Were going round in circles...
Milner wasnt sold to bring in Guitierez, that was one of the alleged reasons Keegan wakled out, and Id rather have Milner out of the 2!! Guitierez has zero end product and the only thing I can really think he has done is that shot against Man U where Lovenkrads scored. Hes got some really nice footwork but even with a weakened strike force of Ameobi and Carrol, who are both good in the air, if you cant put the ball in the box you arent going to score.
You say he couldnt afford to buy new players for every position which I totally agree but everyone knows that if you want to do well in the Premier League you need clinical goalscorers and we are paying the ultimate price now. Even on a budget you could have picked up someone with experience, Sunderland managed to secure Cisse who without his goals would be in the bottom 3 potentially.
I know its easy to point the finger at the owner as Im doing but he has made some fundamental errors which I hope dont see us get relegated. Im fully prepared to give him a chance to work out his 5 year business plan but I do hope relagation wasnt in there in year 2!!
Gutierez has FAR more end product than Milner who is complete and utter crap. You got someone for 2.5mil that replaced someone you got 15mil for purely because he's english. Milner has less pace, less ability, less talent, less experience, less threat, less defensive capability and is probably on more money(being english).
Milner was utter crap early year for Villa and couldn't get in the team, he only got in due to injuries, was useless had a 4-5 game run where he was good and he's hopelessly crap again like he was at the weekend. He was quite literally standing still, under no pressure with the ball under control along the line took one step and knocked it over the line.
Keegan wanted to keep him when the club made a decision to get someone better and make 12.5mil in the process. Keegan can walk out over that if he wants, but he was a fool to make a big deal over that. This was probably the last season you could cash in on Milner's potential and for me its one of the deals of the season in terms of value for you.
AS for Cisse, he's flopped before, had several poor seasons, has weak legs clearly and is a risk who happens to be paying off. he's also likely one of Sunderlands very few high wage earners. Newcastle aren't in the same position of having lots of young cheap wage players and you need to remember that. your previous owners have given you a massive wage bill and that means realistically spending big wages on a risky prospect of Cisse wasn't viable. He paid off, though for all you know Sunderland will get relegated, he won't get a drop in wages and will get injured for the next year.
basically you're going back and picking at every possible player whose done well and said you could have gotten them, we all do it. But realistically Cisse was a very poor choice to bring in, what if Owen came back and played the entire season scoring 30, Cisse rides the bench but costs Ashley 5mil in wages the club can't afford?
You should probably also keep in mind that in general strikers get the highest wages and cost the most to bring in, so spending big on strikers was going to most likely be the worst value way to improve the squad.
At the end of the day Owen while a truly fantastic striker has been a hinderance on bringing in other high wage strikers. Owen with a fully fit season could easily have been the difference between relegation and hell, even uefa this year. Remember its not just the club but the league this year, 10 points is almost the difference between relegation and uefa this year, its ridiculous tbh.
