Liverpool can buy the Prem just like Chelsea and Manchester United
Liverpool lose in the Champions League final and sure enough various pundits, journalists and fans think Benitez is crap and under him Liverpool will never win the Premiership.
Sorry, but have I missed something here?
This guy has won two La Liga titles, an FA Cup, featured in two European Cup finals in his first three seasons whist winning one of them, and the season before last Liverpool had achieved their highest EPL total since the Prem began back in 92-93.
Unless I’m mistaken but did it not take Ferguson 5 or 6 years to win his first league title?
If Benitez isn’t the right man to lead Liverpool to a title then I don’t know who is. Until now he hasn’t spent nowhere near as much as Manchester United or Chelsea. His next expenditure since he took over stands at approximatley £50m which equates to £16.7m per season.
Er……… HELLO - thats less than what Manchester United payed for Micheal “freakin” Carrick.
Where Manchester United and Chelsea have been able to go out and spend £15m-35m on any one player, Benitez has “only” spent between 1m-10.5m on a single player.
His most expensive acquisition to date is Xabi Alonso at a relatively meagre 10.5m. Its OK to have so many flops like Gonzales, Josemi, Morientes and so on when they cost between £2-6m, or more pertinently Fowler and Zenden on a FREE. On the other hand Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal buy expensive crap. Anyone seen a £17m Reyes and a £28m Veron near Arsenal or Manchester United respectively recently? NO……I thought not.
How great is it gonna be when Benitez has some real freakin’ money to spend on players. He wants players of the calibre of Villa, Eto’o, Alves, Milito and Simao. I mean come on….. Benitez ain’t faffin about no more. Anyone who’s seen his interviews after the final know hes deadly serious. All that crap from rival fans who think we’re not gonna be getting big money to spend on players from the new owners is just BS. If Benitez wasn’t sure he’d be getting the players he wants he’d be off to R Madrid instead of the unproven Schuster.
I love the term that Hicks and Gillett use, how does it go again…..yeh………”PLAYER SPECIFIC” which for any dumbass out there means if Benitez wants this player badly…hes gonna get him. As soon as the final was over he said that Liverpool had to move quickly if they wanted to get their number one targets. Note the key word here, “quickly” and nothing to do about the inability to buy these players because of financial constraint.
I love that interview with Gillett where he takes so much freakin “dough” out of his pockets when the interviewer asks him what Liverpool need to compete with Manchester United and Chelsea. You gotta hand it to Gillett, he not only knows whats going on, but hes rammin it home. CASH BABY! CASH!!! Cold hard cash like you’d never believe.
Tevez is on his way! His agent is friends with Benitez and if Benitez doesn’t use that advantage plus the fact that Tevez’s close friend Mascherano is already at Lpool and that hes got all this dough then hes a retard. Liverpool have the foundations in place, the “spine” as they say. Just one or two world class creative player and we’ll be there. Teves and Quaresma would really push us forward.
Recently its been said that Benitez is quite “wary” of star players based on the fact that he didn’t play Aimar regularly when he was at Valencia. Erm…..is it me but did Valencia not win 2 la liga titles and a UEFA Cup. In that case was he not justified in dropping Aimar. Some people eh? It was so refreshing to hear then that “quality” is what Liverpool need in order to challenge on all fronts. Benitez not hesitating in stating that this was the clear and defining difference between Milan and Liverpool in the final.
The inference is then that quality is what he will buy…and usually when you buy quality, they tend to be star players, something which Benitez is apparently afraid of. Being a quality player and a star player tend not to be mutually exclusive. If you’re real quality then you’re a real star, but even more so when you’re an attacking player. Benitez will buy star players because hes not a fag who can’t see that thats the only way you can compete and actually win titles and champion leagues. That would be the real hard pragmatism in keeping with Benitez.
To end, Benitez gave me as a Liverpool fan the biggest sign yet in his interviews after the Champions Leauge Final that he his deadly serious about winning the league and european cup when he said that UNLESS THINGS CHANGE DRASTICALLY AS SOON AS THEY LAND IN J LENNON AIRPORT LPOOL ON AND OFF THE PITCH THEN LPOOL WILL CONTINUE COMPETING FOR 4TH PLACE.
