Minimum Requirements for 2008-2009

[Leyton388]

Challenge fir the League is priority this season. Could not give a toss about the CL this year.

We now have the team capable of mounting a real challenge this year as we now have the best strike force in the league and best spine. Plus with one or two more arrivals we will improve even further. Weather that is Barry still remains to be seen but i will be surprised if he is not here come the end of may.

Rafa has spent 4 years building this team and because we dont have the money of united or chelsea we cannot do it in 1 or 2 summers. Rafa now has HIS team and we are getting closer to the top. Just remember in 2005 when we finshed 32 point behind Chelsea and last season it was only 11 behind united and considering all the **** that happened last year was pretty good. If the **** had not have happened i believe we would have won the league last year.

[El Jefecito]

Apart from Fergie, who has taken longer in any big league in Europe these past 25 years?

Ian Dowie

[Rashid]

So it was a nonsense then? Nobody I can think of bar Ferguson has taken longer then 4 years to win the league in Italy, Spain of England these past 25 years.

[Parm]

Apart from Fergie, who has taken longer in any big league in Europe these past 25 years?

well look at inter, it took nigh on 20yrs, even more money ad for the match fixing scandal for thrm to win the title
Also it's been a whie since Ancellti won the league

[Rashid]

well look at inter, it took nigh on 20yrs, even more money ad for the match fixing scandal for thrm to win the title
Also it's been a whie since Ancellti won the league

These past 25 years from the moment they join, every manager (including Howard Wilkinson who took over a 2nd division side at the time) has won it within 4 years. So this needing 10 years or so thing is bollocks.

(except Ferguson)

[El Jefecito]

Times have changed. Or had you not noticed?

[Rashid]

Times have changed. Or had you not noticed?

So who in the last 8 years has taken longer? Even Rijkaard won it in his 2nd full season with a team that hadn't even qualified for the CL and had won nothing.... even being beaten by Houllier's Liverpool. This stuff about 5 years + time needed is a load of nonsense. If they don't do it within 4 or 5 years they never will mainly...

[Darth Marty]

Why are you back here then? Get booted from your other haunts or what? Or are the meds working again? Or not working whatever the case may be?

[El Jefecito]

So who in the last 8 years has taken longer? Even Rijkaard won it in his 2nd full season with a team that hadn't even qualified for the CL and had won nothing.... even being beaten by Houllier's Liverpool. This stuff about 5 years + time needed is a load of nonsense. If they don't do it within 4 or 5 years they never will mainly...

I was looking at it from a slightly different perspective.

How much did it cost Mourinho+Raneri to buy the squad which won the title in Jose's first year?

You can see where I am coming from, right?

[Rashid]

I was looking at it from a slightly different perspective.

How much did it cost Mourinho+Raneri to buy the squad which won the title in Jose's first year?

You can see where I am coming from, right?

How much did Wenger's squad in 1998 cost and how long did it take him to assemble it??

[Gazmo1]

How much did Wenger's squad in 1998 cost and how long did it take him to assemble it??

Do you thrive off abuse or do you just like trying to be controversial so you can be the centre of attention? Either way you look and sound like a total tool.

The landscape of football changed as the premier league formed and we got left behind. GH may have bridged a gap in performance but he was still miles away from where we needed to be in comparision to the quality and/or spending power of the opposition.

Cut to Rafa's times and you have a totally different landscape, you have Chelsea spending whatever it takes. No other Liverpool Manager, or PL manager, has had to deal with this kind of challenge. But Rafa has bought us the Champions League and consistant qualification on what amounts to, comparitively speaking, a shoestring budget.

Since the the 90's our squad got more and more average with no recognisable youth structure to bring on youngsters. Thus very few players have made it through in the this era. Those that have didn't form the basis of a team like United Nevilles, Giggs, Butt, Beckham etc. We got Owen, Carra, Macca, Fowler, Wright, Mellor, SG, Warnock all not at the same time and some obviously not good enough.

So tell me Rash without a barrel load of cash and needing to make the right calls with the budget Vs. player skills does it take to build from nothing adding quality and longevity AND keeping in the Top 4 and competitive in Europe????

If Rafa wasn't here you'd still be left players like Le Tallec, Diao, Cisse, Biscan, Cheyrou (embarassingly labled the new Zidane), Diouf etc. etc. Slowly he has starting building a sound foundation of players like Reina, Agger, Skrtle, Alonso (current form excepted). And when a player hasn;t been good enough he has bombed them out.

Rafa is far from perfect but asking for his head if we don't win the league when a football hasn't even been kicked this season is total bollocks. Out and out he has bought quality. Now he has been backed he is not buying 3 or 4 players for 18 million he is getting his targets. Surely even you can see the change in his buying patterns, and **** me, in some respects he is even balancing the books and reducing the net spend and looking after out best interests as a business.

Of course all this is obvious to any other supporters with the exception if a few who'd rather sack Rafa for being a total failure and scrap everything he has built in his time at the club.

Seriously, support the club and the Manager. How many times has he said he wants to win it for the fans?

[Elvoz]

i dont know much about this rashid kid but some of you just slagging him for the sake of it look absolute ******s
he makes some decent points tbf
such a shame everyone doesnt agree with every hing and want to give rafa pots of money and 20 years to win the league but cest la vie
i will await my slating

[El Jefecito]

How much did Wenger's squad in 1998 cost and how long did it take him to assemble it??

Is that the Wenger that has won less than Rafa in this new era I allude to? Even though he started with an epl winning team?

[Rashid]

Gazmo - Rafa has spent more NET than Wenger and Ferguson since he arrived here. We have had money to spend no doubt about it. Manchester managed to overhaul Chelsea spending less money - indeed they won the league after trading Nistellroy for Carrick so what is all this **** about landscape? It seems every excuse is trotted out in defence of Rafa.

As for Wenger v Rafa these past four years, Wenger has won **** all but got to a CL final and won an FA Cup on a near enough NET profit budget. Why do we mention money on Rafa's defence but forget in Wenger's?

League title challenge this season or he should not get a new contract and we should look at our options. You might also notice that I don't expect him to WIN the league, my expectations is for him to challenge for it - well once in 5 years for a club our size surely?

His NET spend in his time here has been higher then Arsenal and Manchester United but TEAMS net spend if probably far lower so he has in fairness had to create a team to fight them starting off with a **** base. The issues some of us have is this "Rafa has no money and has shopped in the bargain basement". Now unless you want an Abramovich (which many of you have said you don't) - then competing with United money wise in the time he has been here is pretty fair.

My issues are that he could have kept some of the Houllier players as squad players and improved the first team then slowly shifted out the ****e. e.g. I'd have kept Cisse than buy Benayoun, Voronin, or even Pennant given the system he wants to play - as he is quick, scores goals and loves it here. Kuyt doesn't apply here as he was bought as a frontline striker. Once we had the money to get a top class right handsided player then sell Cisse and buy one with the extra cash. I am not saying Cisse is good enough but some of those who have played in his position have not been significantly better.

Anyway he hasn't done that, he has done it his way, he admits the squad is now equipped so we can expect a title challenge at last. I find that article is like a post on TLW forums by Rafa and fair play to him - it's a good post!

[Roboklopp]

Rash, you seem like a an intelligent lad, so even if rafa has outspend the Gooners/Scum, why is it so difficult to understand that when you're miles off the pace & going backwards (as we were for the last 2 years of GH), it takes a hell of a lot of time, money,mistakes & patience to catch those teams above you, particularly when 2 of those teams have improved immeasurably.