Rafa

[The Birdman]

So we have Gerrard, Johnson, Reira, Kelly, Agger, Skrtel, Ngog, Aurellio injured, Torres on 1 leg and Aquilani ill.
We haven't had all of those players to choose from at the same time at any stage all season.
Yes we're all pissed off but if Man U were without Scholes, Brown, Giggs, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Owen and Evra and had Rooney only half fit and had Carrick ill they would also struggle.
Yes they would cope better but this is a side that spent 18m on 2 young Serbian (I think) players last year and one of them can't get in their reserves and they have far greater resources than us to be able to compensate.

[Roboklopp]

The lack of reasoning, short-termism & loyalty of some of our "fans" is almost as depressing as results on the pitch.

[Exiled_red]

The lack of reasoning, short-termism & loyalty of some of our "fans" is almost as depressing as results on the pitch.

[barnes10]

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?

you must be joking.

thie figure rises to 20 mill and clearly, its about replacing alonso with quality not an emergency fix when with gerrard fit and benayoun playing well, we should be able to cope. didnt pan out like that did it. torres & gerrard not fit, defence in disarray/carragher not leading it and lucas/masher hit n miss. clearly disruptive...

johnson. Well if he's a 12 mill player and the premium is 6 mill. then what do we do? pay it or struggle with the wrong player. that 6 mill, if he's here for 6 years means a mill extra a season to not worry about the right back slot nor the foreign quota. im not really that bothered about this transfer as the point is we're getting the right player. the issue with parry is that he never would push the boat out for the right player and we ended up with lesser quality. this im glad is being rectified. anyway, we did well to shaft real for alonso since we'd have taken 12 mill less for him the season before. swings and roundabouts.

[Guest]

Criticism of Rafa understandable but uncalled for IMO. Everything that we've been debating in this thread has been done to death. There's nothing new here and time and again his bashers will rehash the same tripe.

[DannyMan2006]

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?

Rafa gambled on a pairing of Lucas and Masch keeping us in the race. Due to other problems at the club like injuries and off form players the gamble has not paid off yet. We'll have to see if Aquilani has a massive impact on our team for the rest of the season. After the Arsenal game the signs are that he could.

Johhson was over priced, but you get what you pay for. Chelsea and City were equally happy to match our offer until Johnson made it clear we were the club he wanted to join. If we didn't pay it he would not have signed.

That said, if Rafa knew the actual budget from the start I think he may have done things differently. there is no doubt in my mind he had the rug pulled from under his feet. I seem to remember us being in the running for Tevez. What happened to that cash?

[Roboklopp]

he asked for it,he got what he wanted in the summer and hasnt delivered .period

Why are you having "periods"? Are you a yank or just I'll-educated as well as poorly informed? Or is it reflective if your PMT like lack of rationality?

[Shaggy]

Why are you having "periods"? Are you a yank or just I'll-educated as well as poorly informed? Or is it reflective if your PMT like lack of rationality?

[Roboklopp]

You try typing on your iPhone whilst finishing off a dump mate. Auto spell check anyway that.

[YNWA_IRE]

Great article from f365 defending Rafa

Haven't seen this posted anywhere else so forgive me if it has already, thought it was a great article outlining what a superb job Rafa has done and why he shouldn't be sacked...

So Rafa Benitez reckons he doesn't have to win trophies this year. Have you finished laughing yet? Surely football is all about winning things; it's a tiresome mantra we hear all too often. Sadly, for his critics, Benitez is absolutely correct. His idiot employers may not agree but let's forget all the wind and pish and look at some facts.

If I was to ask most neutrals who was the most successful manager - Benitez or Arsene Wenger, I'd guess most would say Wenger. It sounds right doesn't it? Arsenal play magnificent football, Wenger is erudite, has a clear vision for the club and consistently develops startlingly good talent. Liverpool have just lost at Fulham. Arsenal seem miles ahead. But look at the facts.

If you put Rafa's Premier League record up against Wenger's since his arrival in 2004, Benitez is simply more successful if, and it's a crucial if, you judge success by trophies and league positions.

In his five years at the club he has won the Champions League, the FA Cup and the Super Cup. He has taken Liverpool to a higher league finish than Arsenal three times out of five. In those same five years Arsene Wenger has won just one FA Cup.

They've both been runners-up in the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup once since 2004/05.

It's close but in the five seasons Wenger and Benitez have competed against each other, the Spaniard is, by this measure, ahead of Wenger. So not that bad then. Are Arsenal about to sack Wenger? Of course not.

