Rafa has REALLY got under Ferguson's skin!

[tsb]

He's cracking up,
He's cracking up,
He's cracking,
Fergies cracking up

[Tee]

He's cracking up,
He's cracking up,
He's cracking,
Fergies cracking up

[lucas]

And the £30m spent on Veron and Berbatov ....

And the £50M plus spent on squad players Nani, Anderson & Hargreaves!

[Craig_H]

And the £30m spent on Veron and Berbatov ....

He's talking about the last 5 years, so Veron wouldnt come into it.

Since Rafa's been at LFC, we HAVE spent more than them, that's there in black and white. What this means, is more debatable however.

[Shaggy]

We've spent roughly the same, give or take a few quid - but as you say this doesn't tell anything like the full story. Benitez has had to build virtually an entire squad on this budget, while that bitter purple-nosed cunt has just been flowering up an already expensively-assembled and successful squad.

[Craig_H]

We've spent roughly the same, give or take a few quid - but as you say this doesn't tell anything like the full story. Benitez has had to build virtually an entire squad on this budget, while that bitter purple-nosed cunt has just been flowering up an already expensively-assembled and successful squad.

Clearly Ferguson already had a successful squad when Rafa came to Liverpool, so only had to tweak it and replace the odd ageing/failing player here or there.

Rafa's spent more in that time, but obviously had more to do in order to develop his squad than Ferguson did. It stands to reason that he had more to do, so needed to spend big. Whether, after all that spending, we have as much to show for it as we should, is another debate.

[Carras_Shin_Pads]

ohhh whiskey nose, what are you like!

[Vermilion]

We've spent roughly the same, give or take a few quid - but as you say this doesn't tell anything like the full story. Benitez has had to build virtually an entire squad on this budget, while that bitter purple-nosed cunt has just been flowering up an already expensively-assembled and successful squad.

Exactly. And that advantage/head start shouldn't be underestimated. .

[Guest]

He's talking about the last 5 years, so Veron wouldnt come into it.

Since Rafa's been at LFC, we HAVE spent more than them, that's there in black and white. What this means, is more debatable however.

I don't care about the last 5 years or not just that he spent £30m on Veron which failed miserably, yet he still got away with it.

Rafa couldn't put whatever money Sevilla were asking for Alves at the time, same could be said about David Villa, Silva etc ... who he was after apparently, whereas Fergie barely had to bat an eyelid to sign players such as Berbatov, Rooney, Nani, Anderson etc ... All of whom cost on average £25m.

Rafa has had to buy squad players to fill the depth of the squad then bought 2 or 3 quality players, such as Garcia, Alonso, Arbeloa, Agger etc ... and that for much much less, meaning his forays into the transfer market have been better than Fergie.

[Craig_H]

I don't care about the last 5 years or not just that he spent £30m on Veron which failed miserably, yet he still got away with it.

Rafa couldn't put whatever money Sevilla were asking for Alves at the time, same could be said about David Villa, Silva etc ... who he was after apparently, whereas Fergie barely had to bat an eyelid to sign players such as Berbatov, Rooney, Nani, Anderson etc ... All of whom cost on average £25m.

Rafa has had to buy squad players to fill the depth of the squad then bought 2 or 3 quality players, such as Garcia, Alonso, Arbeloa, Agger etc ... and that for much much less, meaning his forays into the transfer market have been better than Fergie.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'he still got away with it' - what do you want to happen to him? Should he have got arrested for it?

During Rafa's reign he HAS spent MORE than Ferguson - that's a simple fact fredo. So Rafa COULD have signed Alves if he hadnt spent the money elsewhere - the money WAS available but it was spent on more (lesser quality) players. Whether Rafa HAD to do that or not, is another debate. But to suggest Rafa couldnt sign expensive players, when he's spent more than Ferguson in the last 5 years, is incorrect.

Whether his forays into the market have been better or not is a matter of opinion, but Ferguson has several PL trophies to back up his argument.

[Guest]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'he still got away with it' - what do you want to happen to him? Should he have got arrested for it?

During Rafa's reign he HAS spent MORE than Ferguson - that's a simple fact fredo. So Rafa COULD have signed Alves if he hadnt spent the money elsewhere - the money WAS available but it was spent on more (lesser quality) players. Whether Rafa HAD to do that or not, is another debate. But to suggest Rafa couldnt sign expensive players, when he's spent more than Ferguson in the last 5 years, is incorrect.

Whether his forays into the market have been better or not is a matter of opinion, but Ferguson has several PL trophies to back up his argument.

Simply because Rafa have had to increase the depth of his squad and he was much farer quality wise when he arrived, as United were on top.

