An article from the Daily Mail to piss you right off!

[kopdan]

Its clear Rafa wants to sign the likes of Walcott and Bale then.

Too many times we miss out on these kind of players. Hopefully the board old or new will allow us to go that little extra in securing young talent.

[FatTony]

What a stupid article, "Take away one night of unthinkable triumph in Istanbul 20 months ago and what progress has really been made?" You can´t say stuff like that I mean take away the league title Arsenal won and what have they done in recent years then? Stupid!

And this: "Of his current squad, the 47-year-old has spent considerable sums on Xabi Alonso (£10.5million), Dirk Kuyt (£9m), Peter Crouch (£7m), Jose Reina (£6m), Jermaine Pennant (£6.7m), Craig Bellamy (£6m), Luis Garcia (£6m), Daniel Agger (£5.8m), Momo Sissoko (£5.6m) and Gabriel Paletta (£2m)." We also had to sell players to fund these purchases and given that Rafa inherited a pretty much worthless squad on huge wages that has been difficult (Diouf, Diao, Cheyrou, Biscan, Smicer, Henchoz, Babbel, Le Tallec, Dudek).

We also know that Wenger uses dirty tactics in signing youngsters, like Flamini and Lupoli I think, and I would like to know how much he is paying for them all.

No, but he does have a valid reason for comparing the performances of ourselves in the premiership against the likes of Bolton and Portsmouth, who've spent far less and, at the moment at least, seem to be challenging us for 3rd or 4th spot.

There is a long way to go yet, but we're not going to win the title and we're out of all domestic cups. This is not a great campaign so far and here we are in January, clutching at the champions league as the lone possibility of silverware this season.

Lets not all get the blinkers on here, a great deal of fans here seem to believe that club and manager are without criticism, something I just do not understand. Rafa's spending over the last 2 seasons is second only to Fergie and Jose, and as the league currently sits, we're sat in the league exactly where we should be with that rather crude reasoning, 3rd. We are however, sat too close to the likes of Bolton and Portsmouth, and too far away from the top two, but then we'll see where we are in May.

We all know that our away form this season is diabolical for a club of this stature, and we can argue amongst ourselves about the success of Rafa's transfers and rotation policy, but the simple fact of the matter is that this season, his tactics and his transfers have not delivered. As a consequence, the media will try and rip him to shreads, but for people too dismiss ANY criticism is just as poor an opinion as to ignore the successes that he has brought us.

[ElRobbie]

Its clear Rafa wants to sign the likes of Walcott and Bale then.

Too many times we miss out on these kind of players. Hopefully the board old or new will allow us to go that little extra in securing young talent.

Already discussed this in another topic, that's been our problem, spending that bit more to get the right player, rather than taking gambles on spending £6m on players who may turn out to be a bargain, or even worth that would be nice in our case.

Part of it comes down to Houllier wasting so much money and spending big on the likes of Diouf and Heskey. At least you can say where Rafa has spent around the £10m mark they've been good buys, Alonso and Kuyt.

If you look at us spending £6.75m on Pennant, £6m on Crouch etc, why didn't we go that extra bit further and buy the likes of Walcott, who cost £5m down payment, possibly rising to £13m, Rafa was saying players that age aren't worth that sort of money, yes he's right, but in a few years time he could be worth more than that, and that's what it's about, taking a calculated risk and getting the right players, ifa player keeps his value or increases in value then its a good buy, obviously not taking into account age, end of contract, etc, things which show a natural depreciation.

As far as I'm concerned you've got the likes of Walcott who said he was a Liverpool fan and Aguero who said he dreamed of playing for us, why didn't we stop being so tight and take a calculated risk on these players, Rafa admitted that the likes of Pennant and Bellamy were gambles anyway.

To be honest, part of what pisses me off is we just never make signings that I would consider exciting or get excited about, like the two I've named above, I mean young players with real talent and massive potential, OK Alonso you could say, but he was already quite established. Most of what we've bought have been unknowns or already established players, we never go in for the youngsters who are the next big things because we are too tight. I mean does anyone really thing we have a chance of signing the likes of Bale or Richards etc? We just won't spend what other clubs are prepared to spend.

[AFII]

The problem is that we don't had such a big squad so Rafa had to buy players who will deliver now and not in three or four years time. If Rafa had signed Aguero and Walcott for example instead of Crouch and Bellamy then we would get it very difficult to qualify for the CL.

Wenger have taken a risk of missing out on the CL, they almost did that last season, when he is signing a lot of young players but that is a risk he is willing to take.

[Depth_Charge]

What a stupid article, "Take away one night of unthinkable triumph in Istanbul 20 months ago and what progress has really been made?" You can´t say stuff like that I mean take away the league title Arsenal won and what have they done in recent years then? Stupid!

Yeah - I loved that bit, reminded me of the 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' bit in Life of Brian.

[Red_Polo]

The problem comes from the fact that each summer we try to sign too many players and solve too many things at once. We would be better off in future making sure of getting the best possible players for a couple of positions rather than a handful of players who might just about measure up.

[FatTony]

The problem comes from the fact that each summer we try to sign too many players and solve too many things at once. We would be better off in future making sure of getting the best possible players for a couple of positions rather than a handful of players who might just about measure up.

I have a feeling that this is what he will be planning now. We have good resource, but now is the time to bring in true class.

[The_weatherman]

The problem comes from the fact that each summer we try to sign too many players and solve too many things at once. We would be better off in future making sure of getting the best possible players for a couple of positions rather than a handful of players who might just about measure up.

