Rafa interview.

[Code]

A lot of players in the Mancs squad cost fuck all- Neville, O'Shea, Fletcher, Scholes, Giggs, Evans, Gibson- which has allowed them to spend money to improve their first XI.

 

Us spending £5,6,7m on squad players who aren't any better than what we have in reserve and failing to use that money on genuine quality is what's fucked our squad up.

 

Aint that the truth?

[Original202]

I'm assuming you mean Spearing over Lucas and Insua over Dossena (thats £13m in your world) Now assuming that I actually agree with you, thats not a lot of money to spend on genuine quality is it.

 

You can see the principle though can't you? Take out £8m on Riera as well and then you're up to £21m for one top class wide player.

[Juan Galonso]

I'm assuming you mean Spearing over Lucas and Insua over Dossena (thats £13m in your world) Now assuming that I actually agree with you, thats not a lot of money to spend on genuine quality is it.

 

Your missing the point though. Without Degen as well and a few of the reserves we bought that money would have been enough to get a player like hmmm...Arshavin.

 

He would have gone straight in to the first 11. It is about waiting for the right player to come along who would improve the first 11 instead of the scattergun approach we seem to have right now.

[lawrie]

N'Gog is there because he is fast, and we might be able to get 2-3 million for him from some shit Premiership or decent Championship side.

 

Nemeth won't get a chance here either, he loans out these players so he can make a quick million or two off them.

 

There is no doubt Rafa buys some reserve team players to make a bit of a profit on them but I firmly believe that Nemeth will finally get his chance when fit

[Catch22]

Your missing the point though. Without Degen as well and a few of the reserves we bought that money would have been enough to get a player like hmmm...Arshavin.

 

He would have gone straight in to the first 11. It is about waiting for the right player to come along who would improve the first 11 instead of the scattergun approach we seem to have right now.

 

 

Although i have some sympathy for your overall view, the "scattergun approach" isn't actually costing us any money as Rafa is so good at trading the players for profit (ie/ Momo,Crouch,Carson,Bell) or taking losses quickly (Keane)

It does cost us time though as players are brought in & out of the training regime.

 

Degen's costs are all wages.

They will appear in our accounts for this season (& beyond if he stays)

Once you accept the principle that wages & fees are exactly the same thing, then Rafa's record is exceptional, both on the pitch & in the market

[Original202]

Catch, you love making this point about Degen's wages/signing on fee! Can't we all just agree that he's a heap of shit and wherever the money goes in the accounts it's still a waste?

[Juan Galonso]

Although i have some sympathy for your overall view, the "scattergun approach" isn't actually costing us any money as Rafa is so good at trading the players for profit (ie/ Momo,Crouch,Carson,Bell) or taking losses quickly (Keane)

It does cost us time though as players are brought in & out of the training regime.

 

Degen's costs are all wages.

They will appear in our accounts for this season (& beyond if he stays)

Once you accept the principle that wages & fees are exactly the same thing, then Rafa's record is exceptional, both on the pitch & in the market

 

yeah nearly 40 bloody k a week. Sickening. Remember we laughed at Chelsea with Winston Bogarde was it?

[rebel23]

You can see the principle though can't you? Take out £8m on Riera as well and then you're up to £21m for one top class wide player.

 

and what if Parry says it's too much for such and such a player?

[diego]

On the topic of automatic negative reactions to anything about Rafa, my opinion is that those on here (and their friend in the tabloid press) who don't like being called anti-Rafa, but who are, whipped themselves into a frenzied lust during the last month when they thought they smelled his blood. Now that he has given them the slip they are narked.

 

He's an intelligent, dedicated man, very expressive and precise in his native language and we are lucky to have him.

[Original202]

and what if Parry says it's too much for such and such a player?

 

Like Torres you mean?

[rebel23]

Like Torres you mean?

 

it all depends on Parry's whim though, that's the problem

 

and where are all these top class wide players, there really aren't that many.

[Catch22]

Catch, you love making this point about Degen's wages/signing on fee! Can't we all just agree that he's a heap of shit and wherever the money goes in the accounts it's still a waste?

 

 

Sorry.

 

Yes, he is a waste

[Malarkey]

I love Montse.

[Juan Galonso]

On the topic of automatic negative reactions to anything about Rafa, my opinion is that those on here (and their friend in the tabloid press) who don't like being called anti-Rafa, but who are, whipped themselves into a frenzied lust during the last month when they thought they smelled his blood. Now that he has given them the slip they are narked.

 

He's an intelligent, dedicated man, very expressive and precise in his native language and we are lucky to have him.

 

How exactly has he ''given them the slip''. Explain please?

[Red-Ed]

First off, mate, it's really refreshing to read a well-thought constructive post.

 

I'm not criticising the buying of young foreign talent as such because the likes of Pacheco and Nemeth look like they have the ability to make the step up. I'm not saying that "local lads- yay, foreigners- nay" because I don't care where a player comes from as long as he's good enough. I do think though that we need to tweak our approach to this though slightly because at times, it can be a drain on resources. The signings of Brouwer, Mendy, Simon, Flora etc look pretty pointless because they're no better than what we've got coming through and only hinder progress for the likes of Eccleston, Mackay-Steven, Ince etc who really need to start getting reserve team football at this stage of their development. It's about striking a balance, and I'm not sure whether we're doing that yet.

