It’s not the barometer of success no, but it’s necessary to achieve successI absolutely agree that we’re making progress. Like you say we’ve gone from a squad worth nothing trading for signing on fees to having a squad worth a decent amount of money.
However, I don’t think that’s the barometer of success. If it was, Brighton would win the league every year. It’s all well and good having players who bring money in, but if they don’t bring success (in relative terms) what’s the point.
A hypothetical, but I think fairly realistic possibility - we sell Jobe for £25m this summer. We reinvest it. A few turn out to be duds, a couple turn out to be prospects, 1 is ready for the first team. We have a good run, the players get tired and we lose in the playoffs again. Next summer we sell Rigg, we reinvest it…
You can see where I’m going. Yes the club will be making money. Yes the club looks like a place to develop player. But when do we make the step up?
At some point the club has to say “okay we’re going for it now”.
Your hypothetical example is probably not even hypothetical, but that’s how football works right now. It’s exactly what Brighton and Brentford and Bournemouth have done.
Forest are a bit of an anomaly, but we need to accept that having a billionaire owner doesn’t ensure success. The Mags are the richest club in the world but they’ve given up Anderson and Minteh for a 3rd choice Greek keeper just to be compliant