Stick that in your pipe and SMOKE IT!!
Buying the title, won’t that mar your history? Lol
If you have a look at the last 6-7 seasons … there are so many players that Liverpool have have bought for say 4-5 million, but who have left Liverpool after a handful of games. On the other hand, have a look at Man Utd for instance. They spent arounf 29 on Rio … will play I guess 10 yrs … 20 on Rooney … Maybe 15 years … 12 on Ronaldo … Atleast 4-5 years and will easily get around 30-35 when they sell him. The Carrick example in the article. He is 25 and could easily stay at the club for 7-8 years. I think Liverpool would have been a lot closer to the top 2 if they had made such top quality investments rather than buy 6-7 avg players who play 20-25 matches before they leave (gonzalez, aurelio, Cisse …… the list goes on)
Also the last 5-6 seasons Liverpool’s net spending has been more than Man Utd’s which obviously means that they have been spending on the wrong players.
When has any English team spent £35m on a transfer fee for one player? And Benitez has spent more than £50m (there’s a full list in today’s papers).
It will be good to see him buy loads of Spanish players (Morientes anyone?), making Liverpool a Spanish version of France-nal. That’ll be good for the English game.
And as for the statement: “Benitez will buy star players because hes not a fag”. Don’t really know where to start with that particular pearl of wisdom.
Since Rafa is here, he actually spent 100 million on players, and majority of them r flops. United buying the Premiership? So what about the era of beckham, scholes, nevilles, butt, giggs when United won the League.
Ritesh - you have a poor memory.
Djemba Djemba
Kleberson
Forlan
Taibi
Barthez
Veron
Bellion
Howard
You lost money on all of those ‘average’ (I use the term loosely) players. They weren’t there for the long term either.
Liverpool under Rafa
2007
Jermaine Pennant Birmingham £ 6700000 26-07-2006
Dirk Kuyt Feyenoord £ 9000000 18-08-2006
Alvaro Arbeloa Deportivo £ 2600000 31-01-2007
Total: £ 18300000
2006
Jose Reina Villarreal £ 6000000 04-07-2005
Mark Gonzalez Albacete £ 4500000 04-07-2005
Mohamed Sissoko Valencia £ 5600000 13-07-2005
Peter Crouch Southampton £ 7000000 20-07-2005
Daniel Agger Brondby £ 5800000 12-01-2006
Craig Bellamy Blackburn £ 6000000 22-06-2006
Gabriel Paletta Banfield £ 2000000 01-07-2006 T
Total: £ 36900000
2005
Josemi Malaga £ 2000000 27-07-2004
Luis Garcia Barcelona £ 6000000 01-08-2004
Xabi Alonso Sociedad £ 10500000 01-08-2004
Fernando Morientes Real Madrid £ 6300000 13-01-2005
Scott Carson Leeds £ 750000 21-01-2005
Total: £ 25550000
2004
Steve Finnan Fulham £ 3500000 01-07-2003
Harry Kewell Leeds £ 5000000 09-07-2003
Djibril Cisse Auxerre £ 14000000 01-07-2004
Total: £ 22500000
£22500000
£25550000
£36900000
£18300000
________+
£103,250,000
Thats a load of money he has just spent it badly
Man United
2007
Michael Carrick Tottenham £ 18600000 31-07-2006
Total: £ 18600000
2006
Ji-Sung Park PSV Eindhoven £ 4000000 05-07-2005
Ben Foster Stoke £ 1000000 19-07-2005
Nemanja Vidic Spartak Moscow £ 7000000 04-01-2006
Patrice Evra Monaco £ 5500000 10-01-2006
£Total: £ 17500000
2005
Wayne Rooney Everton £ 20000000 31-08-2004
Edwin Van der Sar Fulham Signed 01-06-2005
Total: £ 20000000
2004
David Bellion Sunderland £ 2000000 01-07-2003
Eric Djemba-Djemba Nantes £ 3500000 03-07-2003
Tim Howard MetroStars £ 2300000 15-07-2003
Kleberson Paranaense £ 5930000 12-08-2003
Cristiano Ronaldo Sporting Lisbon £ 12240000 12-08-2003
Dong Fangzhou Dalian Shide £ 500000 12-01-2004
Louis Saha Fulham £ 12820000 23-01-2004
Alan Smith Leeds £ 7000000 27-05-2004
Gabriel Heinze Paris St-G. £ 6900000 11-06-2004
Total: £ 53190000
53190000
20000000
17500000
18600000
_______+
109,290,000
Mark Hobbs … You did not get the point of my post. At the end of the day, Manchester United are the champions and are consistently much more successful than Liverpool because they make the big investments when there is an opportunity. By choosing higher quality players, in spite of the few mistakes, Man Uts have make sure they have world class players in almost every position.
