Some interesting words from Rafa....
Rafa Benitez: Money makes it tough for Liverpool to rekindle glory days
Rafael Benitez has admitted the money flooding into the Premier League is making it more difficult ever year for Liverpool to rekindle the glory days of the 1980s.
Benitez said: "When I arrived at Liverpool, the budget was £20million gross. When I left, it was £17 million, but still people said I must win the title, I must compete.
"[Manchester] United had around £50m more every year, but people said I had to compete against them every year. After, there was Chelsea.
"At that time, it was Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Now you have Manchester City and Tottenham, as well as PSG and the others. But it's always been similar.
"There are massive clubs with massive amounts of money and Liverpool were always a little bit behind. How can you win trophies? You have to create a good team with a great atmosphere and work hard and then you can get there. The reality is, the teams that have won the title, probably 90 per cent of the time, are the teams with the most money."
As Klopp once told Allardyce, "I'm happy that he has enough time on his hands to worry about Liverpool's problems".
I'm sure the toon army were fascinated by his ramblings about us. After all, what would any of them know about winning top division league titles? But, if winning the league is really all down to who spends the most from the money tree;
Why have City not won it in 4 years? Why have the mancs not won it for longer? Why do teams like Leicester City win league titles? Why did you not win the league at Inter, Real, or Chelsea, with a bottomless pit available, to practice what you preach?
When you were here, we said you must win the league, because that was the reason you were appointed, as if we just wanted a coach that won European trophies and could finish in the top 4 every year, we would have just stuck with Houllier. And for most of your time here, there was only three teams to compete against for the league. No City, no Spurs, no random one season wonders around to bother us.
You don't just win the league with the biggest budget, the biggest gross spend, or the biggest net spend. You win the league by getting better results over 38 games than everyone else, in all conditions and circumstances over 9 months. That means managing the resources you do have, big or small, in the wisest and most responsible way. It means winning games/getting results with 10 men, in galeforce winds/thunderstorms/thick fog/snow, when not playing well, behind at some point, and under the cosh, when playing games every few days, dealing with injuries and suspensions, at bogey grounds and hostile venues etc etc etc.
That's how you win this league, and you couldn't do it after 6 long years and 228 individual attempts. You thought all we wanted was "make progress" when we really wanted (a lot) more than just one great night in Istanbul.
You've never beaten this club since you left us after 4 years without a trophy, not a single time. Not a great surprise tbh as you set your teams up not to beat us, even when you're staring relegation in the face and need wins. Even with our issues today you're still beneath us, so Jürgen doesn't need any "interesting words" from you. It's just a few weeks since Nottingham Forest knocked you and your bunch of upstarts out of the League Cup in your own backyard. So go back to that laughing stock of a club you're currently holed up at, and focus on their problems rather than telling the rest of the world what we have to do.