Rafa

[vlahka]

At least we wont be hearing any moans about our drawing games this time.

[Fan65]

Chelsea have Drogba and Anelka
United have Owen, Rooney and bebetov
City have Tevez, Adebayor, Bellamy, Santa cruz, Robinho

We have Torres, Ngog

Chelsea have Drogba and Anelka £39 Million (drogba 5 years ago !)
Rooney & Berbatov £56 million (rooney 5 years ago)
Tevez, Adebayor, Bellamy, Santa cruz, Robinho £135 million

Torres £20 million record signing for LFC , Ngog £peanuts

Rafa has no money to compete in the football auction the fact he signed Torres was a master stroke.

[vlahka]

You know it would be all well and good if all this money talk affected us in losing against those higher opposition teams, but we're losing to teams who have a lower transfer budget then us. I think thats what alot of people keep ignoring.

[Darth Marty]

You know it would be all well and good if all this money talk affected us in losing against those higher opposition teams, but we're losing to teams who have a lower transfer budget then us. I think thats what alot of people keep ignoring.

As do Man u, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs every year, hell when you are top 4 or 5 you are going to lose against lower opposition as most of them are!

Its the standing at the end of the season that counts and every year without fail since Rafa turned up we have finished top 5 (or was it 6th the year we won the cl?) anyway I would say given our financial and stadia situation thats exactly where we should be.

Not where I want to be may I add, just where we should be.

[Joe King]

Benitez has to take some accountability for this seasons failings. Far too many times in the past has he hid behind the owners and with full transfer control, he spent £18m on a right back and £20m on a half fit Italian with some very inferior players still not moved on.

[Darth Marty]

With some very inferior players still not moved on.

Hmm, wasnt this because even had we sold them we wouldnt have had any of the cash to replace them? So, a choice, Dossena or nobody? Voronin or nobody? Babel, **** that, the arguement fails with him...

But you get the point.

[Exiled_red]

Benitez has to take some accountability for this seasons failings. Far too many times in the past has he hid behind the owners and with full transfer control, he spent £18m on a right back and £20m on a half fit Italian with some very inferior players still not moved on.

I agree he has to take some of the blame, but the Aquilani situation we believed would have only kept him out a short time and we should have been able to manage that time with what we had. I don't understand the critisism of the Aquilani transfer at present, if we are spending that sort of money we want someone who will be around for 5 years not just half a season. If we'd not signed him and gone for an inferior player who wasn't a success, people would have been critisising Rafa for not signing Aquilani and waiting for him to get fit.

I agree that £18m is alot of money on a right back, but unless you can pick up a bargin (like we did with Arbeloa) for a quality full back these days you're probably expected to pay ~£12m+ I think there was a bit of a premium on the fee because he's English. Again though this is one of the things Rafa has been critisised on here for before, that is signing 'squad players' rather than going all out to get the best player we can for that position. With Johnson I believe we've done that he was the best player available in that position.

I agree other areas need strengthening but I believe something happened to the transfer budget in the middle of the summer i.e. some of it was taken back by the owners (for whatever reason)

[Joe King]

With some very inferior players still not moved on.

Hmm, wasnt this because even had we sold them we wouldnt have had any of the cash to replace them? So, a choice, Dossena or nobody? Voronin or nobody? Babel, **** that, the arguement fails with him...

But you get the point.

We have two other left backs so selling Dossena was more than a viable option. Voronin or N'Gog?

[Bender]

Ronnie Whelan has his say:
______________________________________
Ronnie Whelan launched a sensational attack on Rafael Benitez on RTÉ television last night, suggesting that the Liverpool manager has already given up on the Premier League title and that his days are numbered at Anfield.

Speaking on RTÉ's Premier Soccer Saturday, Whelan was reacting to his former club Liverpool's 3-1 defeat to Fulham.

Asked by presenter Darragh Maloney what had gone wrong at Craven Cottage, Whelan replied: 'It's all gone wrong with the manager. He's shown exactly today where his priorities lie.'

The former Ireland midfielder went on to suggest that Benitez is already thinking of his next job.

'He wants to win the European Cup. He wants to be the man who wins the European Cup so he can get a job anywhere in Europe. I think after winning the European Cup with Liverpool he will get a job in Europe anyway but, for me, now, his days have got to be numbered at Liverpool.'

Whelan reckoned that the team selected by Benitez to face Fulham on Saturday was not strong enough to get a result at Craven Cottage and that he could not understand the Spanish manager's motivations.

'Why after such a great result against Manchester United, do you want to take a huge step backwards after losing to Arsenal in the Carling Cup as well? I don't see where he's coming from now.

'He showed me today that he wants to win the Champions League and that's all he cares about - because of the team he picked today.'

Maloney then asked if Whelan believed that Benitez had given up on the title race already.

'When I saw the team I thought that straight away. He's not really bothered now. And I can't see why he's done it.

'He's taken players off who are the only players who are going to give you a chance of winning the game. And he drags them all off because he's got a game on Wednesday.'

