As Baines spoke to Sky Sports News this week, he talked of how change was needed in management, but also there needs to be investment to push on and reach the next level as his manager Roberto Martinez so desperately desires.
[pullquote]I think the manager came in straight away with a lot of ambition and he talks about his hopes of taking the club that one step further from where they’ve been,” he said.
“We’d always been seen to have done well but never quite managed to achieve the things we wanted and he wants to take us to the next level, but in order to do that we have to change our style a bit.
“What we are doing now is slightly in transition but it’s a system that if we keep improving and get better at we’ll definitely climb up the table.
“I’m sure the manager will be looking to keep investing and keep improving the squad because every year that’s what everyone else does and I think to give him a chance to improve us to that level then he’s going to need money to invest.
“We’re working on what we’ve got here and what we’ve got at the moment I think the big teams have a lot of money to spend and they spend it every year and they improve every year so we’ll have to do the same.
“I don’t think that it was necessarily that in need of convincing, it was just time really and my contract was getting to the point where we needed to talk about it,
“Eventually we got around to doing that and got it agreed so obviously it was great to be able to draw a line under any uncertainty over my future and focus and move forward[/pullquote]
In the short term Bill could spend a fortune to move us a few places up the league standings. When he puts those last few jigsaw pieces into place,where will he find the money to replace the aging squad. They are talking about boosting contracts/wages for the younger players in the Summer too. I’ve been convinced by the steady and meticulous way we have built towards our current position.Has that all been a con? Where the BU lot right and there have always been zillions sitting waiting for investment in players that Bill and the board have been misusing? We need a few players,sure.If only to make the current squad more rounded,but not a massive influx of new talent. Before we bring any more in perhaps we should decide on Guye and Vellios and their long term future. If they haven’t broken in whilst we’ve been injury hit and struggling when are they going to do so? If you shift focus forward three or four years,how many of this squad will still be young enough to feature regularly. So in that time frame we will need to replace most of this side with players of a similar quality.To do that we will need both the status and financial clout to attract players of adequate talent and ability.I think we a lucky in the management set up at team and board level,to have confidence in that happening.