I am just trying to say that … at the end of the day Liverpool have spent more than Man U … and still have managed to have some average players in the starting line-up.
Also, some of your transfers always will fail. But it is about finding the right kind of players to do the job. Liverpool’s defence has been quite decent for a few years now and they have lacked in the goal scoring department. But you look at the players he has brought in. The strikers are not consistent for 25 goals a season (Kuyt can be) … and Gerrard is the only one from midfield that you can rely on for any sort of goal scoring contribution.
There, there, Arvin. You’ll be over the final soon.
You’d do well to bear in mind that spending big can mean very little. Would it really be so odd if the club brought in three ‘big’ players for next season, then proceeded to finish 22 points behind the champions instead of 21? Not in my view.
The key is on the training pitch. Have you ever seen Manchester United warm up pre-match? A very quick keep-ball six-a-side session aimed at honing their movement. It allows the side, often regardless of who actually plays on match day, to express itself.
It is pointless bringing in the world’s best if you’ve a conservative approach to the game; if your training sessions are aimed at making sure you ‘double-up’ when you don’t have the ball. I have no idea, of course, if this is the case with Benitez and Liverpool, but there’s plenty of evidence of it on a Saturday.
Oddly enough, Benitez was so successful at Valencia by adopting a pass-and-move strategy allied to sound defensive positioning. Ironically, one of the best examples of this that I can recall was during a 2-0 win for Valencia over Liverpool at The Mestalla a few years back under the leadership of Benitez.
But he does not seem to have brought the same approach with him to England. Maybe it’s the coaches.
Either way, it doesn’t matter how much money you spend, or who you bring in, if you aren’t getting it right on the training pitch.
Jose Mourinho, incredibly successful at Chelsea, is often accused of hindering expression and drumming in the importance of organisation, but the quality of Chelsea’s football is often criminally overlooked.
Liverpool have done fantastically well against Chelsea recently, but the London sides 4-1 win at Anfield was the only game in which both teams opened up and played football. Look what happened.
Good luck for next season, but a change in attitude, not necessarily players, will reap the most rewards.
From a Manchester United fan. You might have heard of us. We’re the champions.
ritesh
You don’t need old mentor such as AF to win CL….he had tried 20 over years yet he failed???
“Liverpool have spent more than Man U … and still have managed to have some average players in the starting line-up.”
That’s because Benitez had to overhaul his entire squad on a limited budget. We had the likes of Dudek, Traore, Diao, Diouf, Cisse (Houllier bought - not Benitez like you insinuated), Baros, Cheyrou etc etc etc. Fergie has built his own squad over 20 years. He’s had some crap in that time. Anyone remember Quinton Fortune or Jordi Cruyff?
If I didn’t get the point of your post then I would put that down to you not being clear enough. You said we have spent money on the wrong players but then go on to contradict yourself and say that some transfers will always fail. Do you have a point?
If your ONLY point is that Liverpool have to aim for bigger transfer targets then surely that was the point of the article?
Ritesh,
Maybe you fail to understand that even though the team of 2005 won the CL, the team was actually void of any quality or strength in depth. That team finished 5th below Everton for god sake!
