Rafa Watch

[Pablo]

With Tee on this one. We'd probably have won the league a bunch of times. Sure it would have been better if we'd done it with limited rescources, but we'd have won the league! We'd be ahead of United, not the other way around. How is that worse?

[Captain Stu]

Have to admit I fail to see the sense in that.

There's absolutely no guarentee that we'd have been spending all that money in the right place, only have to look at the return we've had from Carroll and Downing.

It's never the answer. We missed out on players like Simao and Dani Alves because we were a few million short and had to sell in order to buy, with better owners that wouldn't have been needed but also wouldn't have broken the bank and put is in the sort of personal debt that Chelsea and City are in.

Look at PSG - BUY ALL THE PLAYERS... and then don't win the league. City - BUY ALL THE PLAYERS... scrape the league on goal difference. Spending that much doesn't guarentee anything.

And who's to say it would be different? Who's to say that an Abramovich wouldn't come in, spend all his money and then start telling Rodgers (or Rafa had he been in charge) that he's going to be signing players for him.

[Tee]

There's absolutely no guarentee that we'd have been spending all that money in the right place, only have to look at the return we've had from Carroll and Downing.

It's never the answer. We missed out on players like Simao and Dani Alves because we were a few million short and had to sell in order to buy, with better owners that wouldn't have been needed but also wouldn't have broken the bank and put is in the sort of personal debt that Chelsea and City are in.

Look at PSG - BUY ALL THE PLAYERS... and then don't win the league. City - BUY ALL THE PLAYERS... scrape the league on goal difference. Spending that much doesn't guarentee anything.

No, but it keeps us right at the top challenging. And if we had spent on the likes of Simao and Alves after Istanbul, we would be in the middle of another period of dominance and with Rafa still Manager. No doubts about that at all.

[Captain Stu]

No, but it keeps us right at the top challenging. And if we had spent on the likes of Simao and Alves after Istanbul, we would be in the middle of another period of dominance and with Rafa still Manager. No doubts about that at all.

Definitely not but you don't need bottomless pits of cash to do that, we just needed owners with more than one braincell between them who understood that selling players every years is the worst possible foundation for success.

Had Rafa had an extra £10-20M - without having to sell in the first place - we certainly would've won the league and it was WELL within Hicks and Gillett remit to do that.

Also, as big an achievement as some of those title wins are, it's hard to respect the achievement when you're basically playing real world Football Manager.

[dom9]

Well yes. But we need one. It's the 21st century and it's about time this site was self-sufficient in smileys. I'm not going elsewhere for my smiley needs. It's this kind of lazy outsourcing by the site's smiley manufacturers that have turned our economy to dust. You never heard of our Victorian forebears being net importers of smileys.

It's emblematic of what's happened in the world - our get-up-and-go got up and went.

It's obvious that the only solution is to cut the number of smileys so that we have more smileys.

Smiley austerity

The world has moved on. Outsourcing is the way forward. Get with the times. It's not how it used to be in the golden age of the internet. It's progress.

[Neil Young]

If PSG don't win the league this year, they soon will. Look at Chelsea and Man City. Even with limitless money it takes a bit of time.

It's always been dodgy but it's a lot worse now. The more money there is, the worse it gets. Financial doping.

Thank goodness for Germany (except Bayern (and Nazis obviously (which may be much the same))).

[Captain Stu]

If PSG don't win the league this year, they soon will. Look at Chelsea and Man City. Even with limitless money it takes a bit of time.

It's always been dodgy but it's a lot worse now. The more money there is, the worse it gets. Financial doping.

Thank goodness for Germany (except Bayern (and Nazis obviously (which may be much the same))).

Definitely.

Germany is, as with so many aspects of football, the shining example of how to do it right.

The only way Citeh's owners can make the club truly credible is to back the youth setup as they've promised to do and provide long term stability. Problem is, as I see it, it's a hard culture to break - highlighted by Chelsea, they tried bringing some young players through, lost a few games, manager gets sacked and they throw Lampard, Terry, Cole and Drogba back in there and continue to rely on them.

Then this summer comes around - another financial spooge-fest. They're a ****ing abortion of a club, they really are.

[MrMichael]

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/footbal...rible-tombola/

Also found another link backing that up (150 games) but it was from the **** rag.

Lol

The fact Ferguson's level of rotation is not widely known, while every man and his dog knows Benitez once went 99 games without naming an unchanged team, says all we need to know about the difference in the way they are treated and reported on. It stinks really.

To be fair, I know about the whole 99 game thing because I support LFC, I'm really not sure if I asked some random people who supported other sides they would. A bit like why I didn't know about Fergie beating that record, because I don't really care what United do.

[Tee]

Have you seen the training facilities City are building?

[Shaggy]

Lol



To be fair, I know about the whole 99 game thing because I support LFC, I'm really not sure if I asked some random people who supported other sides they would. A bit like why I didn't know about Fergie beating that record, because I don't really care what United do.

The 99 games thing is quoted to me pretty often by other fans, mates, it's mentioned on TV regularly. **** all about Ferguson.

[Captain Stu]

Have you seen the training facilities City are building?

Yeah, it looks brilliant but it's one thing to build the facilities - it's a whole other world to back a manager when he wants to bring a 19/20 year old player through rather than spending £30M on a world class player even if it means the club drops a level and then rebuilds on more sound footing.

That's why I don't like the idea of huge spending - it physically can't last forever and the culture shock of going from that back to "normal" spending constraints could massively ruin a club.

It's all symptomatic of the Premier League era. They're looking at bringing the wage bill rules (where you can't increase your total wage bill by more than 5% per year) too late when clubs like City already have a wage bill of around £150M despite them having far less money coming into the club. It's a ****ing state and I'm glad we're not a part of it in that way.

[Neil Young]

[Butch]It was better in our day.[/Wilkins]

[Tee]

Yeah, it looks brilliant but it's one thing to build the facilities - it's a whole other world to back a manager when he wants to bring a 19/20 year old player through rather than spending £30M on a world class player even if it means the club drops a level and then rebuilds on more sound footing.

That's why I don't like the idea of huge spending - it physically can't last forever and the culture shock of going from that back to "normal" spending constraints could massively ruin a club.

It's all symptomatic of the Premier League era. They're looking at bringing the wage bill rules (where you can't increase your total wage bill by more than 5% per year) too late when clubs like City already have a wage bill of around £150M despite them having far less money coming into the club. It's a ****ing state and I'm glad we're not a part of it in that way.

Again, I don't get it mate. We used to always spend big yet still bring through quality youth players like Robbie, Owen, Gerrard and Carra. Don't really see why this policy would not be possible on a grander scale? It is not about spending habits, it is about the ability to spend.

[Neil Young]

And how many times have those shining lights of the youth development programme won the league?

The point is it's a lot easier to bring through young players when you're not expected to win everything. It can be done of course but it's tricky, especially if you have a trigger-happy, I-want-it-and-I-want-it-now owner.

[Mark3]

[Butch]It was better in our day.[/Wilkins]

Bitter responses from a jealous, sacked assistant manager.

Funny how his name isn't mentioned on the banners or chanted by the "fans"...