Rafael Benitez
2004/05 net spend: £16.5m
2005/06 net spend: £12.73m
2006/07 net spend: £17m
2007/08 net spend: £34m
2008/09 net spend: £2.5m
2009/10 net spend: minus £6.10m
Now everyone look at Rafa's net spends from start to finish, what you will notice under Morres & Parry with steady conservative investment we progressed little by little year by year, H&G arrived pumped some significant money into teh club in the 07/08 season but the following two years come on people a £2.5m net spend and a minus £6.10m net spend is no were near good enough for a club with League and European ambitions.
The facts are there when there was investment in the squad we progressed, when there was no investment the rot started to kick in.
Now I'm gona play a little game here in the 08/09 season we lost £250,000 – Paul Anderson, Free – Jermaine Pennant, Free – Miki Roque, £3m – Sebastian Leto, £3.5m – Alvaro Arbeloa., £30m – Xabi Alonso that was £36.75m worth of talent.
People will argue this was the crucial transfer window and Rafa fu**ed it up buying both Jonson and Aquilani and not replacing Alonso.
So we pay 17.5m for Johnson and £17.1m for Aquilani and then £2m for Sotis thats £36.6m if you add Ayala to that list at £160,000 it looks pretty damning on Rafa no ?
But step back Pompey owed us £8m from the Crouch deal and we only paid £5m down payment on Aquilani, Rafa had to settle for Sotis as the board wouldn't release the money for Ryan Shawcross or Gareth Barry, so tell me where did te rest of the money generated from transfers dissapear to ?, given that we initially only payed out £16.5m from the £36.6m that we had generated in sales and what of £20m transfer budget Purslow said we had spent, pretty damning reading on the boards part if you ask me.
Rafa never fu**ed that transfer window up buying Aquilani or Johnson most notably Aquilani he got the best deal he could for an initial down payment for £5m, tell me who was going to buy for £5m to replace a players of Alonso's ability ?
Lets be honest here Rafa signed Aquilani for 5 years not for one season, we were all aware he was injured, we all hoped Lucas could fill the void left by Alonso, it did not happen but te team were struggling to adapt, Alsonso was a huge loss, however Lucas seems to be bearing the fruits of last years endevours.
So where did the rest of the money recouped from trasnsfers go what happened to our transfer budget in Rafa's last two seasons ?, some people are talking about a 5 year plan, well I'd argue what kind of 5 year plan would involve selling your best players with holding money from their sales as well as withholding any form of transfer budget thus making the manager opearte on a net profit ?
Rafa put us back on the map we were consistently in the top 4 and the Champions league ranked number 1 club in Europe at one point won the F.A cup, Champions league, second Champions league final and led us to our 3rd ever ighest points tally when finishing second.
He done all this on a moderate budget whilst clubs like Man United & Chelsea were throwing money round nilly willy even Man City got in on that game, people will surely throw up Wegner but lets be realistic here, check out Wegner vs Rafa side by side in the 6 years Rafa was on English soil, in terms of silverware, Rafa was the most succesfull manager.
The point of this post proves onething, with moderate investment we steadily progressed year up on year so for that reason knowing new owners were eventually coming in, Rafa should have been kept as under owners like NESV Rafa would surely have taken us up another level.
But don't let Facht's cloud your judgment no ?
« Last Edit: Nov 09, 2010 11:21:08 am by RedLFCBlood »
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