Rafa Exclusive in The Times

[Tom R]

You just answered yourself there though Tom.

 

£7-8m and you get Dossena whereas pay more and you get Johnson and pay even more then that and you get Alves or Lahm.

 

A player such as Johnson is needed to unlock defences who will come to Anfield and just put everyone behind the ball.

 

No mate, £7-8m and BENITEZ gets fucking Dossena.

 

Other managers get the likes of Alan Hutton or Gareth Bale, or a Corluka or a Stephen Warnock!

[Whelan]

Ah I see! I get it now.

 

So when Slur Alex said Keane wasn't worth £20m, may be we shouldn't have called him a cunt and perhaps Rafa also should have listened to him?

 

Or perhaps Rafa should have looked at how Slur waited for horse face to get fully fit before he spunked £19m on him?

 

He also sold Veron to Chelsea for £15m so he must also be a genius for cutting the losses just like Rafa did with Keane?

 

Or the fact that he bought Ronaldo for £12m and then sold him for £80m and getting ALL the money that he spent on so called duds like Nani, Anderson, Hargreaves, Berbatov etc? Making Ronaldo the world player of the year and winning 3 titles and a champions league in the process?

 

I also wonder how many right backs slur spunked £17m on when he only had 1 striker, eh?

 

No, I was thinking more along the lines of looking at how they have turned themselves into champions and seeing what we can learn.

[Carra_is_legend]

No, I was thinking more along the lines of looking at how they have turned themselves into champions and seeing what we can learn.

 

And my post covered some of it.

 

- Don't spend £20m on an injured player

- Don't spend £17m on a right back when you have only one striker in the squad

 

To name 2.

[Catch22]

No, I was thinking more along the lines of looking at how they have turned themselves into champions and seeing what we can learn.

 

Spend the most or 2nd most in the League on wages & you will win it every post-Bosman year bar 1.

 

Drop out of that as the Mancs have done this year & you won't win it.

 

Unfortuanately when we acheive something last year that has never been done before on that basis & manage to break into the top 2 on the 4th highest, somehow Rafa is poor in the market!

 

There is no way that people can function in society & buy houes & equities with the level of financial ignorance that is shown when Benitez's transfer record is criticised.

 

As i can only assume that they do in fact invest money like any normal person, there are making innuerate criticisms for the sake of it.

[coop]

No mate, £7-8m and BENITEZ gets fucking Dossena.

 

Other managers get the likes of Alan Hutton or Gareth Bale, or a Corluka or a Stephen Warnock!

 

Tom mate Hutton, Bale and Corluka are pretty medicore and whilst i like Warnock it would have cost us £10m to sign him, maybe even more.

 

Dont forget Hull wanted £10m+ for Turner when we wanted him yet sold him to Sunderland for £4m.

[Tom R]

Spend the most or 2nd most in the League on wages & you will win it every post-Bosman year bar 1.

 

Drop out of that as the Mancs have done this year & you won't win it.

 

oh piss off wil ya...

[dave u]

Tom mate Hutton, Bale and Corluka are pretty medicore and whilst i like Warnock it would have cost us £10m to sign him, maybe even more.

 

Dont forget Hull wanted £10m+ for Turner when we wanted him yet sold him to Sunderland for £4m.

 

Ok, who's gonna be first to say it?

[coop]

Ok, who's gonna be first to say it?

 

Go bollocks i meant to resign him :whistle:

 

And bollocks again cos i just clicked on im talking about a left back.

[goatboy59]

Martin Lipton! Wasn't he the former PR for Leeds, he knows nothign about the ins and outs at Liverpool but feels qualified to comment! But we have only won 1 out of 8, so that is okay.

He won't be the last, all the 'name' writers are going to take a crack at this.

 

One of the world's biggest managers has said he'd walk if his best player was sold behind his back, do you honestly think this is going to be filed under 'Liverpool writer tries and gets bit of feelgood factor going' and then forgotten?

 

So what was the use of the original piece if it merely provides more ammunition for the know-nowts?

[Owen]

No mate, £7-8m and BENITEZ gets fucking Dossena.

