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Torres


Bjornebye
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At least he's got two European trophies, an FA Cup...

None of this with Liverpool, so he remains fairly irrelevant to me. Somewhere lower than Owen. No trophies, not even finals. He scored some good goals and he got paid one ton of gold for them. Good deal for him. He moved on and won his medals. We moved backwards. The end.

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We should have won the league in 2008/09.

 

Quality and leaders all over the pitch.

Yep, a truly excellent side but the squad was short. We needed an extra forward and full back at least. Unfortunately it was at a time when Ferguson had his best team/squad imo. They reached the CL final 3 years out of 4 and had 3 top forwards and Berbatov.
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We should have won the league in 2008/09.

 

Quality and leaders all over the pitch.

The only thing we were missing was a winger and a jack in the box like Suarez. The unpredictability and genius of a Suarez was the biggest thing missing from that team.
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I know we didn't win it but we got 86 points that season. Don't really think it was missing anything. Not sure what else we could have done to win it. That team was pretty fucking good.

 

Just looking back on the stats for the season. We only lost twice (Spurs and Middlesbrough away) and had the best goal difference by a distance. Beat Manchester United and Chelsea in all four fixtures, drew the two games with Arsenal. The 11 draws nailed us.

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Just looking back on the stats for the season. We only lost twice (Spurs and Middlesbrough away) and had the best goal difference by a distance. Beat Manchester United and Chelsea in all four fixtures, drew the two games with Arsenal. The 11 draws nailed us.

This. The stoke match away sticks out for me. after the match Rafa made a comment along the lines of "its important to win but its more important not to lose"

 

The draws that season killed us we didn't take the handbrake off that season until the final run in and at that stage it was too late. The mancs having Ronaldo shooting the lights out helped their cause.

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This. The stoke match away sticks out for me. after the match Rafa made a comment along the lines of "its important to win but its more important not to lose"

 

The draws that season killed us we didn't take the handbrake off that season until the final run in and at that stage it was too late. The mancs having Ronaldo shooting the lights out helped their cause.

 

I love Rafa, but that season probably showed why he reached two European Cup finals in three years (what an achievement that was) with decent but patchy squads but struggled to reach the same level domestically.

 

In isolation, cashing in on Robbie Keane in the January transfer window was fine, but not replacing him was a mistake.

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This. The stoke match away sticks out for me. after the match Rafa made a comment along the lines of "its important to win but its more important not to lose"

 

The draws that season killed us we didn't take the handbrake off that season until the final run in and at that stage it was too late. The mancs having Howard Webb handing them victories out helped their cause.

Fixed

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I love Rafa, but that season probably showed why he reached two European Cup finals in three years (what an achievement that was) with decent but patchy squads but struggled to reach the same level domestically.

 

In isolation, cashing in on Robbie Keane in the January transfer window was fine, but not replacing him was a mistake.

 

He got 86 points which was enough to win the league most years previously. He also won two league titles with Valencia so he was capable of reaching that level. 

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He got 86 points which was enough to win the league most years previously. He also won two league titles with Valencia so he was capable of reaching that level. 

 

I'm not sure the 86 points and what it might have achieved some other time would be much of a consolation to a man as driven as Rafa.

 

I would also argue that domestic football in Spain and England are different animals. As Mark M says, who knows what might have happened if the handbrake had been lifted sooner that season. 

 

Given the resources of the Chelsea and Manchester United sides he was competing with, a league win would have been a remarkable achievement. Credit to him that he came pretty close to doing so.

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Not sure he would have been as keen to leave had we not brought Hodgson in. By the time he was fucked off and Kenny came in, I reckon the Torres deal were done and the club wanted to make sure they got Suarez AND Carroll to replace him. hence the late night deadline day stuff. The club fucked up massively getting the Owl in. Imagine being arguably the best striker in the world having just won a world cup and seeing your team bring in a two bob journey-man manager who then goes and signs a fat Joe Cole, Poulsen, Aurelio, Meireles, Danny Wilson and Brad Jones.... 

 

Who can fault him for wanting to challenge for top honours because by god that squad that season were never going to be able to aim a sniff the top 4 let alone the league. 

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Didnt mind him leaving at all. He was shot to bits. Everything that's happened since proves that much

 

Also before his tramsfer request we were putting in insulring 12m offers for Suatez. Actually doubt we would have upped that offer if it wasnt for the sudden cashflow. We all know these owners dont spend theur own money

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Gerrard started playing off the striker ahead of Mascherano and Alonso about 6 months before we bought Torres.

 

Benitez played Gerrard in the AM position in Athens but with Dirk Kuyt up front with him. If we'd had Torres for that game we would have destroyed Milan.

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Benitez played Gerrard in the AM position in Athens but with Dirk Kuyt up front with him. If we'd had Torres for that game we would have destroyed Milan.

 

He played off Crouch when we battered Arsenal 4-1 too I think.

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