2 things; nobody reasonable is asking us to spend like City or Chelsea, and far more evidence is needed before we can really say we have “changed our process and overall spending.”
We are still doing what we have traditionally always done in the market under Enic. Looked for opportunities, being reactive as opposed to proactive, not competing with our rivals for players on the top shelf and spent prudently on young players who may or may not come good.
And when people say “but look at van de Ven and Maddison, Vicario” etc this summer, we’ve always been capable of brining in players of this calibre. VDV is akin to Vertonghen, Maddison Eriksen, Vicario Lloris etc etc etc.
Our transfer policy has remained steadfast despite the soundbites coming out from certain media sources. The fact we are spending more is for the most part as a result of general inflation. Every PL club is spending more than they were 5-10 years ago, and they didn’t have to move into a 60k seater stadium to do it.
If our policy had truly changed for Ange, he wouldn’t have been left short in the summer in the way he was with the CB situation.
I would personally look at the team Woolwich have built. Bar Rice and a ludicrous fee for Havertz, our purchases have been similar but in some ways better.
Their run last year didn't include a team of pre made world class talent. It consisted of largely prudently bought youth that fit the mould of what the manager needed. It took them a few years to bed them in and playing consistently and they fortunately did not have many injuries.
I'll concede we still have a ways to go with regards to the squad, but the purchase over the last 3 season have been on point for the most part, and we are, if reporting is to be true, identifying talent much better now.
Romero, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Porro, Udogie, Sarr, Maddison, Van De Ven, Vicario, Bissouma, Johnson, Solomon, Richarlison.
A mixture of young talent, prem proven players and other players with experience at top teams abroad.
3 of those are first team players who we bought/loaned with good option in a January.
We still have to see how the next couple.of windows pan out but I think there is some credit due for what we have been building the last 2-3 seasons.