Would you sack Hodgson?

[Mattshark]

Our squad depth isn't all that bad if you look at it. We have 2 players for pretty much every position - which is generally what you want (isn't it?). The problem is that the quality of the attacking players who are squad players is very poor. When Torres was injured there was no one who could do a job for us. The exact same problem that we faced the season before last. Benitez should have addressed this issue as a priority 2 years ago.

Rafa was not backed properly by the owners, but he still spent nearly 40 million last summer and didn't fix the biggest weakness in the team - over reliance on Torres.

Yes, but the circumstances around that are up for debate, the Johnson transfer used money owed to us and the Aquilani transfer details have been posted a few hundred times on here and both were to replace players lost.

Not sure how accurate the reports are, but it has been reported that we were trying to get another forward when our budget was taken away.

[DannyMan2006]

Our squad depth isn't all that bad if you look at it. We have 2 players for pretty much every position - which is generally what you want (isn't it?). The problem is that the quality of the attacking players who are squad players is very poor. When Torres was injured there was no one who could do a job for us. The exact same problem that we faced the season before last. Benitez should have addressed this issue as a priority 2 years ago.

Rafa was not backed properly by the owners, but he still spent nearly 40 million last summer and didn't fix the biggest weakness in the team - over reliance on Torres.

In fairness to Rafa, it was rumoured he had money put a side for cover for Torres and the money suddenly vanished into the debt of LFC. Remember links to Falcao, Kleber, Tevez and the Brazilian that ended up at barca?

[Mattshark]

I know he was done over last year by the owners, but he had decent size sums to spend in the marked prior to then. Not Chelsea size, but not bad.

I think the squad should have been a lot stronger than it is. But had his choices in the market come off, I think we'd be looking at a better team right about now. Dossena and Keane were expensive gambles and neither came off. It just so happens that those particluar two players are the type of player we are missing in our squad. A top class LB and top class cover for Gerrard and Torres. The fact Dossena and Keane failed and proved not good enough is just the way it goes.

We near enough made our money back from Keane though didn't we, we didn't get to see any of it though.
Dossena didn't work, but he really wasn't that expensive.

[red g]

Yes, but the circumstances around that are up for debate, the Johnson transfer used money owed to us and the Aquilani transfer details have been posted a few hundred times on here and both were to replace players lost.

Not sure how accurate the reports are, but it has been reported that we were trying to get another forward when our budget was taken away.

while i agree and you only have to look at getting soto in on a free when we could have bought turner for 4m to show how skint we were.

BUT we still should have brought in a striker on a free or something? even an experienced midfielder etc?

Mido went to West ham in January on a grand a week or something, while not ideal he would have done a better job than ngog.

[DannyMan2006]

We near enough made our money back from Keane though didn't we, we didn't get to see any of it though.
Dossena didn't work, but he really wasn't that expensive.

£7m is a decent outlay for a LB, but not massive. Keane, I still don't know how much we lost on him. But whatever we got for him seems to be the cash that vanished if you look at who we brought in and who we sold from January onwards of 2009.

[Taxi]

screw Hodgson, SACK PARRY!

[Mattshark]

£7m is a decent outlay for a LB, but not massive. Keane, I still don't know how much we lost on him. But whatever we got for him seems to be the cash that vanished if you look at who we brought in and who we sold from January onwards of 2009.

Yes, it all ties in with the arrival of Purselow.

[kris90210]

Yes, but the circumstances around that are up for debate, the Johnson transfer used money owed to us and the Aquilani transfer details have been posted a few hundred times on here and both were to replace players lost.

Not sure how accurate the reports are, but it has been reported that we were trying to get another forward when our budget was taken away.

I appreciate that both players came as direct replacements. The Johnson transfer used SOME money owed to us, and we didn't have to spend all of the remaining budget on Aquilani when we were still crying out for a backup striker.

Of course, if part of the budget was taken away it does explain where things went wrong (and gives us another reason to hate the americans). Personally though, I would have liked to have seen Rafa bring in a striker before making any other signings last Summer.

[Guest]

Rafa was not backed properly by the owners, but he still spent nearly 40 million last summer and didn't fix the biggest weakness in the team - over reliance on Torres.

Our net spent was negative last season, so I don't know where you got that figure.

[red g]

Our net spent was negative last season, so I don't know where you got that figure.

yes net spend was.....but he did actually spend £40million.

[Guest]

yes net spend was.....but he did actually spend £40million.

No he didn't, this is simple maths FFS.

[red g]

No he didn't, this is simple maths FFS.

Glen Johnson was £18million
Alberto Aquiliani was £20million
Soto was £2 million

simple maths 18+20+2 = 40 million

thats the total cost of what he spent in the summer.

[Kenneth]

No he didn't, this is simple maths FFS.

But the wrong calculation.

He spent 40m on players but not in an area we clearly needed, and suffered badly because of it.

FFS

[RichC]

Our net spent was negative last season, so I don't know where you got that figure.

Aqua man + Johnson - ignore the inflows that is what he spent!

[Guest]

You can't ignore the inflows, how can you. Would you buy something if you didn't have the money.

He wouldn't have purchased any player without the guarantee that he could sell.