dibo
Well-Known Member
Some of those things can be the result of contract cycles and the salary cap. When we've got good young players, they're often relatively cheap. Their standard of play can rise faster than the cost of keeping them. Eventually though, it comes time to talk new contracts and we might be in no position to hang onto everyone.
Think about the wave of good young players we've had come through and hit their straps from 2009/10 or so: Ryan, Simon, Bozanic, Amini, Rogic, Ibini, Duke, McGlinchey, Roux...
Some of them we had playing together in their first year or two, so they were very cheap. We basically lucked into a rich seam of talent (thanks in large part to Tony Walmsley, who left in October 2012, a while before MC came on as owner). Their combined value would have been multiples of their wages, and when they move on we simply can't replace them 1-for-1.
Some of our other players get older and fall away, but their experience keeps them on bigger money. That squeezes the available cap space too.
You don't strike gold every day, so our standard falls relative to other clubs as we go into the recovery and rebuilding part of the cycle. We're running an extremely young squad this year, gambling again on kids, and I guess we've all got to hope that they come on as well as that wave from 2009 or so.
Take that Traitor Arnold. 