 

I'm not sure about who is better out of Lucas or Guthrie (and as you said, that debate's for another day), but for me, Guthrie is certainly good enough to be fourth-choice for us and it could have saved us a couple of quid for other areas. I don't think Lucas is as bad as what some people make out and I feel he gets a lot of unfair stick, but I really do feel that given some of the players we had and have had coming through in reserve, we could have spent the £6m better.

 

Fair point about Insua being away, but the frustrating thing for me with the Dossena transfer is that he was playing as a wing-back in Italy. I don't get why we spend £7m on him and then play him effectively out of position as a left-back. If Rafa wants to buy a left-back, then that's fair enough, go out and buy a left-back; don't go out and buy a wing-back and play him out of position. It's a case of square pegs in round holes and for me, it raises some questions of our scouting department.

 

For me, this summer's crucial because I don't think we can afford another foray into the transfer market like last pre-season. Whatever little money we have has to go on a player of proven quality who can come in and improve the first XI, because the approach we've taken in the past couple of seasons of quantity over quality has proven to be something of a failure.

 

 

Good read mate - agree with the vast majority of your post as well.

 

I think the bottom line is if the players were coming through we wouldn't need to buy those players that are constantly debated. The law of probabilities says that the more you spend on a player the more likely they are to succeed.

 

Some of the young foreign players we've signed to raise serious question marks - is it the method or the scouting that needs addressing? I can't believe (or if it was true it would depress the hell out of me!) that we sign any young players thinking they'll never make it.

 

We do need to see product coming through the youth system otherwise we're going to forever be buying 'squad' players which will then impact on our ability to sign the £15 million players that we crave.

 

Unfortunately, from what I read, and I won't pretend to have any real knowledge about the goings-on, this problem won't go away until the internal politics are over. I'm hoping this will happen once Rafa's contract is finalised.

Some serious thought and investment needs to be committed if we are to overhaul the systems we have in place and we need to ensure that the right actions are taken.

 

One problem I often have is that certain people - Lucas being the main one - are used as the yard stick for measuring this practice and as a result he gets unfair criticism. He isn't a bad player at all, maybe you're right that Gutherie could have done the same job. Maybe he wanted to play football so we had to sell him? I don't know, there are far too many tangibles for anyone to really know.

 

Somethings do need to change and I think on the whole most people can realistically see what they are. I still think Rafa is the man to execute them though.

[CaptainK]

So why does Rafa feel the need to make it look like they were paid in full deals then?

 

For the same reason all deals are. All deals are generally quoted in the headline figure that is the maximum payable.

 

Same way we "paid" £20m for Robbie Keane.

[ToxtethTerror]

Apart from Ferdinand that defence that is playing so well cost how much at United? Evra £7m, Vidic £7m, Neville £0, That Brazilian Lad was peanuts, Van der Saar £2m... I think they do spend money but Ferguson is also very good at identifying players that will fit into his team.. generally.

 

We have also had our bargains though, Agger, Reina, Alonso were all cheap for what they are.

[ali]

They had an interview with the Academy chap on LFC now last Thursday, said something about signing a whole team of 16 year olds, mostly Scousers, on 2 year scholarships, anyone know anything more ?

[Spy Bee]

Oh dear.

[ScottyT]

HATCHET MAN: Control freak Benitez will leave Liverpool rudderless, hopeless and staffless when he decamps to the Nou Camp | Mail Online

 

Madrid play at the Camp Nou these days?

 

Have to laugh at the solitary comment underneath from some gimp in Malaysia. No guessing as to where his loyalties lie...

[RSM]

Well why don't you contribute to it then? Seeing as it's so shite, why don't you put in some input to make it better?

 

 

Rafa goooood!

 

No

 

Rafa Baaad!

 

not much else to say except the thousands of threads already discussing the issue.

[gkmacca]

They had an interview with the Academy chap on LFC now last Thursday, said something about signing a whole team of 16 year olds, mostly Scousers, on 2 year scholarships, anyone know anything more ?

 

That was a pretty encouraging interview. There's also a brief mention of it by Owens in the offal's academy section.

[philyhamann]

They had an interview with the Academy chap on LFC now last Thursday, said something about signing a whole team of 16 year olds, mostly Scousers, on 2 year scholarships, anyone know anything more ?

 

PR. Its probably true to an extent, but it doesn't mean that they're the best. The best seem to be going to Everton, Rodwell is going to be a top player and is a red. Why is he at Everton?

[gkmacca]

It's a thankless task - you finally bring in more local youngsters and it's dismissed as PR. Who on earth can tell how many, if any, will develop into promising professional prospects. The interview sounded encouraging - it certainly didn't just seem like an ill-thought out empty gesture.

[ScottyT]

Rodwell is going to be a top player

 

That's pushing it a bit. He's decent enough for their level but do you think if they had the money he'd be in the team?

 

I don't want locals lads in the team for the sake of it, they have to be good enough to keep us competitive at the top level.