Only the criminally stupid would consider Wenger a failure. So why does Rafa attract such prolonged criticism when the man he has outperformed in the past five seasons rightly gets very little?

This is partly because Wenger has built capital with three league titles and four FA Cups since his arrival, but in the current climate of short-termism and collective amnesia, that counts for less and less. Mostly, it's because Arsenal have played some simply sublime football even when not winning anything, for which Wenger is rightly lauded.

More damaging to Benitez' cause is the accusation that his sides are too cautious, and simply don't play good enough football. Perhaps if they were playing like Arsenal and achieving the same results, his critics would back off. But that's unrealistic. Wenger has been in situ for eight years longer and built the club in his own image against a largely stable background. Benitez has not had that luxury and yet has still done better than Arsenal in his tenure.

People say he is cold, prickly, and even arrogant and doesn't man-manage well. Without being on the inside, it's impossible to say, however, even if it's true, let me state again, it's delivered better results than Wenger's supposedly superior methods in this period.

Surely, given Wenger's well-deserved stellar reputation, this should be a cause for celebration amongst Liverpool fans and should shut up his critics.

They constantly snipe at his managerial style, his transfer records and his tactics in a way that no-one would dream of doing about Wenger but once again, I say look at the results. They might not always have played more attractive football but they have finished higher more often and won more trophies. And on the cheap, he has brought the finest striker of his generation to the club in Torres. Let's also not forget Liverpool were a massive 14 points better than Arsenal last year.

Without going over the behind-the-scenes machinations again - I wrote enough about them a couple of weeks ago - Benitez has out-performed Wenger against a background of doubt and uncertainty. It's only eight weeks until the transfer window opens and he still hasn't a clue if any money will be available to him. So he can't plan ahead with any detail. That's no way to run a business.

People who say he should be doing better forget that Liverpool are trying to over-throw a couple of football behemoths in Manchester United and Chelsea; clubs with exceptional resources in Chelsea's case and exceptional pedigree and pulling power in United's.

This is a humongous task.

Over-hauling Chelsea last season was an exceptional achievement and not getting past United is a failure every club has experienced for 11 out of the last 17 seasons. They are simply an awesome organisation led by an extraordinary man in Ferguson. You can't just overthrow them that easily. Chelsea threw over £500 million and six managers at it and only managed to do it twice. I mean, let's get a perspective here.

Wenger is rightly acclaimed as a managerial genius but even he has only won three league titles in 13 years and two of those were achieved before the Abramovitch money transformed Chelsea. This is the size of Benitez' task.

The fact is progress can't always be made in a smooth, straight line, especially when there is so much turmoil at the club. The road to victory can be a bumpy one.

All the Benitez haters who want to see the back of him should realise that he has constructed a formidable power base at the club. All his men are in place in all the key staffing positions. He has almost certainly got a prohibitively expensive pay-out clause in his contract should he be sacked and he signed an extension to 2014 in March.

Unless he wants to, it's unlikely that he's going anywhere soon, regardless of this season's results. Getting rid of him would involve a revolution at the club which no-one can be certain would turn out positively. Indeed, things could get much, much worse. Imagine if rather than under-achieving, Rafa has over-achieved so far, given the circumstances he's worked in. His critics need to consider that as a real possibility. This is one tough, some would say impossible, gig he's playing.

And anyway, no top-class manager would want his job - working under a couple of comedians like Hicks and Gillett and constantly being on the verge of financial meltdown.

Until the club is sold, stabilised and resources delivered, Liverpool is a poisoned chalice. Forget all this Jose Mourinho nonsense, you can't afford him and he wouldn't touch the club in its present state - he's far too canny an operator.

This season might turn out to be a poor one by Rafa's standards. So be it. Everyone should be allowed an occasional poor season.

When Arsenal has a dip in form, it's called a 'transitional' season. But at Liverpool, it's called a crisis. All concerned need the kind of patience and understanding assigned to Wenger.

The size of Liverpool's task - to win the league - is being radically under-estimated by his fiercest opponents. Contrary to popular belief, Benitez isn't a failure at Liverpool, on the contrary, he's already achieved so much. Sacking him now wouldn't be surprising - but it would be an act of monumental stupidity.

[BobTheCharmer]

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?

He's been out for 3 months. Season ends in May. Then there's the season after that and the season after that. What we've bought is a quality player who happens to be injured that we hope will prove to be an excellent player for years to come.

