I think this is the right thread to be putting it in, as probably my last meaningful contribution here for a while, but I find it interesting/odd that a lot of people seem to think that it’s adversarial relationships in the club between silos of the football people, the data people, and the money people.
I don’t think Jürgen has ever said anything but “we” all the time, referring to the whole club operations as a team. One thing that keeps getting brought up in the whole discussion about ownership, is about Gordon stepping back from the club, and how Jürgen values his contributions. But surely, if he’s that important, then it cannot be a case that Jürgen disagrees and wants to spend like a drunken sailor.
I think it’s far more likely that they meet, discuss, and look at what is achievable from the perspective of the club’s resources, and plan it out accordingly. Looking at our actions and the public comments from the people involved at the club, our recruitment is at a level where we were mainly looking at opportunistic buys all around (Thiago, Jota, Konaté, Diaz, Núñez, Gakpo, etc.) to complement the team and ease the transition to the next stage. To me at least, it’s telling that Tchouameni (and, if I recall correctly, even Mbappé) has come out to say that we were after him, but he preferred Madrid, and yet Jürgen was adamant that we did not need a new midfielder. Unlike many, it seems, I think he values the people that he has, and even with those comments above, it’s about how do you get out of them what they can do, rather than giving up on them. However, it does not mean he does not also have an eye on the future.
Jürgen does not seem to me to be the kind of manager who’s focus on transforming his team through transfers, but rather someone who thinks he can get the best out of the people he has at his disposal. What we view as loyalty, is perhaps simply just his belief, misplaced or not, that he can do that. That the players he has chosen to retain have not lost what makes them good. He may be right, he may be wrong (and his recent words do suggest that he’s leaning towards the latter with some), but one thing for sure is that this is one of his biggest strengths, that places him above many other managers.
I’m out of here, because I took a recent week’s holiday during which I didn’t touch football-related social media (and that includes TAN), and I felt much better for it. Sure, losing to Madrid sucked, but at least I didn’t have to deal with all the toxicity and knee-jerking from so many. Of course, it’s natural to react to negative events and be upset, and share it with others. But far too many have completely no sense of proportion, and it’s just ridiculous.
I may read some posts, but I think I’m done engaging with most of them. I will miss the debates I have had with people, especially those who challenge me into developing my thinking better, but I am done with the constant whining from some, especially just because we’re not being sold to some billionaire to be their plaything.
To connect it up, I’m just going to leave it here that I think Jürgen loves the club, and loves being here to much to want to leave before he thinks he’s taken us as far as he can go. There will be hard times like this season, like 2020-21, but the only reason why he would be pushed, is from the toxic, entitled behaviour I have talked about. I’m concerned that it won’t be too long before the frustrations start boiling over, and we see the kind of stupidity that Graham Potter is now the target of. We as a fanbase are not immune to that, just look at the targeting of Joe Gomez, Naby Keïta, Alexander Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Henderson, Lucas Leiva, etc. Jürgen is an incredible manager, by all accounts a great person, but he’s human and he’s fallible just like the rest of us. He will make mistakes, and has owned up to a great many of them. But the expectations of so many that he has to be perfect all the time, especially with the aid of hindsight, is just doomed to failure. This is not aided by the clickbait bullshit media that so many are so drunk on, and I mean this in the kindest of ways, but we as fans really need to stop consuming that shite.
in one and out the other. 
