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Media Myths: Rafa Benitez and His Transfer History With Liverpool Football Club There appears to be a trend growing amongst media outlets, “expert” pundits, and rival supporters who ensure a negative air surrounds Liverpool Football Club and more commonly its manager, Rafa Benitez. It seems he can do no right in the eyes of some people—his own supporters included—and more false claims appear every week that serve only to derail him from his aims. As more and more newspapers churn out sensational headline after headline and television pundits spout opinion as fact; the more people are brainwashed by these stories. Many lazy debaters claim their opinion to be fact or truth whilst they simply recycle misleading newspaper propaganda as their own knowledge or belief. Biased supporters who choose to jump on the slander bandwagon when it involves a rival team are common place, and this only adds to the ever-growing ideology of a story perceived as fact. One such myth which seems to have appeared recently has been the same tired line about Rafa Benitez and his transfers since his time at Liverpool. You will hear people claiming things like: “A larger proportion of Rafa's signings have been expensive and poor.” This does of course depend on how a person interprets the words expensive and poor—the latter obviously being down to their personal opinion of a player. For example if someone wants to use the barometer of anything over a million pounds to be expensive and any player other than Messi or Ronaldo is considered poor; then anyone will struggle to argue against that logic—me included. We can address the “expensive” part of the argument first: (Numbers in brackets are players still at the club) £20-30+ million: 1 (1) Torres £10-20 million: 4 (3) Mascherano, Keane, Babel, Alonso £5-10 million: 14 (9) Dossenna, Riera, Agger, Skrtel, Reina, Benayoun, Leiva, Kuyt, Pennant, Crouch, Bellamy, Sissoko, Morientes, Garcia £0-5 million: 47 (36) Degan, Cavelieri, Ngog, Plessis, Insua, Leto, Itandje, Voronin, Arbeloa, El Zhar, Aurelio, Palletta, Fowler, Kromkamp, Barragan, Nunez, Zenden, Gonzalez, Carson, Pellegrino, Josemi, Martin, Antwi, Hobbs, Miki Roque, Gulacsi, Padelli, Anderson, Poloskei, Crowther, Hansen, Saric, Ayala, Weijl, Blanco, Flora, Mendy, Ajdarevic, Simon, Bouzanis, Nemeth, Pacheco, Palsson, Brouwer, Durán, Huth, Domínguez. It is easy to see that the majority of Rafa’s signings have been below the £10 million mark and nothing like the fabrication that he has bought mostly “expensive” signings. Especially when you consider that 49 of his 66 signings are still at the club and the selling on fee cannot yet be determined. Here are some more comments and claims made about Rafael Benitez: “He has bought 53 players for £190 million and sold 56 for £108 million, clearly a loss of £82 million proves he doesn’t have a clue in the transfer market.” I think the easiest way to explain this would be to just show you a full rundown of Rafael Benitez’ signings since he joined Liverpool in June 2004: Players bought in by Benitez: 66 Players still at the club: 49 First Team: 18 Alonso, Reina, Agger, Aurélio, Kuyt, Arbeloa, Mascherano, Lucas, Torres, Itandje, Benayoun, Babel, Skrtel, Degen, Dossena, Cavalieri, Ngog, Riera. Reserve Team: 22 El Zhar, Insúa, Palsson, Brouwer, Durán, Huth, Domínguez, Pacheco, Nemeth, Plessis, Hansen, Saric, Ayala, Weijl, Blanco, Flora, Mendy, Ajdarevic, Simon, Bouzanis, Crowther, Poloskei Out on Loan: 9 Andriy Voronin, Jermaine Pennant, Sebastian Leto, David Martin, Godwin Antwi, Jack Hobbs, Miki Roque, Peter Gulacsi, Paul Anderson A figure of 49 players bought by Rafa are still playing for the club with the majority (22) bought as youth players for the reserve team—with the idea for future revenue if they perform to their potential. It will also save the club a great deal of money if they turn out to be superstars worth a large transfer fee. From that 49 figure, there are 18 still playing for the first team and contributing on a very large scale with the majority of them being priced by many as a greater figure than when the players were initially bought by Rafa. From the nine players out on loan, only two are established players with the other seven being young reserve players gaining experience at other clubs—with the hope of either returning to Liverpool’s first team or making a profit to invest in future transfers. Players Sold On by Benitez: 56 Players Bought by Other Managers and Sold on by Benitez: 39 Players Bought and Sold on by Rafa Benitez: 17 For me, this is the key point from which poorly informed debaters’ opinions collapse. Most propaganda articles or rival supporters will wildly claim that Rafa has sold "56" players and made little money in return. They claim the “majority” of the "56" players the Liverpool manager has sold on have been at a loss and “proves” his failings in the transfer market. This is such a misleading statement to make that I really don’t know how people can still get away with it. For starters, Benitez has sold 39 players bought by other Liverpool managers. Benitez cannot be held accountable for selling a player at a loss when Benitez was not the one who identified the player as a target in the first place or sanctioned the over-inflated transfer fee. You can only really judge him on the players he has bought and sold since he has been at the club and this brings the true figure down to just 17 players. Profit: 7 Carson +2.25, Barragan +0.43, Sissoko +2.6, Crouch +4.0, Gonzalez +2.0, Bellamy +1.5, Nunez +0.5 Loss: 6 Garcia -2.0, Morientes -3.3, Palletta -0.8, Josemi (swapped for) Kromkamp -0.25, Idrizaj -0.19, Keane -3.0 (could be even less depending on contract triggers) Even: 4 Pellegrino, Zenden, Fowler, Padelli (all four players were brought in and moved on for a free transfer) So the true extent of Rafa’s failings in the transfer market is just six players from 17, coming with a loss of just under £10 million within four and a half years—the most expensive loss being just £3.3 million; nothing like the losses achieved by other established Premier League managers. Hopefully that is one media myth that's now been eradicated. LINK