If we weren't having such a **** season people wouldn't be questioning the purchase quite so much.

If this guy turns out to be as good as some think he could be, 3 or 4 months out will soon be forgotten. We didn't have the money to waste £10M on a stop gap player until Aquilani was fit. End of.

[Paul12]

We didn't lose it when Kenny walked out, we lost it when that cock Souness walked in.

Actually, although I love Kenny and hate Souness, I have always thought both were to blame. Kenny didn't renew the team at the right rate, so too mnay of them needed replacing at the same time...and Souness got the replacement of the players all wrong.

But that should not have been the end of it because the gap was in my view still bridgeable when Evans was in charge.

And I still think that, had Alonso's replacement been available from the start of the season and had we been able to upgrade the quality of three of our reserves (ie Voronin, Babel and Dossena), we would have been right in amongst the top four at this very moment.

I see absolutely no point in blaming Rafa - he is trying to make what is a very good first 13 or 14 (when all fit) but not good enough next 13 or 14 challenge for the league and stay in the Champions League when the squad is devasted by injuries and/or by lack of form. No one could do better.

[wiw]

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.

He basically spent the Alonso money though, a player he signed and made a huge profit on

[Roboklopp]

Here's the guts of a mail conversation I was having with my mate..

Not sure Rafa has made any terrible signings that he hasnt moved on
sharpish & got the money back for to be honest, Babel excepted (even he got
10+ goals 1st season & has the talent to live up to his price tag, but not
the application). Pennant was poor aye, but then Danny Alves was his 1st
choice & Parry didnt release the funds (£12m) at the time. Alves went to
Barca for double that 2 years later. (Similar things happened with Rafa &
Parry over Simao, Vidic & even David Villa before he became huge). Unlike
Houllier, Rafa does recognise his own mistakes & at least gets rid of the
shyte- usually selling them for as much as he paid. Even Keane- arguably
Parry's buy- we only lost £3m on.

Lucas is OK as 4th choice, just he isnt able to replace Xabi by any means.
He was player of the year in the Brazil is only 22 & still developing. He
was £7m, but he's not £10m worse than the £17m Anderson. The point is
though that he isnt supposed to though, Aqualani is & he is yet to be
judged. Doss is poor, but he was the 1st choice Italian LB.

As for selling, the only ones I would have kept at the time he had no
choice in doing so. Crouch, Owen, Sami, Xabi & Arbeloa all wanted to leave
for different reasons. Rafa wanted to keep both Crouchie & Sami, but both
wanted more games & a 1st team place which they obviously were not worth at
the time given the 1st choices, despite being "great players". We got
double what we paid for on Crouch & triple on Xabi. Bellamy was a good
player, but not great. He had to be sold cos of tw@tting Riise with that
golf club & even then we bought him for £8m & sold him for £12m- with that
money he bought Torres who is in the top 3 strikers in the world. Rafa
also wanted to keep Owen, Xabi & Arbeloa, but they all wanted to go to
Real. Similar to Ronaldo really, but noone holds that against Funguscum do
they?

As for only 4 top class players, I disagee completely. Gerrard & Carra he
inherited, although Carra is struggling this season. All our team our, but
on a wider timescale.

Top bracket

Torres was bought for £20m & is one of the very best strikers on the
planet arguably the best when he is fit. Given the fact City & Chavs
offered us 3 times what we paid for him, he is pretty much a fantatic
purchase financially too.
Mascherano was £17m. Despite pure current form, he is one of the top
defensive midfielders in the world. He is now the Argie captain, despite
being only 24 & Barca want him for big bucks.
Reina was £7m. He's got the golden gloves in the 3 seasons, & has the
longest games clean sheets record at LFC- hardly an easy record to take.
Also, he is very instrumental in a lot of our counter attacks. He is
also very young still & is arguably the best keeper in the league now
Cech has declined. Only the freakish Cassias is stopping him from being
Spanish number one & he is light years ahead of what most countries have
as their 1st choice keeper.
Alonso £10m, sold for £30m+ Already discussed, but one of the best
passers in world football.

