In defence of Rafa.....gulp...

[Craig_H]

Didn't say you were being hostile, just your insinuations, anyways, lets forget and move on, the old hang over not shifting.

Maybe your interpretations of my posts were mistaken. Happy to move on, safe in the knowledge that i have no 'axe to grind' or any other bizarre musings.

[Pacman]

No need to defend Rafa he did nothing wrong.

At the end of the day Chelsea made less mistakes than us.

On another day it could have been different - It was just there time.

We will be back WITH Rafa.

[Manofthebog]

Maybe your interpretations of my posts were mistaken. Happy to move on, safe in the knowledge that i have no 'axe to grind' or any other bizarre musings.

whatever.

[Dalglish]

There's no point in people banging on about how they're so much better funded than us then.

Not the point I'm making. The funding is obvious. What I am saying is that no-one, not even you, knows exactly what any club has spent in the, to borrow your own ****e phrase, PL era.

It's all speculation yet you trot out teh same lines every sodding day as if they were fact.

And as for your patying the night away line up there, just stop it.

[Kenneth]

So, at the 3rd time of asking, the most expensively assembled squad in history manages to knock us out of a CL semi-final in extra time, and still needed an OG, offside goal & for us to have a blatant pen on Sami disallowed to do so. They’ve had a ridiculous amount of luck. On the way there we beat the Italian Champions & “best footballing team in Europe” TM & recorded the biggest ever victory in the competition’s history, I don’t even need mention the last 3 CL campaigns.

Don’t give me this rubbish about GH’s record being the same as Rafa’s in the Prem. It is no coincidence that English teams have begun to dominate Europe since Rafa took over- the benchmark in the league has been moved sky-high since the Chavscum revolution. We have had to improve massively to stand still. We’ve struggled a bit domestically this season, but then have had unprecedented off the field bollocks to cope with.

Despite the result, last night’s performance by the team and manager made me proud once again. So much so that I am immune to any winding up the Mancs here will give me- cos I know we were unlucky & so do they.

Then our “fans” have the nerve to slate Rafa. Gimme a ****ing break

We fooked our league season before the off pitch bollocks started.

We have reached the end of the season, perspectives change from current form, last result, to the season as a whole. People aren't necessarily reacting to the Chelsea game, rather the fact that our seaon is finished.

[zimbo]

Who has 'slated' rafa? Is it not possible to suggest that he got something wrong, without it being a 'slating' ?

I hope it is. I thought he he made a number of fundamental errors last night, just as he has before in games against the other top 4 teams. Lack of flexibility in the system, no width, failure to change approach by chucking Crouch on so giving Terry and Carvlho a different challenge, to name but a few.

But I still think he's the right man for the job and would be devastated if he left. I don't think that makes me a hypocrite.

[Craig_H]

Not the point I'm making. The funding is obvious. What I am saying is that no-one, not even you, knows exactly what any club has spent in the, to borrow your own ****e phrase, PL era.

It's all speculation yet you trot out teh same lines every sodding day as if they were fact.

And as for your patying the night away line up there, just stop it.

I dont know why you're making an issue of not much at all. Just as there's enough reported for us to conclude that Chelsea have spent £350m or thereabouts on players, there's enough reported to validly argue that we've spent a very similar amount to the mancs over the period since 1992.

Let's just leave it, i dont have the inclination to bother with you anymore.

[Scratch]

There's about £10m in it.

You keep saying this, there's about £10 million in it business.

Could you provide a link to the thread where you got this info from? And if it's for the entire PL era, then that doesn't reflect fairly on Rafa. I'd be more interested in last four years, where Rafa has basically rebuilt a squad, bar the exceptions of a few select players that he deemed good enough.

[BFG]

Has anyone seen Phil McNulty's article on the BBC btw?

Basically we lost the semi because Rafa motivated Drogba to play well by calling him a diver.

[Roboklopp]

We fooked our league season before the off pitch bollocks started.
We have reached the end of the season, perspectives change from current form, last result, to the season as a whole. People aren't necessarily reacting to the Chelsea game, rather the fact that our seaon is finished.

Just not true.

[Dalglish]

I

Let's just leave it, i dont have the inclination to bother with you anymore.

[el matador]

the simple fact is that rafa has never had the money available to sustain a title challenge when several of our players arent good enough for the highest level (bar this season and then he bought babel, torres, masher and skrtel)

Yes you can say that he bought the players but when you have to buy a striker, a winger and a defender for a total budget of £20m then what do you expect to get - player of the ilk of kuyt, pennant and arbeloa.

Dont forget rafa has raised a lot of money through 3 successful champions league campaigns.

You need 15 or 16 very good players to win the league and as things stand we dont have anywhere near that. At best we might have 8 or 9 (reina, carra, skrtel, agger, gerrard, alonso, masher, torres). What we are tragically missing is a decent creative player from the wings. This is what should be addresses this summer at the very least.

Rafa has turned us into one of the most respected and feared clubs in europe and no-one wants to play us. If rafa stays there is a lot to look forward to.

[Kenneth]

Just not true.

Klinsman stuff came out middle of december.

I make it:

Draw at home to chelsea
Draw with Pompey
Home draw vs Birmingham
Home draw vs Spurs
Home draw with Arsenal
Draw with Blackburn
Home loss to Man Utd

Before it kicked off.

[Kenneth]

the simple fact is that rafa has never had the money available to sustain a title challenge when several of our players arent good enough for the highest level (bar this season and then he bought babel, torres, masher and skrtel)

Yes you can say that he bought the players but when you have to buy a striker, a winger and a defender for a total budget of £20m then what do you expect to get - player of the ilk of kuyt, pennant and arbeloa.

Dont forget rafa has raised a lot of money through 3 successful champions league campaigns.

You need 15 or 16 very good players to win the league and as things stand we dont have anywhere near that. At best we might have 8 or 9 (reina, carra, skrtel, agger, gerrard, alonso, masher, torres). What we are tragically missing is a decent creative player from the wings. This is what should be addresses this summer at the very least.

Rafa has turned us into one of the most respected and feared clubs in europe and no-one wants to play us. If rafa stays there is a lot to look forward to.

I'm sure the mancs did.

[Craig_H]

Has anyone seen Phil McNulty's article on the BBC btw?

Basically we lost the semi because Rafa motivated Drogba to play well by calling him a diver.

I dont think it helped, TBH. You take your chances when you play the mind games and sometimes it works, other times not.