How are we ever gonna challenge the Mancs, Chelsea or Arsenal?

[Jesus]

Two seasons ago when we finished a point behind them it looked for all the world that we were on the verge of moving ahead of them, but something badly went wrong, and you have to say it was Rafa's buys that summer. He went for quantity and mediocre squad players instead of just one or two injections of real quality that we needed.

Even if we'd just got Alves and Bellamy that season and stuck with Morientes instead of wasting 10 million on Kuyt, I think we'd be in a much stronger position now, especially when you add Torres to the equation.

Rafa just seemed to lose it and be in one all mighty rush to bulk up the squad, no doubt to fully implement his rotation system.

[Slinky Skills]

Two seasons ago when we finished a point behind them it looked for all the world that we were on the verge of moving ahead of them, but something badly went wrong, and you have to say it was Rafa's buys that summer. He went for quantity and mediocre squad players instead of just one or two injections of real quality that we needed.

Even if we'd just got Alves and Bellamy that season and stuck with Morientes instead of wasting 10 million on Kuyt, I think we'd be in a much stronger position now, especially when you add Torres to the equation.

But Rafa just seemed to lose it and be in one all mighty rush to bulk up the squad, no doubt to fully implement his rotation system.

To be fair mate he didn't really have the money to get the real quality, Sevilla upped the price of Alves quite substancially hence the reason why we didn't get him.

Bellamy is a good player as is Morientes. I think Rafa wanted to keep Morientes but he'd become homesick from what I can remember and there's no point keeping someone who's heart isn't in it. As for Bellamy, I think it was his attitude that made Rafa get rid of him.

Personally I'd like to seen both of them given a bit more of opportunity, Bellamy more so than Morientes as he had/has so much potential. Him and Torres would be a fantastic partnership. He's made mistakes in the transfer market but it's his decision at the end of the day.

[Jesus]

He spent 23 million on Kuyt, Bellamy and Pennant. More than enough for what we really needed.

[AFII]

We allegedly had agreed a fee with Sevilla for Alves but they upped the price, we agreed that price and they upped the price again.

Nothing really you can do about it. They did the same thing against Chelsea. Del Nido won't sell if he don't get a fantasy price for Alves.

[Kenneth]

He spent 23 million on Kuyt, Bellamy and Pennant. More than enough for what we really needed.

I felt phsyically a bit sick when we signed Pennant. Such an enormous **** up of a signing from the start. As bad as anything Ged did. Couldn't care less about not getting his 1st choice etc, it was a **** up.

[Slinky Skills]

He spent 23 million on Kuyt, Bellamy and Pennant. More than enough for what we really needed.

Kuyt just needs to recover his confidence, Bellamy was a bit of a waste at the end of the day, it was a shame it didn't work out for him he could have been good for LFC. Pennant will improve over time, he's an out and out winger, someone we should be looking at keeping at the club.

I can see where you're coming from with regards to Alves but at the time Rafa obviously felt that the attacking side of the team needed strengthing more than the defence. He probably didn't want to fork out so much on one player knowing that he would have used up all of his transfer fund in one go.

I think we'll come back in for Alves in the summer, he had the opportunity to go to Chelsea and spurned it. He'll be a Liverpool player by the Summer I reckon.

[Jesus]

Kuyt just needs to recover his confidence, Bellamy was a bit of a waste at the end of the day, it was a shame it didn't work out for him he could have been good for LFC. Pennant will improve over time, he's an out and out winger, someone we should be looking at keeping at the club.

They're all decent players, but to stay with the other top sides or move ahead of them, we needed better than just decent.

I think he just tried to be too clever, thinking he could get the very best out of average players and a bigger squad That might have been the case had he stuck to a settled side and system. But that season was the one where he really started to over elaborate.

[Morph]

I felt phsyically a bit sick when we signed Pennant. Such an enormous **** up of a signing from the start. As bad as anything Ged did. Couldn't care less about not getting his 1st choice etc, it was a **** up.

overly dramatic don't you think, nowhere near the levels of diouf, diao, cheyrou, traore

maybe if you were going to try give him a level i;d say something like milan baros level of signing, not awful not good enough to be top class but certainly a decent enough player, don't see how you can say a **** up of a signing from the start when he was one of our best players second half of last season, and his first few games of this before he got injured he did pretty well - we don't half have some fickle fans

[Kenneth]

overly dramatic don't you think, nowhere near the levels of diouf, diao, cheyrou, traore

maybe if you were going to try give him a level i;d say something like milan baros level of signing, not awful not good enough to be top class but certainly a decent enough player, don't see how you can say a **** up of a signing from the start when he was one of our best players second half of last season, and his first few games of this before he got injured he did pretty well - we don't half have some fickle fans

Everybody was saying we need a RM. Everyone. We got taken for a ride for a player known to be average, with baggage, for a lot of money. None of the players you listed were known to not be good enough before we signed them. His form has been pretty decent recently when fit, and I don't knock him, but as a piece of business at the time we bought him, it was a **** up imo.

[Morph]

Everybody was saying we need a RM. Everyone. We got taken for a ride for a player known to be average, with baggage, for a lot of money. None of the players you listed were known to not be good enough before we signed them. His form has been pretty decent recently when fit, and I don't knock him, but as a piece of business at the time we bought him, it was a **** up imo.

i don't think there was much available at the time for the money rafa had to work with, to be fair i think he's performed above many fans expectations, i'd rather him on the right than probably most of the other options we have, in fact, i;d go as far as to say a fir pennat would be first choice on the right for me if stevie is in the middle

[vonk]

Anyone that thinks we require 100M to challenge Man Utd / Chelsea needs their head examined.

Our squad is clearly not that bad considering we can all identify a number of incidents of dropped points when our overall performance level has been poor, not a single individual. We've thrown points away this season with bad team selections and formations. Had we not done that we'd be about 5 points back probably and be musing over the fact all we need is 1-2 quality players and we're set.

Instead we're 12 points off the lead, with a game in hand true, but playing absolutely ****e football because the team has lost any kind of rhythm due to the manager's lack of direction.

I'm with you on this one completely. I refuse to believe that signing a couple of big name players is going to suddenly turn us into a side that plays attractive attacking football and restores the confidence of the players. There are teams in the championship that play better, more penetrating, football than us. We are only fourth because we have two world class players who keep getting us out of jail. Otherwise we play less effective football than Everton, Villa, Man City and Portsmouth. Without a complete change of tactics, attitude and player motivation a couple of 20m players is not going to get us close to the top three.

[Jesus]

If we need another 100 million to beat Wigan, City, Reading, Brum and Boro, we don't deserve to win anything.

[desertscouser]

There's a huge gulf in class between us and United. Today was a very depressing day for me.

FLMAO at the title.

[MerseyCider]

Stop using money as an excuse. Rafa has spent similar to the mancs over the last 5 seasons if you look at the net figures.

Were as far off as we ever were under Houiller. Get Mourinho in now, im sick of repeating myself after every bad result (which is getting very frequent).

[carlton]

There's a huge gulf in class between us and United. Today was a very depressing day for me.

FLMAO at the title.

I dont agree, its much,much bigger than a gulf. Just saw their 2nd half against the Toon. Wave after wave of attack, players supporting each other in numbers, pace, crisp passing, finishing etc, etc. Contrast that with our first half. Why is rafa not playing the attacking football he showed at Valencia?