Next year he clear out the dead waste which houllier had managed to bring in and with his 20-25 mil kitty he had to buy 10 or so players! Its not easy to do that. At the same time he had to complete the spine by bringing in Reina. Buying low budget players have a problem of may or maynot survive! There chance of survival is merge compared to higher quality players. This caused benitez to clear the players he didnt think would adapt and again had to buy 5-6 players. Again the same situation.
Now he will need one world class striker and a winger to complete the spine and then a 2-3 decent signings to complete the squad.
Spending a NET of 50 mil for a club who is trying to compete for the league and reached 2 European Cups is good! I will tell you what would have happened if we followed the other model.
————————Dudek/Kirkland———————-
-Finnan/Neill—-Carra/titus(on free)—-Hyppia/Paletta—–Riise/Traore-
-Gerrard/Ciise—-Alonso(10 mil)/Zenden—-Hamman/Biscan—Kewell(neveron pitch)/Garcia(6 mil)-
————–Kuyt(10 mil)/Baros—-Fowler/Eto(never will come with that team -25 mil)
You think this team will be any better than what we played! Imagine any injuries?
I checked out some stats web sites recently and calculated how much the top 4 have spent in the last 5 years. I picked 5 years so it covered Rooney, Ferdinand and Ronaldo purchases, all the Abramovich era and is long enough to make a worthwhile average. It therefore covers some of Houlier time at Liverpool. I also covered player sales in that time too. Some figures might be a bit dodgy as they are often one figure rising to another after appearances etc. But anyway….I found the net spend was:
Chelsea 280M
Liverpool 80M
Man Utd 63M
Arsenal 18M
Surprised that Liverpool have spent more than Man Utd? Don´t forget Man Utd sold Beckham for 25M and RVN for 10M. These figures don’t include buying Veron but they don’t include selling Stam for a profit either.
The biggest difference is that the top players (ie the ones who actually play) at Man Utd include Neville, Giggs, Scholes, Fletcher, Richardson, O’Shea, Brown and now Chris Eagles. All home grown. And Man Utd have recently sold Butt and Phil Neville. What home-grown players do Liverpool have? Gerrard and Carragher. Any more? So, Liverpool have been spending big for a while now. They just need to spend about 5-10M on virtually every player in the squad. When you have so many home-grown players you can afford a few Rooneys. Oh and last summer Man Utd may have paid a lot for Carrick but they sold RVN and John Obi Mikel and overall made a profit on transfers.
So, you scousers need to ask why your youth academy is not producing the bread and butter squad players. Fergie may have taken a few years to start winning trophies but during that time he was doing the background work which produced the Giggs and Beckhams. Oh and for all those who say he has bought titles you will find that he won 7 titles in 9 years BEFORE Rooney, Ferdinand and Veron. He had players like Cantona, Kanchelskis, Schmichael, Hughes, Sharpe, Giggs, Irwin. There are no Ronaldinhos is that list! There have been a few mistakes but over 20 years Fergie has shown he is a master of transfer business, knowing when to buy and when to sell and continually keeping the team in top 3 for 16 years.
I have to agree with Ritesh, Mark. Liverpool have bought loads of average players over the years but what has been the point? Man Utd have invested ‘big’ on certain players to get what they want, sometimes you have to and i think you realise this. The thing about utd of late (past 5 years) we have generally sold as we have bought. You name Carrick in the article yet Utd sold more than they bought last year money wise and yet became champions. I have no doubts Liverpool have spent more ‘net’ wise than Man Utd over past 5 seasons. Remember Veron, Obi Mikel, Van horseface, and Becks have all left for big money in that time (granted Veron was a total flop of the biggest kind - still Chelski paid big bucks, crazy huh!).
Mark Hobbs, Quinton Fortune and Jordi Cruyff were cheap squad players who were bought as squad players to fill in when the top players are rested. Until Abramovich came along that was the way to do it. Chelsea can now spend 15M or 20M on a squad players but you shouldn’t think of Cruyff and Fortune as failures.
