I do defend “the model” and I am on board with signing young players with high ceilings and good sell on values and not overpaying for players, it is literally the way to run a sustainable club so I’m not against it.
What I am against is the complete lack of preparation with this one, you can’t just go for 1 player and not have plan B or C. If we had 3 players in mind and we said we won’t pay more than X for A, more than Y for B and more than Z for C, then I’d be on board with that. But you simply can’t identify 1 player and then try and play hardball when we are in the position we are in. This whole striker pursuit has been nothing short of a piss take.
I’m going to stick my neck on the line here and say Speakman is actually good at his job, but his job is academy manager and youth development, NOT a director of football. If the club had Speakman signing the youth players and then an experienced DoF signing ready made players, I’d be happy as a pig in shit, but Speakman is quite simply out of his depth in this role as he only knows youth football and players with potential.