Rafa's Spending: Painting an ugly picture

For me, the concern about how much Benitez has spent is not the issue.

It's who he brought in and how much of the money he has wasted. Millions has been wasted on dozens of players who were never going to make it as a Liverpool player and money that could easily have been spent more wisely.

Looking at the long list of ins and outs over the years, how many remain? It's laughable.

Your completely missing the point if Rafa had £20 mil to spend on every signing he would have had to spend upwards of £200mil. He didnt have that kind of money so he had to speculate and bring in players with potential or free signings as in Voronin.
If he needs to to add 3 or 4 players to the squad how do you expect him to bring in the quality we need when he only has about £4mil or £5mil per player, when he buys one decent player the avg comes down to £2mil or so. you get what you pay for and to his credit which you dont give him he gets shut fairly quickly if they aren't any use to him.

Your completely missing the point if Rafa had £20 mil to spend on every signing he would have had to spend upwards of £200mil. He didnt have that kind of money so he had to speculate and bring in players with potential or free signings as in Voronin.
If he needs to to add 3 or 4 players to the squad how do you expect him to bring in the quality we need when he only has about £4mil or £5mil per player, when he buys one decent player the avg comes down to £2mil or so. you get what you pay for and to his credit which you dont give him he gets shut fairly quickly if they aren't any use to him.

I think you are missing my point. I fully appreciate that he has had major constraints with funding and had to buy players on a budget, but he HAS wasted millions. Surely you must agree with this.
Look at the ins and outs again, then tell me I am missing the point.

Players he has brought in and not used, players he has sold when not given a chance, players he has sold that were good players and already substantiated.
In all honesty, Benitez has been a nightmare in the transfer market bar a few quality signings. He has given more away that were not given the opportunity than what he has bought.

Your missing the point.

All managers sign some dud players but I think that because we've needed to sure up multiple positions at a time with only say 20,000,000 then he might split that money three or four ways to provide players to cover those positions,

Interesting thread. As usual you get the extreme opposite viewpoints depending on the posters' basic opinion of Rafa. As usual some people try to force-feed their opinion and portray it as FACT.

My own OPINION is that Rafa has done no better than FAIRLY WELL in the transfer market and he has certainly bought his share of duds. Also, I think that some of his failures have occurred because the player couldn't adapt to LFC, the Premiership or to Rafa.

Not to bash Rafa but a big part of this has to go down as his responsibility. I believe the problem is partly his "cold" way with players but equally some of the players have proven mentally weak. Can he be blamed for this? Perhaps not as it must be hard to establish ahead of time....but...

....I keep having this nagging doubt that Rafa has the whole "player management" thing completely backwards. Shankly used to say that a player's talents were sacrosanct and that you messed with them at your peril. He believed you build a team around the attributes of the players rather than forcing players to adapt to a team pattern. Surely at least some of our transfer woes come from Rafa trying to fit square pegs into round holes and, in so doing, causing the player to lose his way?

Final thought.....I think that harping on about "net spend" is misleading. I prefer to judge the success of transfer dealings by looking at whether a player arrived, then thrived, contributed and is still contributing. Whether money was recouped getting rid of failures is neither here nor there in my view. So, on this basis, Rafa really has achieved quite a long list of poor transfers, particular in terms of forwards and wide players.

Really, when you think of it, we have had a shockingly long list of players come in since Rafa arrived that are no longer here. It gives us the feel of forever being "in transition". I know people say he inherited dross from Houllier but I think that is overstated. We finished 2nd with that dross, won the UEFA Cup and then won the Champions League with it so it wasn't THAT bad really. That said, other squads have improved so we of course have needed to constantly up-grade just to stand still.

So...my summary...I like Rafa but I think he has basically performed somewhat poorly in the transfer market. Not shockingly bad but could definitely have done better.

My OPINION...if you don't agree that is fine. No need for insults.

here's an artical by john aldridge in last sunday's irish paper, the sunday world


Bank on Ben' to sort out Pool crisis
RAFA'S GOT BEST DEALS ON OFFER WITH KOP CASH

THERE is a theory doing the rounds that suggests Rafael Benitez has wasted £230m on transfers in his five years as Liverpool manager - but the reality is that he has been shopping in the charity shops throughout his time at Anfield.

Regular readers of my Sunday World column will know I'm not in the camp who will give Benitez total support regardless of what he does, and last week saw him make some more bizarre decisions that left fans baffled.

The league defeat at Fulham followed by the draw at Lyon on Wednesday night left my old club's Premier League and Champions League challenges hanging by a thread.