2nd tier

Bennyoooon. £7m. Scored over 10 goals in both the last 2 seasons,
including some vital goals. A great squad player.
Agger. £4m. Great defender, just plagued by injuries since he joined us.
He didnt have such injury problems before he joined, but even if you can
blame someone at LFC for buying an injury-prone player, it is the med
stff, not Rafa.
Skrtel. £6m. Terrible this season adimttedly, but he & Agger have been
part of a fantastic defence over last few years.
Kuyt £9m. Unfashionable I know, but despite his diffiicult season and a
half after his 1st (when he bagged 14 goals & similar assisists) when
his dad died, he has consistently got big goals. Obviously, he is
nowhere near the player (if 100 times the man), but last season he got
more goals & assists then Rooney outscored any right-sided midfielder in
the Prem except Ronaldo.

I could go on player- by-player, but even I am getting bored. Suffice to
say, all managers have their bad buys- & it is harder to get it right at
the midrange of the market than higher up. Players like Aurelio & Riera are
all decent enough for very little & you have to make concessions when you
havent mcuh to spend.

Problem is, we spend £7m on a player & it is a big signing for us &
expected to go straight into the 1st team & judged by those standards.
Teams like Scum & the Chavs can spend £20m on reserves. Wenger has the best
record, but even he has the likes of Reyes, Cygan & Wiltord in his closet.
When he buys youth players & sells them on for a profit he gets praised,
but Rafa gets crucified. Moanihio had countless £15m+ players rotting on
the bench. In fact, the Chavs have spent more on right backs than we have
the whoe team over the last 5 years. Funguscum has wasted £27m on Veron,
Nancy £17m, Anderson £17m, Hargreaves was £18m if you are gonna count Agger
on injury grounds. There's the 2 Serbs he's spent £17m on who cant even
make the bench & Berbatoss is a joke of a £32m signing, then there is
Poborski, Tiabi, Bartez, Forlan, Kleberson, Djemba Djemba etc etc etc all
for sizable fees . He also sold players such as NistelHorse, Beckham,
Scmeichel, Stam- all "great" players that they struggled to replace. In
fact you could argue that they have never replaced Scmeichel.

Our problem this season is that we have had a lot of injuries & our squad
depth is a lot weaker than Scum or Chavs cos of relative lack of
investment. We are changing the way we play with more attacking fullbacks
in Insua & Johnson & a more dynamic CM, but have lost the defensive
stability & passing range of Xabi whilst acquiring none of the attacking
dynamism that Aqualani will hopefully bring. We have lost some old
experienced cool headed leaders in Xabi & Sami too. We are short up top,
but Rafa was looking at buying Tevez, Silva or someone at the beginning of
the season until the Yanks pulled the £25m he'd bid for Tevez using the
Keane money & used it to pay off the £60m debt repayment the banks
required, whilst the Xabi & Arbs money went to Johnson & Aqualani. Rafa
never saw any money from the Prem or CL either & we ended up struggling to
scrape enough money together for that £2m Greek clown.

My main criticism of Rafa is upsetting Xabi- although we will never know if
he would have stayed when Real were pursuing him so determindly- & not
being quick enough to bring on subs when things are not going well, but all
managers have their faults. He is perhaps a little too cautious, but we did
outscore anyone else in the league last season & ahve 4 players who scored
over 10 goals. Short of Funguscum himself, I can't see anyone who would do
better for us, Moanihio, Wenger etc included.

Incedentally, we got our best points haul in the Prem last year, so your
goatee theory is wrong.

---

Reina was £7m as I said. Also I'd say it is a lot easier to buy well at the top end of the market- you tend to get what you pay for on average at least, so on average the higher end up you buy, the better players you get. Same as if you go into a car showroom really. Wenger does pick up some bargains you are right, but he is pretty unique there

Scum are consistent cos they have the money- and the decisions, they should never have finished top last year. Just cos of our illustrious history, it is not fair to judge our recent success (or lack thereof), by teams like the Scum & Chavs. Arsenal is fair enough, but then we have won more than they have since Rafa joined & Wenger already had settled in & shaped his team for 7 years by the time Rafa took over Traore, Biscan, Cheyrou, Diouf, Dioa. Le Tallec & all of Houllier's clowns.

The press are in a position to do the very basic analysis I have done as it is what they are paid for, yet time & time again, they take the easy route by resorting to hammer Rafa unfairly. That is what really fks me right off.