As for Alves, saying that the money was there, well he needed to cover other positions. If he bought Alves, that would have been his only signing.

For a FACT, Rafa never had the money to buy one player costing £30m, his net spend never exceeded £20m.

[Tee]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'he still got away with it' - what do you want to happen to him? Should he have got arrested for it?

During Rafa's reign he HAS spent MORE than Ferguson - that's a simple fact fredo. So Rafa COULD have signed Alves if he hadnt spent the money elsewhere - the money WAS available but it was spent on more (lesser quality) players. Whether Rafa HAD to do that or not, is another debate. But to suggest Rafa couldnt sign expensive players, when he's spent more than Ferguson in the last 5 years, is incorrect.

Whether his forays into the market have been better or not is a matter of opinion, but Ferguson has several PL trophies to back up his argument.

Clearly you will never understand Rafa's concept of building and improving the squad he inherited.

Without any doubt at all we have a far far far superior squad to that in 2004. FACT.

Rafa could have spunked 12-15m on Alves back in the day, but he thought (quite rightly IMO) that he could not sacrifice such a large chunk of his budget on 1 player when several areas of teh squad needed strengthening.

Why can't you accept this rather than try and use it as another rod to beat Rafa with?

Fergie is talking a load of ****e and to even try and compare financial resources made available to both Managers is just not on IMO. Rafa has always had to sell in order to raise money to supplement his transfer budget - Fergie never ever has. End of argument.

[Craig_H]

Simply because Rafa have had to increase the depth of his squad and he was much farer quality wise when he arrived, as United were on top.

As for Alves, saying that the money was there, well he needed to cover other positions. If he bought Alves, that would have been his only signing.

The bits i've highlighted in bold, are merely speculative. You say he 'had to' increase the depth of the squad and that it was poor quality - i say some of those brought in to fill up the squad, werent much better than those they replaced.

And you dont know if Alves would have been his only signing - speculative, again.

For a FACT, Rafa never had the money to buy one player costing £30m, his net spend never exceeded £20m.

That's not a fact at all. He had the money and preferred to sign more players with that money - maybe he needed to do that, maybe not. It's down to opinion.

But the 'fact' is that he did have the money to buy a £30m player if he'd chosen to.

[Guest]

The bits i've highlighted in bold, are merely speculative. You say he 'had to' increase the depth of the squad and that it was poor quality - i say some of those brought in to fill up the squad, werent much better than those they replaced.

And you dont know if Alves would have been his only signing - speculative, again.



That's not a fact at all. He had the money and preferred to sign more players with that money - maybe he needed to do that, maybe not. It's down to opinion.

But the 'fact' is that he did have the money to buy a £30m player if he'd chosen to.

He never had more than £20m or so net to spend during a whole season. Speculative or not, clubs don't splash that much money in one go anymore, it's paid out on installments.

Even then, he bought Torres for £19m, which for me is undoubtedly one of the best transfer coups of all time. Rafa

[Craig_H]

Clearly you will never understand Rafa's concept of building and improving the squad he inherited.

That's not true, i understand it fully. I'm less convinced that some of those brought in to replace the 'deadwood' were a huge improvement, however.

Without any doubt at all we have a far far far superior squad to that in 2004. FACT.

Totally agree.

Rafa could have spunked 12-15m on Alves back in the day, but he thought (quite rightly IMO) that he could not sacrifice such a large chunk of his budget on 1 player when several areas of teh squad needed strengthening.

Why can't you accept this rather than try and use it as another rod to beat Rafa with?

Not beating him with anything. I agree that a lot of dead wood was there when he arrived and he needed to improve the quality. He has done that, but for the money he spent doing it, i feel that some of those who came in as replacements cost far more than they should have and that we might've found ourselves with more quality in the squad, for the money we spent on it.

Fergie is talking a load of ****e and to even try and compare financial resources made available to both Managers is just not on IMO. Rafa has always had to sell in order to raise money to supplement his transfer budget - Fergie never ever has. End of argument.

Ferguson said that in Rafa's 5 years, Liverpool have spent more than United have - and that's actually true. It's certainly true that Liverpool's squad needed far more work than United's, which was virtually complete, while ours was far further back in terms of development. I'm not doubting that, of course Rafa had far more work to do with his squad in 2004 than Ferguson had with his.

You can argue the relevance of Ferguson's point and i would join you in making that point. You cant dispute what he's said though, because it's actually true. He's conveniently dismissed the fact that Rafa had to make far bigger changes to Liverpool's squad than Ferguson needed to make to United's, that's for sure.