However, this is not the right moment to get rid of the manager.
Honest

Let's be honest here. The problems that are threatening to engulf Liverpool just now are not only down to Rafa. If the club were to axe the Spaniard now, they would merely give themselves an extra problem to worry about.

In my mind, the crippling debt that has dragged the club to its knees and the failure of Liverpool's American owners to get the new stadium project off the ground are now beginning to directly affect the plans of the manager and his team.

You may have read plenty of articles focusing on Benitez's lavish spending in his time on Merseyside.

Okay, this figure of £230m spent on transfers suggests he has not been too shrewd when you look at the thin nature of the squad he has been left with. However, the reality is not quite so clear-cut, because Benitez has recouped around £150m in sales during his
time at Anfield and that leaves him with an average net spend of about £15m per year.

When that kind of figure is put on the table, it gives some serious perspective as to the type of budget he has been working with, and you would then have to say he has not done a bad job as Liverpool manager.
Punching

Maybe, dare I say it, he has been punching above his weight because United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City and even Aston Villa and Sunderland have all spent more than Rafa in the last few years.

I can tell you now that the £20m fee Liverpool allegedly paid for Alberto Aquilani in the summer was, in fact, a £5m transfer with some unlikely add-ons that may eventually make up that reported amount. Then you have the £17m Glen Johnson transfer fee, which is being spread out over many years, and yet the £30m one-off payment from Real Madrid for Xabi Alonso has disappeared into the vast debt the American owners have saddled the club with.

So, the reality was Benitez hardly splashed any cash last summer. He is likely to have even less to spend if his team fail to pull off a miracle and get through their Champions League group. I am not trying to make excuses for Rafa because he has left himself horribly
short with his striking options this season.

His insistence in playing the dreadful Andriy Voronin is typical of a coach who refuses to accept he has got it wrong on a player. I'm 51 now and I'm still a better player than Voronin. I scored a late goal in a game at Limerick a few days ago and I bet Voronin would have missed that chance.

My heart sinks every time he comes on the pitch in a Liverpool shirt and the fans feel the same.
Mistake

Voronin is not Rafa's only mistake, as a lot of the talent he has bought has not been up to the mark. The quicker he offloads Andreas Dossena and Philipp Degen the better and, even after his great goal in Lyon, I would still get rid of Ryan 'Bobble' as well.

However, such mediocre talent is likely to find its way into Liverpool when you are fishing for prize catches in a dry lake. A £5m player is always going to be a gamble because if he was a proven talent, he would cost a lot more.

Manchester United knew what they were getting when they spent £30m to sign Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney and they have not been disappointed. Likewise, Chelsea have enjoyed similar success with massive investments on top quality.

Meanwhile, Rafa was left to buy Greek centre-back Sotiros Kyrgiakos for £2m in August, simply because he didn't have enough cash to try and sign a defender with a bit more quality. To his credit, he didn't pay too much money to sign the likes of Daniel Agger or Martin Skrtel and they have worked out well, while Fernando Torres, the one major money signing he made, has been a massive success story.
Frustrated

Those buys prove that Rafa has not been all bad in the transfer market. He must be getting frustrated with people saying he has wasted all this money when he has, in fact, not had anything like the kind of bank balance people claim.

So, what's next for Liverpool? My advice to the fans and the club's owners would be don't panic. Champions League elimination looks inevitable but Rafa has been lucky in this competition in the past and he has to hope he gets the rub of the green again.

We also need the injuries that have decimated the squad to clear up during the upcoming international break. If he can get a team that is close to full strength by the time we get to the Manchester City and Everton games later in the month, Liverpool should start winning again.

This squad can go on a run of wins if they steer clear of major injuries and this is why I say Liverpool are better sticking with the devil they know in the hotseat rather than gambling on a massive change now.
Lurking

Kenny Dalglish is lurking in the background to step in if Rafa is shown the door and you have to wonder whether he could do any better with these players. So let's try and get three points against Birmingham tomorrow and give this problem the time it needs to resolve itself.

If we get to the end of the season and Liverpool haven't qualified for the Champions League and failed to make an impact in the FA Cup, Rafa will know the time has come to step aside. However, that moment has not arrived yet. The supporters are staying loyal to him as they see he has a tough set of cards to play and, while times are tough for all at Liverpool, I still believe Benitez should remain as manager for now.


well said aldo

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6919462.ece


An ugly picture?

I dont think so.














(Posted also on another thread)

Never heard of this piece of sh*t but I bet he is a southern Man Utd fan , f##k him won't be reading anymore of his utter crap .