I am sorry. Maybe my knowledge on Liverpool’s transfers isn’t great and maybe inadequate. But just looking at the numbers … something just does not add up.
Tevez won’t sign for a small club.
Another point in the transfers …. I think even in areas where SAF hasnt spent big money … he seems to have brought in better players … Look at Vidic, Evra, Van der Sar, Park, etc.
I like the fact that you talk about your best premiership poits tally was the “year before last”. So, no mention of the fact you were 27 points behind Man Ure this season and a only 37 points behind Chelsea when they won their first Premiership (this same year you lot were saying you were the best team in Europe!). The bottom line is you have 1 quality player (Ickle Stevie!) and it will cost a bit more than the £50 million you have to replace the other 10 average players you have. Good luck on your assault on the Champs league again because I think we all know the premiership is usually over by Christmas for you lot!
Liam is a small kid.
You can’t just say that Benitez hasn’t had the chance to buy big names, because he’s had to overhaul the squad. In 2006 he spent £30 mil and brought in average players like Pennant, Kuyt, Bellamy and Paletta (last one below average, nearing useless). In stead he could have bought 2 top quality players for £15 mil each, but he chose not to and ended up with an ineffective winger and 2 strikers whose best quality is to defend. He did get one right with Agger.
Rafa’s latest signing is a young brazilian coming from the brazilian league and an argentinian winger…how many of that kind have succeeded in the PL?
Liverpool have spent so much money in the past 3 years that even SAF must be envious. I’m pretty sure, you’ll get Simao who’s an excellent player and will add a lot to your game. Other than him I can’t see what top quality players you can prize away from their clubs…Torres (£25 mil), Villa (£30 mil), Eto’o (£35 mil and not £25 mil as someone stated)? First you have to be willing to pay the big figures, and then you have to convince the clubs to sell and the players to come…all players either playing for really good teams (better than Liverpool) or really loving their club.
And I forgot - you have to consider the possibility of both Chelsea and Man United improving vastly as well, so it’s not like we’ll be standing still and letting you eat up the 21 points.
We’ve already (almost) secured one of the best DM’s in the world, which should add a little quality.
f*ck all mate, crackin season, crackin manager, crackin final, ow’s about you try in all competitions next season, you may just fluke a trophy like in Istanbul..!
I believe Benitez is a great coach. Tactically, he is one of the best. Transfer-wise…I think he can learn from Wenger…
I say this, including below with the greatest respect (please don’t get me wrong)
I believe Liverpool:
1. have cash available
2. will invest in players
3. buy half of Spain/Agentina
4. will end up 3rd/4th again next season.
Reason:
Benetez is not at the point where he can ’stabilize’ the team yet. The fact that he (and the liverpool fans) is linked with almost half the players ‘out there’ shows that the entire team composition is a bit ‘touchy-feely’. Its almost as if the approach is “lets buy 10, and next season we’ll sell the 8 that don’t make it”.
All that said, I think he is almost there with the team, and whemn he does get there, they will be ‘almost’ unstoppable. Let’s just hope they don’t get rid of him before then.
Funny how when people talk of expensive transfer flops Juan Veron always comes up - Hindsight is such a wonderful thing isn’t it. When Veron signed for United I can’t recall any of the so called experts saying anything other than Man Utd had signed the best midfielder in the world - A class act, nailed on for player of the year before he had even kicked a ball. At the time I think pretty much any scribe would have had Veron knocking around their world XI’s - As it happens it didn’t work out, but look at Fergies other big Money signings across 20 years;
Pallister - Success
Keane - Success
Cole - Success
Yorke - Success
Stam - Success
Ruud - Success
Rio - Success
Rooney - Success
Ronaldo - Success
Not a bad effort really, only Veron and Saha (And maybe Neil Webb for the older readers) really stick out as expensive buys who have not worked. Lets see if Benitez can match this, whilst playing attractive, attacking football and competing in all comps instead of just 1. In all honesty I doubt Chelsea or United would take anyone apart from Gerrard from Liverpool to make their starting 11 - Maybe Alonso/Mascherano or Carragher but are they better than Vidic/Terry or Hargreaves/Mikel - not much. Liverpool need 5 or 6 new players, not just 1 or 2.
