Torres: selling Alonso & Arbeloa ruined our season

[Kenneth]

I think that all those deals are compromises of one sort or another - I don't think Rafa would have bought Keane in the circumstances as the deal was pushed through by Parry, Johnson was a gamble but it was a way of getting the money Pompey owed us and I'm not sure about Aquilani - it depends on how exact the details we have of the deal are.

I'm not sure anyone has picked up many more quality players in those price brackets of late. Especially with the pound weakening. I think we got decent at least value from Agger, Alonso, Arebloa, Benayoun, Lucas, Ngog, Bellamy and a number of other players. I think the problem has been that we have needed to be replacing key players on the cheap which is always going to be a gamble. I suppose it could be argued that we could have pooled the Johnson and Aquilani money to get a replacement for Alonso but we would still have needed a right back and would have had to practically write off the Crouch money from Portsmouth.

Not this again. I don't believe that for one minute.

We could, however, have taken Crouch back again.

[Roboklopp]

Not this again. I don't believe that for one minute.

We could, however, have taken Crouch back again.

Crouch wanted to leave & wouldnt wanna come back though.

[dww]

Not this again. I don't believe that for one minute.

We could, however, have taken Crouch back again.

Crouch wanted to leave & wouldnt wanna come back though.

I take that point. It would have been an interesting thing to have tried. Doubt it would have come off.

[Vermilion]

[EwarWoo]

the purchase of Aqualani seems a real clanger. I've not written him off yet, but I'd be pretty surprised to see him turn my opinion around.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him turn it completely round given a decent run and turn out to be a great acquisition.

Unfortunately but we needed an immediate replacement for Alonso and buying someone crocked was always going to be major gamble which certainly hasn't paid off.

You can't replace a player like Alonso with Lucas. No matter how much he's improving he aint Alonso, and he most definitely wasn't back at the start of the season.

Maybe this season isn't entirely down to Alonso leaving, but it is mostly down to not having someone in the middle who can spot and execute the perfect pass to open up play.

You take that away it does in turn effect other areas.

Sure, we played well without him in spots last season, great in fact, but there's a difference between 11 players on a high making up for him missing and 11 players on a low looking for him.

TBH at the moment I think the best we can hope for is Aquilani getting a decent , mini run for the rest of the season and finding his feet ready for next, otherwise we're pretty much ****ed again unless the yanks decide to let Rafa spend more cash and he manages to hit it right this time.

[reds123]

Sorry but complete bollocks - Rafa got £30m for Alonso cash up front and didn't see a penny of it to spend.
It's obvious to even Stevie bloody Wonder that Rafa was told to generate a certain amount of money through player sales to go towards bringing down the debt.

So did mourinho snatch sneider before rafa?

or did rafa opt first for aquaman? how was the order of events pls?
and how much did sneider cost inter?

[Exiled_red]

I take that point. It would have been an interesting thing to have tried. Doubt it would have come off.

Would it not have been in Portsmouths interest to sell him to Spurs rather than back to us? In selling him back to us they would just be writing off what they owed us, in doing a deal with Spurs they would have been able to negotiate a deal that gave them cash at the time to buy players or clear debts that were more urgent that the structured payments they would have to have paid to us.

[dww]

Would it not have been in Portsmouths interest to sell him to Spurs rather than back to us? In selling him back to us they would just be writing off what they owed us, in doing a deal with Spurs they would have been able to negotiate a deal that gave them cash at the time to buy players or clear debts that were more urgent that the structured payments they would have to have paid to us.

Possibly - probably depended on the deals available to them. Obviously they would have been more keen to sell both players than just one - so perhaps they would not have sold Crouch to us if they knew we were interested in Johnson and Tottenham had made an offer for Crouch.

I suspect that whatever happened we would have had a hard job persuading Crouch to come back.

[reds123]

Isn't it amazing how easily wild speculation becomes fact if repeated often enough?!

so rafa didn't spend a single penny last summer.

aquaman was wasted money fullstop.

rafa was not capable of bringing a good partner for torres! he relied on ngog! oh my god! and wow we have messikuyti as rightwinger. that is rafa's mentality playing kuyt, a hardworker but zero creativity and skill. it's like playing aurelio as lw.

and then you see barca ....

[dww]

Who in England stands comparison with Barcelona? Who have incidentally run up a similar sized debt to us spending the cash on football related things rather than paying to buy themselves.

[Exiled_red]

Possibly - probably depended on the deals available to them. Obviously they would have been more keen to sell both players than just one - so perhaps they would not have sold Crouch to us if they knew we were interested in Johnson and Tottenham had made an offer for Crouch.

I suspect that whatever happened we would have had a hard job persuading Crouch to come back.

True

[badpiggy]

you don't lose players like sami and xabi - and arbeloa to a lesser extent - without a serious blow to the psychological makeup of the team. players like them made us the team of leaders and captains that we seemed to be at the latter half of last season. it's far more than what they do on the pitch, clearly. scum don't seem to have suffered in the same way from losing ronaldo, partly because they have a match winner in rooney but partly because i'd say plenty of scum players were glad to see the back of the cunt. total opposite for us with xabi and sami. and sadly rafa hasn't been able to get that psychological thing back.

[reds123]

i remember a time when we were the barca of today

[Guest]

Agree with most of this, albeit with DWWWWW's caveat to Masher.

I've found Torres' behaviour extremely frustrating this season & no longer view him as some sort of football god, but I do have some sympathy for his plight. Endlessly, he is left alone in the oposition half against 6 players & expected to perform miracles. That is Rafa & the players' faults to a greater or lesser degree. It is exacerbated by the fact that referees seem to let defenders put in UFC-style challenges on him time & time again, which is inexecusable- as well a pretty much unique. (Imagine if Ronaldo had suffered the same treatment FFS).

I share SG's frustration about the lack of quality in the squad, but his behaviour & performances this season have been pretty disgraceful. He has been a woeful captain.

I've been vilified for saying this but I have done for months.

[Kenneth]

Would it not have been in Portsmouths interest to sell him to Spurs rather than back to us? In selling him back to us they would just be writing off what they owed us, in doing a deal with Spurs they would have been able to negotiate a deal that gave them cash at the time to buy players or clear debts that were more urgent that the structured payments they would have to have paid to us.

Which is true, but if we'd have gone for him, would he have considered Spurs? We'll never know.