Because you went there I'll play.
Abramovich took over Chelsea in 2003 and Mansour City in 2008. The Cowboys bought us in 2007.
Stevie G had scored 28 Liverpool goals in the six seasons before Benitez came and a further 104 by the end of the season that he was sacked which as well as being down to him coming into his prime, a jump in goals like that was a lot down to Rafa changing Stevie's style of play. Stevie even said the same. To put what I am saying into context, Jordan Henderson has scored 22 goals in his first 5 seasons here. I know he's nowhere near the level of Stevie but I'm sure if his goals tally rose so significantly you'd be giving a lot of credit to Jürgen whilst getting the spade in the ground for the footings for his statue. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Rafa gets none from you.
Yep, Guardiola will be here, great. It will be tough but let's not try and make out that Rafa had it easier than Jürgen has now just because you realised that your 'Statue' comment shown your hypocrisy up once again. You said that coming 3rd should get Jürgen a statue, which on it's own is bad enough, (3rd 
). You've then realised by saying that you may look daft for slagging Rafa off at every possible opportunity and not offering him a statue so you made out he had it dead easy under Parry and Moores and Hicks and Gilette. Unbelievable. Under those ownerships he got us a European Cup win, European Cup Runners up, FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Community Shield, Premier League Runners Up and numerous Champions League qualifications alongside having us as the Number 1 ranked club in European football as we beat Barca, Real, Juve, Inter, AC Milan, etc, etc, etc. on the way to doing so.
'The Rafa Benitez Stand?' Of course not, just like there shouldn't be a statue for any manager who regularly finishes 3rd. Even a St Mirren manager wouldn't get a statue for coming 3rd in a three way league with them, Rangers and Celtic.
For all our new owners' sins they are better than the last two and you know that.
Jürgen has got it harder than Rafa did? It's unreal to read such a thing, it really, really is.
Tell you what, though, Walton and Eurored, I gave you some stick when you were both slagging Rodgers off on a daily basis but know what? At least with the likes of you lads what you see is what you get. So fair play for that.
And there's me thinking it was just the "statues" that had you speechless Dave. Hmmf.
So what we have here is a disagreement about who had the harder task, Benitez during his six seasons in charge or Jürgen going forward from where are now. I think it's Jürgen, you think it was Benitez. My suspicion is neither of us are going to convince the other that they might be wrong (and it is a bit of a pointless argument even by our standards), but I may as well explain why I think what I do.
Firstly the "statues" comment. Now I know we all like to be a little mischievous sometimes, quote out of context and all that stuff, but in all seriousness do people REALLY think I would advocate "building a statue" for a manager who got us to be third in the league? Really? Do they think I would REALLY build a statue for someone who came third, or do they think it was probably a figure of speech to indicate that under these circumstances of today, continually challenging for the league and finishing 2nd and 3rd each season would be an excellent achievement? I do like a debate with the best of them but if you or anyone else wishes to take me out of context here then we're descending into the bizarre.
Next, the Benitez years. He won two trophies, none in the last four seasons. We challenged for the league once in the six seasons he was at the club. Now we also reached finals, were voted or qualified for by virtue of how many games we'd won or something "the number one club in Europe" and generally kicked around inside the top four each season, mixing it up with the big boys in Europe.
Now under the circumstances at the time, I think we could and should have done better. We weren't as outgunned financially as we are now, we had a very good bunch of players (many of whom Benitez himself had bought), we had the best attacking midfielder in the World IMHO at the time who had cost us zip and was playing for his home town club, and Benitez had taken over a group of players which although far from a perfect squad, had very recently won big trophies and finals. You don't think we could and should have done better by all accounts, and you know what? It's OK!
As for Jürgen now (which is the bit I was talking about all along) I think he's bang up against it in comparison. He doesn't have Steven Gerrard in his prime, he is massively outgunned financially both in terms of fees he can pay AND wages, he doesn't have a squad of serial winners to call upon, and we have finished by and large between 6th and 8th over 8 of the last ten seasons. Not only that, but he has Mourinho and Guardiola coming into the league.
I think Jürgen has it harder, you don't. You know what? It's Ok!
What you see is what you get? Oh aye.