It won’t mar their history Norman. They bought it enough in the 80’s.
Anyway they haven’t made any history for ages, they just talk about it.
The only club to make history this season is Chelsea by winning the first FA cup final at the new Wembley after winning the last FA cup final at the old Wembley.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Arvin, or whatever your name is. Loser springs to mind.
“If Benitez isn’t the right man to lead Liverpool to a title then I don’t know who is. Until now he hasn’t spent nowhere near as much as Manchester United or Chelsea. His next expenditure since he took over stands at approximatley £50m which equates to £16.7m per season.
Er……… HELLO - thats less than what Manchester United payed for Micheal “freakin” Carrick.”
Clearly your analogy here is mistaken, you use Benitez’s net profits whilst only considering United’s expenditure. You forget that in the same transfer period we also sold Mikel and RVN for a total of 22.2 million (going from Ahmed’s figures in an article last year). That means Ferguson actually made a profit for that year (whilst, obviously, Benitez had to spend big to rebuild his squad).
More importantly I think your are mistaken when you say that Benitez will do better than Ferguson with vast sums of money simply because he has managed to get results with average sums. Using your vast sums of money is not quite as easy as it sounds, nor is making a serious challenge for the Premiership. I remember when Tevez and Mascherano were signed by West Ham, people started talking about them challenging for a top four spot - which obviously never materialized. At the end of the day once they’re at the club the price tag doesn’t matter, they’ve still got to play good football consistently. And regardless of what you think of Ferguson and Mourinho, both have done that exceptionally well (though I personally think that to lump those together into the same area as managers of teams that bought the premiership is wrong, don’t forget that Fergie balances his buys out by using homegrown players as the core of the club).
errrrr. . . . benitez has spent over £95million . . . . the expected future injection of wealth into liverpool fc will only result in guaranteed squandering of even more money. . . . benitez has a proven record of achieving and an undoubted ability to waste spend foolishly
People, let us not get too worked up here. Let’s instead laugh out loud. This post is the result of what is known as ‘That Great Hope’. Hope that’s lasted the test of time (17 years). You will see Pool fans every year rant out about the next season being THE season. So hand it to him.
On a more serious note, Benitez must spend next season on proven strikers at least. Only way he can make Pool challenge for the title. And about the thing on Aimar, he was injured most of the time and Benitez’s rotation system worked in La liga.
Haven’t you got anything better to do? Get out and find yourself a job you lazy, scouse scrounger!
Arvin, i think you talk a lot of sense there! I’m a massive liverpool fan and believe it or not i was not too dissapointed about our Champions League loss as i know we are going places with our new owners
Liverpool one of the most successful clubs in the world will always be able to attract top players such is the history of the club.
The real question would be why would liverpool pay the inflated price for tevez when he has only played one english season. To look good at west ham means nothing. Liverpool has loacked a true striker since robbie fowler and micheal owen and with out signing a new striker they will struggle, but with players like torres admitting their liking of liverpool they will not have to settle for another unproven in tevez, excpext a big striker signing at least, there midfeild is strong and in some ways overpacked good players like alonso and sissiko dont want to sit on the bench, they also need to sign at least one more quality back.They will have to spend at least 2omil on each if they want quality,so the extra transfer money will make a big difference but it will take more than one season to compete with the squads of man u and chelsea. Liverpool will still be fighting for third for the next couple of seasons at least
carefree - nope.
RR - Rafa’s rotation system worked because the top La Liga teams haven’t shown (then or now) the sort of consistency that Chelsea have shown in the last three years. You need to get 80+ points just to ‘play’ for 2nd place, top spot is late 80s / early 90s.
