lets be honest..chelsea are streets ahead of us

[gerbin11]

I'd say only Torres and Mascherano are guaranteed first teamers with Babel at a push.

Martin Škrtel 14 appearances in 1/3 of a season
Lucas Pezzini Leiva 18 appearances most towards the end of the season
Yossi Benayoun 31 appearances for Liverpool

I would say they are first team players.

[Woobus]

Not net no, but it was more than Manchester United did and people say they spent **** loads last year.



I work that lot out at £71.1m, we sold Garcia, Cisse, Bellamy, Gonzalez, Palleta, Sissoko for a combined £30m. (NET £41m)

Fregie has bought Anderson, Nani, Hargreaves and Kszciak for about £51m plus a £6m loan fee for Carlos Tevez.

They also sold Heinze, Smith, Rossi and Richardson for about £25m.

I think it was 2 million a year for Tevez and they are looking 32 million was it? So in realistic terms they added 81 million and sold 25 for 57 million net. So it looks like from the year before we are still about 10 million of the pace.

[Roboklopp]

Martin Škrtel 14 appearances in 1/3 of a season
Lucas Pezzini Leiva 18 appearances most towards the end of the season
Yossi Benayoun 31 appearances for Liverpool

I would say they are first team players.

Much as I understand & appreciate the thought & construction of your arguments mate, you'd be as well responding to Radish's posts simply with the ****** smiley for the good it will do you.

The "man" truly is a vegetable.

[gerbin11]

Much as I understand & appreciate the thought & construction of your arguments mate, you'd be as well responding to Radish's posts simply with the ****** smiley for the good it will do you.

The "man" truly is a vegetable.

I would be lowering myself to his level and although it is 20 storeys above that of a utd fan it is still too far below gutter level for me

[Roboklopp]

I would be lowering myself to his level and although it is 20 storeys above that of a utd fan it is still too far below gutter level for me

Fair play, altho I have tried it for nearly 10 years with him now & have long since lost such patience.

Also, I'd disagree with you on the Manc thing. I work with a few of them who are far more sensible & balanced about our club & manager than the Perez Hilton of Liverpool FC forums.

[gerbin11]

Fair play, altho I have tried it for nearly 10 years with him now & have long since lost such patience.

Also, I'd disagree with you on the Manc thing. I work with a few of them who are far more sensible & balanced about our club & manager than the Perez Hilton of Liverpool FC forums.

In reality I'm just trying to get my post count up by means of a little campaign against the destructive critisism briggade, I appreciate your support

[Exiled_red]

So let me get this straight we spent £71m on 9 players 6 of whom are first tea pmlayers and Utd spent £51m on youth players that they admitted were brought into first team action at least a season too early, a bench warming goal keeper and one first team player. There is the financial gap between us and them. Its great to see you supporting the problems Rafa has to confront Rashid.

Also if we are spending about the same amount as them then all we're doing is maintaining the gap, we have to spend more than them to close the gap

[El Jefecito]

The real measure of support for the manager is not the spend. It's how often you get your first choice.

Fergie would not have had to settle for Pennant, he would not have been outbid for Vidic, he would not have been told well yeah we have the money but you can't buy the player you want.

The money is only one of several factors which affect your ability to put together a squad. And to be fair on just about all fronts Rafa has been let down.

[Elvoz]

The real measure of support for the manager is not the spend. It's how often you get your first choice.

Fergie would not have had to settle for Pennant, he would not have been outbid for Vidic, he would not have been told well yeah we have the money but you can't buy the player you want.

The money is only one of several factors which affect your ability to put together a squad. And to be fair on just about all fronts Rafa has been let down.

tbf pal why did we buy pennant ? taggert wouldnt of
very few if any wanted him but of course as we are reminded rafa is a better judge

i will back rafa this season until we are out of the title race (if we ever are out) then i think it will be time for some very big and brave decisions to be made about our wonderful club

[Shanks]

Fergie would not have had to settle for Pennant, he would not have been outbid for Vidic, he would not have been told well yeah we have the money but you can't buy the player you want.

How do you know he hasn't.

The Mancs don't go public in the same way we didn't for all of those years.

You/We only know what the press tell us
unless you are a

[El Jefecito]

tbf pal why did we buy pennant ? taggert wouldnt of
very few if any wanted him but of course as we are reminded rafa is a better judge

i will back rafa this season until we are out of the title race (if we ever are out) then i think it will be time for some very big and brave decisions to be made about our wonderful club

I think he bought Pennant because a) he couldn't get Alves and b) he was an improvement on, and hence more likely to win us games, than Nunez.

Rafa is a pragmatist.

Sure, Fergie wouldn't have bought him. But then Fergie wouldn't have been in the position to choose between Nunez and JP.

[Sarb]

Should have saved £7m that he spent on him and put it towards a better signing in later seasons

[El Jefecito]

How do you know he hasn't.

The Mancs don't go public in the same way we didn't for all of those years.

You/We only know what the press tell us
unless you are a

True, and you may be right to an extent, but it is clear, and I am sure you will agree, that Rafa and Fergie are playing with a completely different rule book.

[El Jefecito]

Should have saved £7m that he spent on him and put it towards a better signing in later seasons

That was one option. Might not have made it to the CL final if we hadn't of upgraded the squad though and that would have cost us 30m.
7m would just have been used paying down the loans anyway

[Shanks]

True, and you may be right to an extent, but it is clear, and I am sure you will agree, that Rafa and Fergie are playing with a completely different rule book.

I hate the way our transfer dealings are out in the open.

Is it because we are after bigger targets?

People know we have more money because of the yanks
(but they don't want us to think they are loaded)

Rafa not being very apt in this dept as well as a breakdown in relations early on?