 

Other managers get the likes of Alan Hutton or Gareth Bale, or a Corluka or a Stephen Warnock!

 

The same Benitez who picked up a superior player to every one of them in Arbeloa for less than half the price of most of them?

 

Why does everything have to be so black and white Tom?

[piscinin]

Why do people keep saying we only have 1 striker. We clearly have more than that.

 

We have 2 world class strikers. Torres and Gerrard. Their goal record speaks for itself.

 

We have a decent 3rd choice in Dirk Kuyt who gets his fair share of goals.

 

And then we have a couple of 3rd/4th choices who are currently scoring more than most other team's equivalent choices.

 

That lot have by hook or by crook made us the 3rd top scorers in the league, pretty much the same trick they pulled off last year. We said the same last year when Keane was sold and it's as false now as it was then.

 

This year they've done this with essentially no creative help from our central midfield. Zilch. The team needed penetration on the pitch more than it needed someone to shine the seats on the bench.

[Catch22]

oh piss off wil ya...

 

 

Are you as innumerate as you want to make out on this thread?

 

If so, i seriously hope you get a friend or loved one to deal with that complex investment world out there.

 

If not, then why pretend to be to criticise our manager?

 

Rafa has got a better average League record than he should have for the money the club has spent.

 

That means he cannot be worse than his peers in the transfer market.

 

Dossena was a terrible signing, Torres an excellent one.

It has to be judged as a portfolio.

[Trucker Paddy]

If someone had put it up as a Tomkins parody I'd have understood. It's meant to be taken seriously.

 

As an exercise in trying to turn doubters around it's a complete waste of time. Winter got absolutely, and correctly, trashed for writing about Ferguson in a similar manner. Had Ferguson won 1 in 9 we'd have been laughing our arses off at it.

 

And the replies are coming already;

 

Who ever said Fernando Torres would be sold Rafa? Martin Lipton's tea-time read - MirrorFootball.co.uk

 

So he let Owen go to Madrid eh! And he was willing to sell Gerrard who had put in a transfer request, these clowns get fuckin paid for writing this tripe.

[Tom R]

Tom mate Hutton, Bale and Corluka are pretty medicore and whilst i like Warnock it would have cost us £10m to sign him, maybe even more.

 

Dont forget Hull wanted £10m+ for Turner when we wanted him yet sold him to Sunderland for £4m.

 

I was just randomly naming players who are all far better than Dossena, in a similar price range, who could do a similar job to Arbeloa. I wasn't advocating that we sign them.

 

As for Warnock, I thought he went for 9m Yooroes. Besides, who was it sho shipped him out of LIverpool anyway?

 

 

Shrewd.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

Excellent read

[dave u]

The same Benitez who picked up a superior player to every one of them in Arbeloa for less than half the price of most of them?

 

Why does everything have to be so black and white Tom?

 

Arbeloa was a great spot and a very good signing. Let's not forget though, we only got him because Lucas Neill fucked us off :eek:

[coop]

Like i put Tom i rate Warnock but i also rate Aurelio, just a shame the lad is made of crisps.

 

I also think the fact Portsmouth owed us money made the Johnson signing more appealing to Rafa.

[Randy Marsh]

Sorry, just had the chance to read your post.

 

I don't understand how anyone can disagree that the last 3 transfer windows have been anything but disasters.

 

You can compare ourselves with United and Chelsea all day long and console yourself but if you look at the players we lost and the players we bought in the last 3 transfer windows, it was always going to bite us in the arse at some point and it has this season.

 

Whatever you say, it is absolutely not excusable for a team like Liverpool to have ONE real striker in the whole squad.

 

 

I don't understand one thing on this forum - why do people ALWAYS compare us with Chelsea or United?

 

Fair enough mate no problem.

 

The last 3 transfer windows have been poor, but the budget for them has equated to about 3million quid. I agree our striker situation is poor and whilst I believe that there are various factors beyond the managers control which have had a baring on this, I also believe maybe some of Rafa's decisions have been at fault to. I'm not blind to his mistakes, but I'm also not blind to his successes as many (Im not saying you) on here seem to be.