Rafa hasn’t adjusted to this yet.
lets face it the scousers have had 17 barren years without the league and the gap has grown to 21 points,its not just benitez but the idiots before him as well who wasted all that money.
anyway the scousers have been trying to buy the title for nearly 2 decades without any success so why will it happen next season ? united will be stronger so will arsenal and chelski sorry you scousers looks like 4th place next year
I agree with Ahmed.
Benitez can slurge on all the players he wants to this summer but in the end he will be chasing third or even fourth (if Tottenham keep Berbatov and get their arses in line) come season’s end. In the EPL to be at the top you need consistency something Rafa is yet to realize as he is always making formation, player changes before matches. He’s a great tactician, no arguements about that, but his brilliance is hampered by his refusal to adapt to the English game.
Everyone thinks that now that gilete and hicks are here they are going to turn liverpool’s fortunes around. Bullshit ! I dont know why everyone thinks that liverpool have lacked the cash and are not able to compete financially with united and chelsea. As some of the guys have mentioned above, the figures prove that not only have liverpool had more money to spend but have bought more players as well. All the stats prove just one thing, benitez does not know how to spend his money well. Sure he made some great buys in agger and alonso but the majority of his buys are shit. Last season united spend 18 million on one player while liverpool spent it on 3. Fergie’s policy is, you buy best, you buy once. Rafa’s is buy as many and keep rotating and throw out the rubbish ones. Now lets look at this season, liverpool were 22 points behind united ! sure they made it too the carling cup final but united made it to the fa cup. and CL ? well united got knocked out in the semis by the eventual winners. If the manager chooses to spend his money on numbers rather than quality, then that is the shortcomings in the manager, not the club not giving financial support. The title of your article is bullshit too. United have not bought the prem. Yes Chelsea have but United spent money on QUALITY players to improve a squad made up mostly of homegrown players. So it comes down to 3 things. 1) rafa transfer policy sucks ass, 2) liverpool isnt producing the free homegrown squad players and 3) your an idiot and your article is rubbish.
Rafa has been guaranteed a big transfer kitty (approx. 50 mil). How will he spend it? Wisely i hope. Looking back, many have commented on Rafa’s tansfer policy/buying strategy.
Maybe he has invested poorly in some fringe players. But think of it, if u had a 20-25 mil transfer kitty per season and inherited a squad bu Houlier, what would someone in his position do? Pay more for a single player or buy few players to rotate. As a liverpool fan, i believe that he has bought much better players as compared to Houlier. Of coz there are flops.. but most of them are gone.
In the following season, i hope Rafa buys properly. Buying big names may not necessarily fit to liverpool’s style of playing. Hope he buys quality players and start building a team rather than buying fringe players.
I hope the liverpool squad to look like this next season:
Outs:
1. Dudek (Summer)
2. Zenden (Summer)
3. Bellamy (Summer)
4. Fowler (Summer)
5. Gonzalez (Summer)
6. Hyppia (Summer)
Ins:
1. Villa (20 mil?)
2. Van Der Vaart (8-10 mil?)
3. Alves (12 mil?)
4. Milito (8-10 mil?)
5. Vorinin (Free)
6. Lato (8 mil)
7. Lucas (8 mil)
8. Lahm (8-10mil)
9. Simao (12 mil)
10. Etoo/Tevez (25mil/15 mil)
Squad:
GK: Reina (Padelli, Carson - loan)
RB: Lahm (Finnan, Abreloa - loan/sold)
LB: Riise (Aurelio)
CB: Milito (Hyppia/Palleta)
CB: Carragher (Agger)
RM: Alves (Pennant)
LM: Simao (Kewell)
CM: Gerrard (Van Der Vaart)
DM: Alonso (Mascherano,Sisoko)
ST: Etoo/Tevez (Crouch, Voronin)
ST: Villa (Kuyt)
Depending on the formation…
Very over optimistic… but hopefully it come true.
Whatever Rafa has done wrong in the past, hopefully he can make amends in the forthcoming season(s). lets see what Rafa can do with the money given to him. Judge him after 2-3 seasons. Hopefully, liverpool can be serious contenders for the title from the get-go from next season onwards. Winning it will be a bonus. But for all true liverpool fans, a realistic target would be winning the premiership in the next 2-3 seasons.