Whelan also condemned Benitez for prioritising European success over domestic results, especially given Liverpool's precarious grip on staying in the Champions League.

'He's putting all his eggs in one basket. If he loses in Lyon, he probably won't qualify for the Champions League for the knockout stages. So, he's out of the Champions League; he's not going to win the Premiership anyway - so he's messed up completely.'

Liverpool travel to Lyon on Wednesday for a vital Champions League tie knowing that anything less than a win would make qualification for the knock-out stages unlikely.

[Joe King]

I agree he has to take some of the blame, but the Aquilani situation we believed would have only kept him out a short time and we should have been able to manage that time with what we had. I don't understand the critisism of the Aquilani transfer at present, if we are spending that sort of money we want someone who will be around for 5 years not just half a season. If we'd not signed him and gone for an inferior player who wasn't a success, people would have been critisising Rafa for not signing Aquilani and waiting for him to get fit.

I agree that £18m is alot of money on a right back, but unless you can pick up a bargin (like we did with Arbeloa) for a quality full back these days you're probably expected to pay ~£12m+ I think there was a bit of a premium on the fee because he's English. Again though this is one of the things Rafa has been critisised on here for before, that is signing 'squad players' rather than going all out to get the best player we can for that position. With Johnson I believe we've done that he was the best player available in that position.

I agree other areas need strengthening but I believe something happened to the transfer budget in the middle of the summer i.e. some of it was taken back by the owners (for whatever reason)

Aquilani is a good player but £20m for a player who is injured for nearly half the season? It's a bit too much, isn't it?

I understand the premium but £18m premium? Rafa has total control over player purchases and still overpaid for a right back. Wasn't that one of the things he criticised Parry for?

[Exiled_red]

Aquilani is a good player but £20m for a player who is injured for nearly half the season? It's a bit too much, isn't it?

I understand the premium but £18m premium? Rafa has total control over player purchases and still overpaid for a right back. Wasn't that one of the things he criticised Parry for?

We'll have to see how the Aquilani signing works out, but if we had waited until he were fully fit he'd probably have cost more, he'd probably have cost more if he'd recovered from injury before we signed him. We have to sign the best players we can in for the long term, We want Aquilani to be a good player for us for the next 5 (or more) years, if he's the player that we believe will work best in our system, the fact he's injured and will miss 8 weeks or so should be considered a minor inconvenience (in the long term), we should have been able to cope better without him than we have been doing!

The premium we paid is IMO ~£4-5m. Any other right back of his quaility would probably be going for around that figure if they were available, there aren't many available we went for him because he was the best available, which was the right more IMO. People have been complaining that the problem previously was that we weren't prepared to pay that little bit extra to get the player we wanted (think Alves, Simao etc) this time we did

[Joe King]

We'll have to see how the Aquilani signing works out, but if we had waited until he were fully fit he'd probably have cost more, he'd probably have cost more if he'd recovered from injury before we signed him. We have to sign the best players we can in for the long term, We want Aquilani to be a good player for us for the next 5 (or more) years, if he's the player that we believe will work best in our system, the fact he's injured and will miss 8 weeks or so should be considered a minor inconvenience (in the long term), we should have been able to cope better without him than we have been doing!

The premium we paid is IMO ~£4-5m. Any other right back of his quaility would probably be going for around that figure if they were available, there aren't many available we went for him because he was the best available, which was the right more IMO. People have been complaining that the problem previously was that we weren't prepared to pay that little bit extra to get the player we wanted (think Alves, Simao etc) this time we did

This was the season Liverpool were meant to stake a claim in the Premiership. With the player who has replaced Alonso being injured for a third of the season, it doesn't help with the short term success, nor the long term (financial knock ons etc)

£4-5m we seriously don't have. Had Liverpool sold more players and brought in more money for Rafa to spend, the 18m doesn't look as bad but Rafa hasn't done so. The strength in depth - I hate that term - looks fairly bleak.

[red g]

i thought the yanks wnet back on there cash promises.......i am am not sure he would have spent 18million on a right back if he thought that was all the money we were going to get.

[fah-q]

11 games isn't half a season really

[FatTony]

We'll have to see how the Aquilani signing works out, but if we had waited until he were fully fit he'd probably have cost more, he'd probably have cost more if he'd recovered from injury before we signed him. We have to sign the best players we can in for the long term, We want Aquilani to be a good player for us for the next 5 (or more) years, if he's the player that we believe will work best in our system, the fact he's injured and will miss 8 weeks or so should be considered a minor inconvenience (in the long term), we should have been able to cope better without him than we have been doing!

Isn't that pretty much what Rafa came out with the other week?

So what happens then if we're out of the CL in the next few weeks and fail to qualify for next seasons? If this happens the purse strings will be tighter and we'll find it even more difficult to break back into the top 4 as we'll need to strengthen the squad with a smaller budget and with players attracted by the europa league....Torres, Gerrard, Mascherano and Aquilani won't hang about here if we're not playing in the CL.

It won't be much of a longterm move then will it?