But considering how bare the squad was he had sign several players, otherwise we´d be stuck with Bruno, Bambi and Diao still.

[cobain]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1779


This is undobtedly the worst piece of journalism I have read in a long time.

What does this guy expect us to do? Throwing coins at our players and manager when they're underperforming?

God damn, what a cnut! People just can't bare that we're the best supporters in the World.

[Red_Polo]

I have a feeling that this is what he will be planning now. We have good resource, but now is the time to bring in true class.

I hope so.

But considering how bare the squad was he had sign several players, otherwise we´d be stuck with Bruno, Bambi and Diao still.

At first he had to I agree. But I remember a time when what we were looking for was CB, RM, CF. Then we got Agger - quality signing. Kuyt, can't moan about that one at all either. But why oh why did we not just concentrate on getting in that quality RM player having bleated about needing one for so long, instead of signing Pennant and numerous other squad players?

[The_weatherman]

Ok, but if he signed Alves for 15m we wouldn´t have got Kuyt? He would have been criticized either way. So he had to choose between right mid or attacker I think and if he hadn´t signed Aurelio we would be pretty light on the left side.

He´s not beyond criticism but I think the histeria in the media is totally unwarranted - we are still above the Arse in still in the CL although some have written Liverpool off entirely.

[Red_Polo]

Ok, but if he signed Alves for 15m we wouldn´t have got Kuyt? He would have been criticized either way. So he had to choose between right mid or attacker I think and if he hadn´t signed Aurelio we would be pretty light on the left side.

He´s not beyond criticism but I think the histeria in the media is totally unwarranted - we are still above the Arse in still in the CL although some have written Liverpool off entirely.

It's not about choosing between Kuyt and Alves, it's a much broader trend than that.

Off the top of my head, since we apparently only needed a CB, RM and CF we have signed...

Aurelio
Agger
Paletta
Gonzalez
Bellamy
Pennant
Kuyt
Zenden
Fowler
Nabil El Zhar and a few other kids

Now I know we needed to pad the squad out a bit, but surely the first team is the top priority? Even the 'free' transfers cost money. Why have we been busy signing 4th choice players who barely ever play first team football, when only now have we got ourselves a RM player in Pennant, our consolation choice?

We are scrimping where it matters most to be able to afford things that are quite frankly less important. I think if Cisse hadn't been injured things may have been slightly different this summer, but I think it's clear we cannot afford to go on compromising the quality of our important signings to get slightly better backup players.

I think Bellamy is a good player and hope he stays with us - but was it better that we signed him when we could've had Alves instead of Pennant, still had Kuyt, and just kept Sinama? Would we have had such a poor start to the season yet again had we not been trying to bed in so many new players?

[AFII]

I think Bellamy is a good player and hope he stays with us - but was it better that we signed him when we could've had Alves instead of Pennant, still had Kuyt, and just kept Sinama? Would we have had such a poor start to the season yet again had we not been trying to bed in so many new players?

I agree with almost all of this except of Bellamy staying. I don't think he is good enough.

I don't know if we had enough money to sign Alves even if we hadn't signed Bellamy and Pennant. Sevilla wanted around £15m for Alves and Bellamy plus Pennant costed around £13.5m. We couldn't even afford to make a bid for Neill until we had sold Barragan to Deportivo so even the £1.5m difference would have been hard to finance.

[Sir Bob]

No, but he does have a valid reason for comparing the performances of ourselves in the premiership against the likes of Bolton and Portsmouth, who've spent far less and, at the moment at least, seem to be challenging us for 3rd or 4th spot.

There is a long way to go yet, but we're not going to win the title and we're out of all domestic cups. This is not a great campaign so far and here we are in January, clutching at the champions league as the lone possibility of silverware this season.

Lets not all get the blinkers on here, a great deal of fans here seem to believe that club and manager are without criticism, something I just do not understand. Rafa's spending over the last 2 seasons is second only to Fergie and Jose, and as the league currently sits, we're sat in the league exactly where we should be with that rather crude reasoning, 3rd. We are however, sat too close to the likes of Bolton and Portsmouth, and too far away from the top two, but then we'll see where we are in May.

We all know that our away form this season is diabolical for a club of this stature, and we can argue amongst ourselves about the success of Rafa's transfers and rotation policy, but the simple fact of the matter is that this season, his tactics and his transfers have not delivered. As a consequence, the media will try and rip him to shreads, but for people too dismiss ANY criticism is just as poor an opinion as to ignore the successes that he has brought us.

Great post mate.
Whilst I still have the utmost faith in Rafa, this season we have been poor.
Whilst I never expected us to win the league, I did expect us to be nearer the top 2 than we are now. The likes of bolton & Portsmouth are right on pour tail & with our squad thats not good enough.

For me Rafa completely misjudged the importance of Tuesdays match to the fans. We expected a strong side to be picked as the Carling Cup was are only realistic chance of success this season. Obviously Rafa can't pick the team based on the fans wishes but with the team he picked, any defeat was going to attract criticism, and rightly so.

I also think he's been out of order in criticising the board in public. He should of course make his feelings known to them but publically having a pop at Moores & Co. does him no credit at all. Noel White, quite correctly got the bullet for something similar.

[AFII]

No one knows what our board have promised Rafa. If they have broken a promise then he is right to criticise the board.

I think there is a reason to why Rafa have said the things he said.

He want more money and he wants it now. My guess is that he want a player that is available now and not in the summer but we can't afford him.