I'm not sure how genuine he is, what with the conflict of interest with the three Norwegian players he brought here. But maybe he thought Berget was a useful Premier League centre-forward. He went out and spent like an idiot and that debt had to be dealt with and led to Slade and Trollope and maybe even the lack of funds now.
People hate "bigger teams" because they (actually understandably from a business perspective) used their popularity to weigh the competition in their favour.