[Reece]

Saw this posted elsewhere (it may have already been posted on here but I haven't seen it):

In order to try and dispell a few media fuelled myths that sections of our fanbase seem to have swollowed; here's the full list of players he's signed since he's been at the club (please read the summary below):

2004/05

£2m - Josemi: peanuts and was moved on in a swap for Kromkamp 18 months later
£1.5m - Antonio Nunez: part of the Michael Owen deal and filled a gap for a while. Peanuts.
£10.7m - Xabi Alonso: Massive success and sold for £30m+ in the summer when he wanted to leave
£6m - Luis Garcia: Massive success and sold to Athletico Madrid for £4m
Free - Pelligrino: Stop gap that allowed us to rest Sami for league games, benefitting us massively in Istanbul. Now on the coaching staff.
£6.3m - Fernando Morientes: Pretty much everyone made up when we signed him, top class, but never settled. Sold for £3m to Valencia.
£1m - Scott Carson: One the most highly rated young keepers around. Lost out through injury and signing of Reina when Dudek left the club. Sold for £3.25m.

Total bought: £27.5m

Free - Marcus Babbel: Released to Stuttgart at the end of his career.
£2.5m - Danny Murphy: Xabi Alonso signed to fill the role Murphy had in the side
£8.5m - Michael Owen: Wouldn't sign a new contract and sold before he left on a free. He's done nothing since that is a masterstroke with hindsight.
Free - Stephane Henchoz: Released to Celtic at the end of his career

Total sold: £11m

A total of £16.5m net spend in his first year at the club, with the vast majority of that being spent on Xabi Alonso.

2004/05 net spend: £16.5m

2005/06

£240,000 - Antonio Barragan: Kid for the future. Sold for £675,000 to Deportivo a year later.
Free - Boudewijn Zenden: Signed for nothing and released for nothing. Did a job for us.
£6m - Pepe Reina: In the top 3 or 4 keepers in the world now and still young. One of Rafa's best signings.
£5.6m - Momo Sissoko: Brilliant for a few years, had that eye injury and sold to Juventus when his form dipped for £8.2m. Replaced by Mascherano.
£7m - Peter Crouch: One signing I did question but proved to be a great bit of business. Turned him from a laughing stock into an international. Sold for £11m.
Unkown - Miki Roque: Kid bought for peanuts. Sold again for an unknown amount.
£150,000 - Jack Hobbs: Highly rated 16yr old signed from Lincoln. Didn't progress as hoped and sold to Leicester for a reported £1.5m, although figure not confirmed.
£190,000 Besian Idrizaj: No idea who he is
£1.5m - Mark Gonzales: Cheap player to provide back up for the left wing. Sold for £3.5m to Real Betis.
Exchange - Paul Anderson: Swapped for John Welsh. Sold for £250,000.
Exchange - Jan Kromkamp: Swapped for Josemi. Later sold for £1.75m
£5.8m - Daniel Agger: Blighted by injuries but potentially top class and great signing for the money.
£250,000 - David Martin: Young reserve keeper
Free - Robbie Fowler: Pay as you play deal and no risk involved. Scored a few goals. Released in the summer.

Total bought: £26.73

Free - Vladimir Smicer: Out of contract and released. Played a small part in Istanbul.
£3.5m - El Hadji Diouf: The best £3.5m Rafa has ever recieved.
Free - Pellegrino: Filled the gap in the last 5 months of the previous season, not good enough and released.
£2m - Alou Diarra: Sold for £2m. One of Houllier's buys.
£2m - Antonio Nunez: Bought for £1.5m and now sold for £2m when didn't work out.
£6.5m - Milan Baros: A Houllier signing sold at a profit. He's done nothing since.
Exchange - John Welsh: Swapped for Paul Anderson
Exchange - Josemi: Swapped for Kronkamp.

Total sold: £14m

2005/06 net spend: £12.73m
2006/07

£6m - Craig Bellamy: Good signing and later sold for £7.5m to fund Torres deal.
£2m - Gabriel Palletta: Played a few league cup games, not good enough and sold for £1.2m
Free - Fabio Aurelio: Very injury prone but a good player when fit. Great signing for nothing.
£6.7m - Jermaine Pennant: Second choice after missing out on Alves. Ran his contract down and released. Attitude stank.
£9m - Dirk Kuyt: Has his critics, but has been brilliant for the money. 15 goals last season from wide and vital to the way we play. Ultimate pro. Great signing.
£200,000 - Nabil El Zhar: Few cameos last season and improving. Injured now. Promising still. Peanuts.
£750,000 - Astrit Ajdarevic: No idea who he is, and released on a free to Leicester.
Loan - Daniele Padelli: Reserve keeper, made one appearance and never seen again.
Undisclosed - Jordy Brouwer: Young reserve.
£2.5m - Alvaro Arbeloa: Bargain signing, great service for a few years and sold for £3.5m when running his contract down.
Loan - Javier Mascherano: Rescued from West Ham, now one of the best defensive midfielders in the world and will probably be sold to Barca this summer for a massive profit. Paid £18.6m for him a year later at end of loan deal.