 

And the reason people always compare us to Chelsea and United is because the people wanting rid of Rafa are wanting rid of him because we are not up there above Chelsea and United. If people expect us to overtake them, on a fraction of their budget and a shambolic boardroom, then it's only right comparisons with them are made.

[Tom R]

Are you as innumerate as you want to make out on this thread?

 

If so, i seriously hope you get a friend or loved one to deal with that complex investment world out there.

 

If not, then why pretend to be to criticise our manager?

 

Rafa has got a better average League record than he should have for the money the club has spent.

 

That means he cannot be worse than his peers in the transfer market.

 

CHANGE THE FUCKING RECORD.

[dave u]

So he let Owen go to Madrid eh! And he was willing to sell Gerrard who had put in a transfer request, these clowns get fuckin paid for writing this tripe.

 

He also said we sold Alonso for £35m. It was €30m.

[Tom R]

Excellent read

 

Thanks for stopping by old boy.

 

Gizza ring about City later by the way mate.

Nice one.

[Owen]

Arbeloa was a great spot and a very good signing. Let's not forget though, we only got him because Lucas Neill fucked us off :eek:

 

Excellent point, chief.

 

Just proves that that level of signing comes with a great deal of risk. Johnson at £17m was pretty much as risk-free as you can get. If he'd got some finge-international foreigner for £7m and he'd bombed there'd be no end of 'quality over quantity' posts.

[Code]

Signing Aquilani for £17 million from Roma to replace Xabi Alonso was great business, he insisted. "We can only buy one or two big, £20 million players a year," Benítez said. "If we want to have money available, then we have to sell some players. We have to sell expensive and buy as cheaply as possible.

 

"Aquilani fit would be £20-30 million. We checked with doctors and they said he would be out one, maybe two months. We have lost some time, but I signed the player for five years, not five weeks. We needed to take the risk."

 

Since no one actually have picked up on this absoloute complete bollocks I will.

 

So doctors told you he would be out only one, maybe two months, shame you did not call me then as I could have told you with damn good accuracy that he would be ready to play in late October at best, but most likely not before November, thats how long it takes to heal from such an injury, it always has been and it probably always will be.

 

I pray to God these doctors are not on our wage bill but with the other crap we have "had" to sign according to Rafa they probably are, our injury record and players almost without exception always beeing rushed back from injuries meaning they will be out for a few more weeks also is a good indication of this.

 

Was his name Steve McNally?

 

I also love how we needed to take the risk.

 

No we really did not, I can probably list 100 CM`s that would have had a more positive influence on our season than what Aquilani will have, all cheaper as well.

 

I can also list a lot of CM`s that we could have brought in instead at a much cheaper price, with just as much potential, a better injury record, more experience in the game etc.

 

So we did not really need to take the risk did we?

 

But you did and our season is now all but over because of it, I call oit lack of judgement, just like its a lack of judgement to believe a combination of Mascheano and Lucas in CM will bring you anything but sleepless nights and sorrow.

[Catch22]

CHANGE THE FUCKING RECORD.

 

I have clearly broken down how much Benitez has spent & what our PL positions are.

 

You have every right to dislike him &/or want him replaced.

 

But if you continually spout innumerate nonsense that you are far too intelligent to actually believe & just hope that by aggressively shouting people will ignore you, then you can expect that record to be repeated not changed.

 

Rafa has made many mistakes & many great signbings.

 

We can only judge him on his portfolio which is better than average (which is not perfect) yet you continually dismiss it as terrible which does not make any sense.

[Tom R]

I have clearly broken down how much Benitez has spent & what our PL positions are.

 

You have every right to dislike him &/or want him replaced.

 

But if you continually spout innumerate nonsense that you are far too intelligent to actually believe & just hope that by aggressively shouting people will ignore you, then you can expect that record to be repeated not changed.

 

Rafa has made many mistakes & many great signbings.

 

We can only judge him on his portfolio which is better than average (which is not perfect).

 

CHANGE THE FUCKING RECORD.