Merson saying we'd have to sell Kane to pay for the stadium was my favorite, as if Levy needs to have the cash on hand or something.
Well before we even moved into the stadium all goons have has the same commentary, they have based everything off their own experience, so they have said....
1. Crap atmosphere
2. Will have to sell our best players to fund the stadium
3. Will not make a profit
4. Will not compete in the market place
5. We are a decade behind their development and therefore financial planning
6. As a consequence to the above, not make top 4
They failed to council the possibility that we looked at what they did and chose to do it very differently. There is a simple premise of looking at things with objectivity, rather than "hopefully". Sure, they want it to have been a disaster, I'm sure we would all have thought the same wishes about them but what you wish to happen is entirely different on what is actually happening.
Make no mistake we are in a very difficult period and this will have far-reaching consequences but we aren't alone in this predicament, all clubs are up shit creek (I've no idea how this impacts City or Chelsea or PSG) it is a recalibration for every club.
The frustrating downside is the one thing we did to level the financial playing field was to drop a billion on a new stadium, build it as best it could be as these figures out today show just how right we were to do this, but who could have predicted a global pandemic closing off all the financial gains we had engineered.
But to search for the positive, we did just at the time where the drawbridge has been pulled up. In order to achieve it we got our finances into great order, the brand new stadium, new training ground, new lodge is 50% paid off!! The remaining debt is secured on ultra-low interest for the next 25yrs.
No doubt social media is now doing what it always does, predicting us to go out of business, well I can think of 16 Clubs in a worse predicament than ours. It reminds me of this joke:
Two guys are in the jungle when they see a lion running towards them. Frantically, one of the men starts putting on his running shoes.
Surprised, the other man says " What are you thinking, you can't outrun a lion!!!"
" I don't have to outrun the lion," said the man, " I just have to outrun you."