Total bought: £27.15m

£200,000 - Zak Whitbread: Youngster
Undisclosed - Bruno Cheyrou: Houllier flopped, sold for a reported £1.5m.
£3m - Fernando Morientes: Didn't work out. Cut his losses.
Free - Didi Hamann: Great servant, released at the end of his career
£675,000 - Antonio Barragan: Paid £240,000 for him.
£2m - Djimi Traore: Houllier signing and daylight robbery getting £2m for him
£500,000 - Neil Mellor: Signed as a kid and did a job for a while. Not good enough and released.
£1.75m - Jan Kromkamp: Nunez bought for £2m, swapped for him, who then sold for £1.75m. Stop gaps at minimal expense.
£525,000 - Darren Potter: Acadamy lad, not good enough and robbery getting that much for him.
£1.5m - Steven Warnock: Probably sold to cheap and looks a mistake with hindsight. Good squad player.
Free - Salif Diao: The clearout of Houllier's flops continues.

Total sold: £10.15m

2006/07 net spend: £17m

2007/08


£5m - Lucas Leiva: Brazilian player of the year when signed. Could still go either way but a lot to prove.
Undisclosed - Krisztian Nemeth: Promising youngster currently out on loan in Athens.
£270,000 - Mikel San Jose Dominguez: Youngester plays in the reserves.
£1.8m - Sebastian Leto: Left winger signing but refused a work permit. Sold for £3m.
£20.2m - Fernando Torres: Bargain of the century
Free - Andriy Voronin: Free transfer to strengthen the squad. Plays well in Germany, garbage over here.
£5m - Yossi Benayoun: Took a while to settle but now a key player. Superb signing and an absolute bargain.
£11.5m - Ryan Babel: Highly rated dutch international. Absolute waste of space. Bad signing on reflection, but nobody knew how he'd turn out. Still got potential but he can't be arsed.
Undisclosed - Charles Itandje: Back up keeper signed for peanuts. Now released.
£1.3m - Emiliano Insua: Youngster who is now a full Argentinian international and massive potential. Bargain.
£6.5m - Martin Skrtel: Been off form this season so far, but brilliant last year and a good signing for the money.
£18.6m - Javier Mascherano: Completion of loan deal

Total bought: £70.7m

£2.7m – Florent Simana-Pongolle: Houllier youngster sold wanting first team football.
£100,000 – Daniel O’Donnell: Kid sold
Free – Jerzy Dudek: Released at end of contract
Free - Zenden: Released at end of contract
Free – Robbie Fowler: Released at end of contract
£4m – Luis Garcia: Wanted to return to Spain. Great service.
£6m – Djibril Cisse: Houllier signing sold to part fund Torres deal.
£7.5m – Craig Bellamy: Sold at profit to part fund Torres deal
£3.5m – Mark Gonzales: Signed for £1.5m and sold when didn’t work out.
£1.2m – Gabriel Palletta: Bought for £2m but never worked out. Young defender.
£3.5m – Chris Kirkland: Houllier signing. Injury prone and wanted first team football.
£8.2m – Momo Sissoko: Great signing, good service, sold when lost his form at a profit.

Total sold: £36.7m

2007/08 net spend: £34m

2008/09

Free – Philip Degen: Garbage, but free.
£7m - Andrea Dossena: Italian international left back. Hasn’t settled. Bad signing.
£3.5m – Diego Cavalieri: Reserve keeper. Only played league cup games so far.
£1.5m – David N’gog: Young French striker. Promising.
£19m – Robbie Keane: Everyone made up when we signed him. Didn’t work out and sold back to Spurs for £16m.
£8m - Albert Riera: Spanish international. Started well but jury still out.