What's everyone having/had for good ol' breakfast? After a very heavy and drunken evening at a party I am currently cooking minted lamb steaks with onion rings (I have a work's do to attend to in an hour, need to get sober asap!!) Good ol' brekkie

Leto - Abysmal. Even less brains. Lucas - Slow, dozy, still thinks he's playing on a beach in Brazil. Will be gone next summer. Plessis - Yet more slow, ponderous, overhyped fodder not suited to our league and culture. Gone soon enough. Voronin - Give him away for free. What were they thinking. Potential additions: Babel - Lazy and arrogant without the abilty to back it up. Could be gone next summer if he doesn't buck up. Insua - Big fat arse. Defensively poor. Time's up when Rafa wants to loan you out. Get rid, stop this rigid system obsession and bring in some tough, energetic quality players. The transformation from Lucas and Plessis to Masch and Spearing yesterday was there for all to see. The gulf in quality was huge. Absolute madness that we're shelling out big money for these foreign lads who will never adjust to our league and culture when we have good solid players in our reserves.

Malaga Ciudad de Malaga Pueblos de Malaga And given an award.

Following on from some comments in Westderbians thread. I married my first love if you like, met him when i was 8, we became an item when i was 16. the question i am raising is does it still have the same magnitude to it, be it overburdening, or zest if you feel positive about it? do you see it as 'if it goes tits up it goes tits up' attitude, or the general what's a bit of paper needed for anyway? When i tried on my wedding dress years ago, myself, my mum and my cousin were in a posh shop in Chester, i'm there thinking i looked the bee's knee's and ask my mum what she thinks... her response, ''you know my feelings, ah fuck it, you look lovely, you can always get a divorce...'' Nice. In fact i brought it up in my speech during the night time reception. however, now i feel pretty much the same, its not that big a deal. (First poll, should of put a betting option on to see if i would fuck it up)

Got This off RAWK.... this was posted on eseason on lfctv by yankfield Right,lads, an update as promised, I had a good chat today with a mate on the payroll at Laing O`Rourkes, Firstly there are NO enabling works to be carried out as all of these were completed approx. 18 months ago for architects and design specifications to be drawn up etc.etc. The only work possibly being done is removal of some old trees and shrubbery and the boarding up of an enclosed section by the car park to house a limited amount of plant, machinery and cabins.................................. But this was pre-arranged for when Laings contract on the `Triangle` at L1 was completed in September, The phrase "No silver has been exchanged" was very prominent when pressed about the steel requirements and other materials ..................... Laing O`Rourkes had an agreement to move onto the Stanley park site and the crunch financial deadline is Monday 15th Sept. If there has been no investment secured prior to then, they have other contracts [Pinderfields and Hope Hospital are but 2] which will then take priority and further potential work at the Stanley site will be delayed indefinitely as they have machinery and a work force to prioritise,and new deadlines and penalty clauses to beat. The cowboys have not complied with any guarantees regarding construction contracts or material purchasing and word within the firm is that they have nil confidence in the Yanks being forthcoming in the near future...... This boarding up and housing of plant etc, is just part of the original agreement with LCC, and is nothing to do with excavation work, unless they receive `bona fide` financial commitment from the `Custodians` of the club, The general consensus is that they are using this situation as a `smokescreen` until they can, A) Find suitable financial investment in time to meet the stadium commencement deadline and to refinance their existing loans, If so they will give the go ahead for `phase 1` the initial excavation work for underground car park and foundations, This strategy will enable them to offer the entire project including LFC [plus all existing loans] at a far bigger profit margin for themselves than is already `on the table`, It remains to be seen if ANY group is willing to match this increased valuation especially in the current economic climate.............. B) If no offers, then they have no alternative but to plough on whilst continuing to borrow more and more as each phase requires, in the hope that they will not be turned down as the finance houses have loaned deeply to them from the start, This will be no personal risk to them as ALL loans will now be placed on the club, and they will be guaranteed full backing as they could use any objections as an excuse for any delays or abandonment of the project, C)If they cannot raise the necessary funds in the required timescale, then they may have no alternative than to seek out any prospective investors to purchase the club.......obviously it is in the `Custodians` interest to begin all aforementioned works to obtain the highest possible premium on their franchise. The whole malarkey seems more and more iffy with every day that passes.........

the perfect woman.