Yes, spending money doesn’t necessarily means strengthening. I didn’t say we need to spend big, I said we need improvements and signings if we are to compete for the title.
If spending doesn't necessarily mean strengthening then how did you determine that all our rivals have strengthened? You've clearly drawn the conclusion that spending = strengthening.
Alternatives are always available, as if only one DM in the whole world can play for us. If in 3 consecutive seasons we fail to get our top DM targets and don’t have any alternatives apart from a short term band aid, then that’s a failure in recruitment.
It's easy to say there are alternatives but name them. I'm sure there is more than one DM around that can do what we need but you need to identify them, they need to be available and affordable. I have no doubt the club have a list of a dozen+ names for every position in the eventuality that they need to sign somebody there. Whether the club ultimately follow through in making those signings will be determined by a combination of factors - the quality and number of players we have in that position, the quality of the potential replacements, their potential to improve and the price.
Just scrolling through transfermarkt's most valuable DM's in the world and you'll see the that outside 2-3 players, that are clearly unattainable, the's very little obvious top quality players out there. You've got a choice of fairly mediocre players (many of whom would cost a bomb) who you hope can do a job until you find somebody better or taking gambles on youth.
With Endo + the change of system and playing 2 of Mac Allister, Jones, Gravenberch & Szobo deeper, I'm not sure the club are in a desperate position where they need to go out and spend £60m on Cheick Doucoure from Palace. I think we're in a position where it makes better sense to wait until we can find the long term option rather than accept 2nd rate players or gamble on somebody.
It’s the approach that cost us heavily when it comes to defensive midfield, forced us to replace everyone in midfield in one year, and was definitely the reason we missed out on a champions league qualification. Yes we’ve been relatively successful in modern history, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t criticise failures when they happen.
And again, insisting on a need for improvements doesn’t mean I’m asking for Chelsea’s transfer policy. I never said we should be spending big (by £ or number of players). This, more than anything, seems to be you externalising your own ideas and isn’t addressing anything I said.
I've never said the approach is perfect and have numerous times over the years said we've missed out on players due to being overly cautious but you cannot measure the success of the strategy the club have based on individual cases but based on what they've done over time.
You say we missed out on CL qualification the other year due to this approach, I say it resulted in us signing VVD & Alisson which contributed to us winning the CL and PL. I'd bet my left nut that you (I was too btw) were saying we had to sign a CB when we missed out on VVD in summer 2017. Had the club listened to us then maybe we'd have ended up with Jonny Evans and very likely the VVD signing wouldn't have happened 6 months later.
As I said above, it's not perfect but it's a strategy that has (on the whole) served the club well and I can never get my head around supporters getting wound up that the club aren't buying players that they clearly don't feel are good enough.
The issue is you want a top class one (I do too) but fail to acknowledge that there isn't one available. So instead you're going to complain that club either won't offer £1bn for Rodri at City or sign a Unicorn.