Total bought: £39m

£4m – John Arne Riise: Good servant but form tailed off. Snapped their hands off at £4m.
Free – Harry Kewell: Harry who?
Undisclosed – Anthony Le Tallec: Houllier youngster finally released. Fee not known.
£11m – Peter Crouch: Laughing stock bought for £7m. Great signing. Wanted first team football.
£2.25m – Danny Guthrie: Youngster from Acadamy thought not good enough.
£3.25m – Scott Carson: Injury prone and Reina now first choice. Sold at profit.
Undisclosed – Steve Finnan: Sold for a fee believed to be £1m
£16m – Robbie Keane: Didn’t work out.
Undisclosed – Jack Hobbs: Young defender that didn’t progress. Sold for believed to £1.5m.

Total sold: £36.5m

2008/09 net spend: £2.5m


2009/10

£17.5m – Glen Johnson: Big fee, but has been brilliant so far.
£17.1m - Alberto Aquilani: Injured so far but meant to be a class act. Highly rated in Italy.
£2m – Sotirios Kyrgiakos: Last minute signing to fill Hyypia’s shoes. Only money we had to spend.
£160,000 – Daniel Ayala: Young defender, played a few times this season and looked promising.

Total bought: £36.76m

£250,000 – Paul Anderson: Youngster that didn’t progess.
Free – Jermaine Pennant: Out of contract. Poor signing.
Free – Miki Roque: No idea who he is. Bought for peanuts.
£3m – Sebastian Leto: Signed for £1.8m but didn’t get a work permit. Had to sell.
£3.5m – Alvaro Arbeloa: Wanted to leave and out of contract in the summer.
£30m – Xabi Alonso: Wanted to leave. Bought for £10.7m. Great signing.

Total sold: £36.75m

2009/10 net spend: £10,000


Total Players Bought: £228,976,000
Total Players Sold: £145,100,000

Total Net Spend: £83,876,000


So, that’s a total spend of just over £83m in 5 years at the club. An average of £16.6m a year.

The vast majority of his signings have been sold at profit, or if still at the club, are worth a lot more than we paid for them. Exceptions being Babel and Dossena, but we’ll still get decent fees for them when sold as they’re full internationals.

A lot of the signings above have been stepping stones in rebuilding the squad, gradually improving it by replacing players with better ones. Our league positions over the past 5 years and the improvement in our league positions and points totals show the progression.

2004/05: Finished 5th – 58 pts
2005/06: Finished 3rd – 82 pts
2006/07: Finished 3rd – 68 pts
2007/08: Finished 4th – 76 pts
2008/09: Finished 2nd – 86 pts

Is it any coincidence that the progression seems to have stopped this summer? Look at the transfer activity above for this year and it might explain why.

We have a wage bill that is the 5th highest in the league. We can’t afford to pay players £70,000 to be sat on the bench like United and Chelsea can.

Rafa Benitez’ record with signings at the top end of the market is nothing short of brilliant. Robbie Keane being the only flop, but he was sold 6 months later and only a small financial hit taken on that mistake. Rick Parry agreed the fee for buying him in the first place, and common knowledge Rafa wasn’t happy with it; feeling it was far too high.

Where has this myth come from that he’s wasted money on ****e players? Have a look through the lists above and try to point them out. There isn’t many.

The ones that haven’t worked out he’s moved on, and not very often has he made a financial loss on them.

The squad is now worth a hell of a lot more than the one he inherited, and that £83m net spend over 5 years is easily offset by the increased value of the squad. He’d recoup nearly all of that through the sale of Torres alone!

He’s worked absolute wonders with the money he’s had to spend. Then take into account the massive amounts of money he’s self generated by reaching the latter stages of the CL every season. Two final appearances, one win. That £83m he’s spent he’s earned the right to spend.

And when comparing it to what United have spent in the same period is flawed, as they already had a title winning squad and all the foundations in place. They weren’t rebuilding from scratch like we were. It also doesn’t take into account their massive wage bill.

When comparing to Chelsea, they spent all their money before Rafa came to the club and just topping up an already established squad.

Man City have spent more than double in the past 12 months than Rafa Benitez has in his 5 year reign.

Do some people still want to get rid of him? If so, you’ve been listening to Martin Tyler's Monkey and the hairy-handed halfwit for too much and unable to look at the facts yourself to form an opinion.

Every manager makes tactical mistakes. Every manager makes mistakes in the transfer market. Despite what the press seem to think; Rafael Benitez appears to make less mistakes than most.

We’re expected to win the league and European Cup on a budget and wage bill that is entitled to finish 4th or 5th in the league. We’ve been overachieving under Rafael Benitez, not underachieving.

I’m not even going to mention the environment he’s working in under them two clowns.

You’ll only miss him when he’s gone….