I clearly did, were they in the list, no. Their revenue base is less than Liverpool’s and we will surpass them shortly. I’m not sure why you want me to spell things out that are self evident.
As for Chelsea well they have been in debt to a Roman since the very beginning, nothing has changed there and I have heard countless times before that this is the moment that he has detached himself from the club. As long he remains they retain the capacity of that model and wishful thinking from us isn’t going to alter that fact.
As I said the likes of Barca, Real, Bayern and United are the ‘real’ elite, their revenues dwarf the rest. Does that mean their are immune from each other no it does not because the likes United and Bayern will be susceptible to moves by Madrid. What you do not see is the regularity in movements between these clubs as you do between them are tier 2 clubs such as Liverpool, Woolwich, Dortmund and ourselves.
The point as I stated before is that the stadium is going to not going to enable to operate a payroll of the elite. It’s going to enhance our capacity but really not to any real meaning and that is blatantly obvious to anyone who follows the financial side of the game.
Chelsea isn't wishful thinking, the Russian hasn't put his own money into the club in a while, he no longer bankrolls the club, this is significant, as is the debt that is still owed to him. He might chuck in another £2b for all I know, but the fact remains he hasn't dipped into his deep pockets for a while and passed on this I'd say it's significant, as is the fact that we are now competing with them in terms of player acquisition and finishing above them in the league.
You said we can't compete with the Elite, yet agree with me that Juve are Elite and admit that we will pass them in financial terms too, and with a wing and a prayer we might actual beat them on the pitch too, by that very definition were are competing with the elite!!
Now I'm no mug, we need to sustain our competitiveness to be called elite, by that we have to do this year on year. I'm not saying we are elite, but we are currently competing with the elite, this is a state of fact.
Now, we have done this without a new stadium, and only one year of CL money. This stadium will bring in substantial new revenue streams, which you say will not make much difference. I say that's bollocks. The stadium isn't a golden ticket but it is the one thing that will enable us to consolidate our position, just by doing that combined with the philosophy we have in place (why change something that's working) we should move up a few more rungs on the ladder.
TDLR: We are not Europes elite but we are competing with them, the money from the new stadium should help us consolidate our position, to regularly compete with them. I'm not talking about doing a Woolwich either, they haven't put in a title challenge for 15yrs, we have in the last two seasons, all be it not close enough to take it to last couple of games.