I think Juve really hurt themselves by getting CR7. I'm sure if I was in their position, and CR7 was available, I probably would have made that call, as well. He's too good of a player, he produces, on-and-off the field, I don't blame them, because again, I would've probably done the same. With the benefit of hindsight (and to learn from them, since I hope we will get there), but they actually were building something strong before he came, by being smart, and they went to 2 CL finals, and yes, stars were the difference in those individual games, but I feel like they tried to emulate a different model, when what they were doing before was going so well.
Liverpool and Atalanta--and to a lesser extent Bayern--have shown how you can win and do well, without using star players. I wish I could find the podcast where this data scientist was talking about how Liverpool was able to model the futility of star-player-driven recruitment, where basically they were able to show why they were able to move on from Countinho so fast. It's going to drive me crazy, I'll try to find it.
I think Liverpool is the model that we are emulating the most, and I think where we will hit snags is if we get a player like Salah. I think if Covid didn't happen, I think Liverpool would have sold Salah to Real after winning the league, but they're ready to replace Sane and Salah with Jota, at least for one of them, and they'll hope for Luis Diaz to be able to take care of the other.
I think, with a stadium, this team can do more than what Juve did, but I honestly think that even before we get that sweet, sweet stadium revenue, this team can challenge in 3 years, they should be a dark horse in that time, that's my expectation.
Winning teams always have this element of luck, these gambles that pay off. Like, people thought Cafu was too old when he came to us, for example. Who would have thought that Henderson would rise to what he's become? It's Thiago Silva still having gas in the tank. We will need that to progress, and all jokes about Juve losing those CLs, that was a great management team they had--but it's about gambles paying off: that Pirlo still had something left, or that Barzagli could contribute, or I think of the Bonucci and Ranocchia transfers, they were seen as the two futures of Italy, and I don't think it's unfair to say that Ranocchia didn't live up to his billing. It's just like the Rugani-Romagnoli comparison, I think Romagnoli was the better of the two, but, I think, so far, Romagnoli has not hit the expectations that fans (of Milan and Italy) had of him.
Anyway. I think the best-run "big foreign money" club is Man City. The rest of them are really just shooting in the dark, Chelsea being the most glaring example. They've had success by accident, they don't have a plan, and neither do Spurs, it's clear that you need to have a vision, you need to have a goal, that will continue, regardless of the manager, what players you get, who is in, who is out, you need to have a plan and execute it, and really commit to it, unless, of course, it's a horrific failure like with Giampaolo. The thing that gets me is that even Real Madrid, who have done really well on the finance side of things, they even made a fucking profit during covid, I feel like they don't have a real plan in recruitment. They're just hurling money at things until something sticks, and they're able to sell players and get rid of them, where they can overcome their mistakes.
Honestly, if someone wanted to punch me in the face with a strong rebuttal to planning, Real would be the perfect example. Chelsea are a fucking mess with Tuchel, because they weren't planning, Man City lost that CL more than Chelsea won it. Chelsea have so many broken toys (Werner, Havertz, Lukaku, Pulisic) and they were supposed to challenge for the title, but they've looked terrible. EPL money is able to insulate teams from failure, I think Man Utd and Arsenal have really shown that to be crystal clear. But Barca, even with their revenues, don't have EPL money to insulate them, their entire model is predicated on continual success, and so a period outside of the CL would truly punish them, but Real have that reputation, built-in, and to be honest, they are much better run than Barca, it's not even close.
Anyway, as always, I'd love to read your insight, if you (or anyone else) even wants to add any, offer suggestions where I'm missing something, or where I'm wrong.