Well first of all, if you add your lowest suggested price for each of the ins together, you get £99 mil, which isn’t exactly close to £50 mil (if you got that much). Second of all the prices on many of the players are too low (for most of them you should add about £5 mil - for some maybe even more).
Lastly…I find it very very unlikely that one club should buy 7-8 big names in one summer (not even in 2 summers). And remember that if any of the players are actually for sale, other clubs will be after them as well.
Liverpool’s transfers ins/outs:
Ins
1. Voronin
2. Villa
3. Tevez
4. Daniel Alves
5. Milito
6. Lucas
7. Simao
Outs
1. Dudek
2. Fowler
3. Zenden
4. Hyypia
5. Gonzalez
6. Bellamy
7. Sissoko
Here’s what i hope the Liverpool line-up to be next season:
GK Reina (Padelli)
RB Finnan (Arbeloa)
CB Carragher (Paletta)
CB Milito (Agger)
LB Riise (Aurelio)
RM Alves (Pennant)
CM Gerrard (Alonso)
CM Mascherano (Lucas)
LM Simao (Kewell)
CF Villa (Kuyt)
CF Tevez (Crouch)
HAHAH Ben Paul do you not realize that there are some FANTASTIC players in the list you made of “Benetez’s bad buys” there’s alonso= quality, crouch=scores vital goals, Finnan= best rb in prem, reina= quality keeper, Kuyt= scored plenty of goals for a 1st season, sissoko= been brilliant, garcia= great player, theres just so many great players there, and in that manu list is a load of rubbish!
I think a lot of Liverpool’s fans will be immensely disappointed, if the general thought is, the club will spend £100+ mil on transfers…it’s just rediculous. But I certainly see that Rafa has psyched you all up to believe that’s the amount you’re going to spend.
Villa, Tevez, Alves, Simao and Milito will cost 30 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 15 (at least) - good luck I say.
Well, all liverpool fans will be having a dream of their own now… I guess its the first time any liverpool fan has seen any signs of liverpool’s ability to attract and buy quality players.
In my previous comment, those players are my “dream signings”. But i left out David Villa. Honestly, are all the signings possible? Doubt it. It represents a major revamp in the liverpool squad. And as many have commented, liverpool do not have that much money to spend.
Possible way to overcome. Buy where necessary… e.g a damn good striker… maybe villa or tevez. Alves and Simao deals looks good.
Anything extra would be a gain. Lahm would be a great addition while Van Der Vaart would be an instant kop favourite. Today’s trf rumours said liverpool might bid for malouda. So many rumors surronding liverpool this round.
Only thing i hope is that liverpool have all their targets in mind and make quick approaches for them.
liverpool should go for david trezeguet who has stalled on contract negotations with juve. Liverpool must sign a 20 goal striker to compete
well said
so much of tunes amoungst everybody but lets not talk about
the previous seasons and the next season and let it all end on the final season played….
C.L : A.C MILAN
F.A: CHELSEA
L : UNITED
has anybody seen liverfools around lately…..they got greeced!I guess the only thing they got this season was KAKA!(sh*t).They need to stop talking about what they going to get, what they got 2005, and move on cos 2yrs later they still got nothing.
THE ONLY GOOD THING KUYTS DONE ALL SEASON WAS PUSH OVER KALOU in the CL semi final, so agger scored HAHA
that was so funny when i watched it - chelsea lose again because liverpool have obviously paid off the officials - in 2005 there was no way luis garcia scored, and this year kuyt takes out the man who was marking agger, so he had an easy shot at goal
kuyt could have at least stayed onside for his “goal” aswell!! LOL
i dont really like the way chelsea play footy, but liverpool were awful in the semi final and the final, ok so they played well against PSV, but did nothing else good the whole competition!!
I know arsenal were awful, but they deserved to go out when they did, but liverpool get false credit for getting to the final again by luck and cheating