what a responsible club spent on major player acquisitions over 5 years, from a CL winner position. Half a billion.
We spent less than half that (268 m), despite losing 8-2 to them. And this is why the work of everyone in the club over these 5 years has been exceptional.
So, forget comparing to teams spending 1bn on players in 5 years. We're not even comparable in terms of spending to a financially responsible club like Bayern.
As I said over and over again, what we achieved with management in the last 3-4 years is something that no other club could hope to do. Every other club in our situation would have been mediocre at best.
We don't need 1bn spending like EPL clubs. We have that crazy amount of funds, we probably wouldn't know what to do with it and would actually harm the club if you ask me. We just need to get back to a spending pattern similar to what Bayern do. 1-2 marquee signings every summer. Buying, selling, keep the net spend manageable. So when all that buying and selling is calculated, the balance doesn't end up hugely on the negative side. A net spend of 50-60m every summer is manageable in terms of transfer fee for a club owned partially or entirely by fans that brings in a big ass revenue every year.
The key to that is smart management. And you don't have to be a genius btw, just not utterly incompetent. Even if players you buy don't work (plenty of players signed by Bayern above are not at their club anymore, or didn't deliver much anyway), unless you sign absolute bums for insane fees and give them insane wages, nearly every player you find not suitable for your needs is immediately picked up by other clubs. You sign bums like Coutinho for 160m and you basically risk burning down the house.
The club did a great work, but the poisoned chalice of Bartomeu is measured in decades to fully purge from the system, not years. Some of us will be 50-60 years old and we will still find something in the club in 2040 or something, some deal that was made, some remnants in our books tied to Bartomeu's disasterjob.
