Liverpool Fc @ Anfield - Reds Supporters Gatherings

[beck7777]

Part Two

Total sold: £36.75m

2009/10 net spend: £10,000


Total Players Bought: £228,976,000
Total Players Sold: £145,100,000

Total Net Spend: £83,876,000


So, that’s a total spend of just over £83m in 5 years at the club. An average of £16.6m a year.

The vast majority of his signings have been sold at profit, or if still at the club, are worth a lot more than we paid for them. Exceptions being Babel and Dossena, but we’ll still get decent fees for them when sold as they’re full internationals.

A lot of the signings above have been stepping stones in rebuilding the squad, gradually improving it by replacing players with better ones. Our league positions over the past 5 years and the improvement in our league positions and points totals show the progression.

2004/05: Finished 5th – 58 pts
2005/06: Finished 3rd – 82 pts
2006/07: Finished 3rd – 68 pts
2007/08: Finished 4th – 76 pts
2008/09: Finished 2nd – 86 pts

Is it any coincidence that the progression seems to have stopped this summer? Look at the transfer activity above for this year and it might explain why.

We have a wage bill that is the 5th highest in the league. We can’t afford to pay players £70,000 to be sat on the bench like United and Chelsea can.

Rafa Benitez’ record with signings at the top end of the market is nothing short of brilliant. Robbie Keane being the only flop, but he was sold 6 months later and only a small financial hit taken on that mistake. Rick Parry agreed the fee for buying him in the first place, and common knowledge Rafa wasn’t happy with it; feeling it was far too high.

Where has this myth come from that he’s wasted money on shite players? Have a look through the lists above and try to point them out. There isn’t many.

The ones that haven’t worked out he’s moved on, and not very often has he made a financial loss on them.

The squad is now worth a hell of a lot more than the one he inherited, and that £83m net spend over 5 years is easily offset by the increased value of the squad. He’d recoup nearly all of that through the sale of Torres alone!

He’s worked absolute wonders with the money he’s had to spend. Then take into account the massive amounts of money he’s self generated by reaching the latter stages of the CL every season. Two final appearances, one win. That £83m he’s spent he’s earned the right to spend.

And when comparing it to what United have spent in the same period is flawed, as they already had a title winning squad and all the foundations in place. They weren’t rebuilding from scratch like we were. It also doesn’t take into account their massive wage bill.

When comparing to Chelsea, they spent all their money before Rafa came to the club and just topping up an already established squad.

Man City have spent more than double in the past 12 months than Rafa Benitez has in his 5 year reign.

Do some people still want to get rid of him? If so, you’ve been listening to Martin Tyler's Monkey and the hairy-handed halfwit for too much and unable to look at the facts yourself to form an opinion.

Every manager makes tactical mistakes. Every manager makes mistakes in the transfer market. Despite what the press seem to think; Rafael Benitez appears to make less mistakes than most.

We’re expected to win the league and European Cup on a budget and wage bill that is entitled to finish 4th or 5th in the league. We’ve been overachieving under Rafael Benitez, not underachieving.

I’m not even going to mention the environment he’s working in under them two clowns.

You’ll only miss him when he’s gone….

[rahl]

Originally Posted by beck7777

I’m not even going to mention the environment he’s working in under them two clowns.

You’ll only miss him when he’s gone….

Excellent as usual, bro.

There are 2 sorts of anguish when the club is not doing well: one, is the results, the other, the fans who stamp on the team, manager and club when they are down.

[_AXL_]

Originally Posted by beck7777

Every manager makes tactical mistakes. Every manager makes mistakes in the transfer market. Despite what the press seem to think; Rafael Benitez appears to make less mistakes than most.

We’re expected to win the league and European Cup on a budget and wage bill that is entitled to finish 4th or 5th in the league. We’ve been overachieving under Rafael Benitez, not underachieving.

I’m not even going to mention the environment he’s working in under them two clowns.

You’ll only miss him when he’s gone….[/COLOR]

outstanding post, bro.

nothing wrong with rafa actually. for those who are clamouring for jose mourinho to take over, i sincerely believe he will take up the challenge, if offered. but is the guy any better than rafa??? besides his superior man-management skills, i dont think he is any better than rafa. and i believe jose will take time for his man-management skills to work, cos most of the players left in the liverpool squad now already learnt how to motivate themselves. moreover, with jose, he has had a lot of spending budget in his last 2 clubs. so, he is still unproven when managing a club with limited spending abilities.

the only rant i have for rafa is that he always looks ahead into the future. he is always managing with the next game in mind. i confessed that during the fulham game, when torres was subbed out in the 60th minute, i was hoping for fulham to score and rub it in the face of rafa. so that he will learn that bloody lesson if this happens often enough. fulham deserves respect which rafa failed to accord, and liverpool got beaten. other than that, dont think anybody has anything to begrudge rafa...

if there is anyone to blame, it is the 2 clown owners and the bloody idiot moore who sold out to them. and will someone tell souness to shut his fucking trap??? everyone in the world can criticise rafa, just not him!!! he is the biggest bungling idiot who brought liverpool down!!!

i dont know about u guys, but supporting liverpool is different from supporting some kungfu-kick team. remember the years when chelsea were dominant and the supporters of that kungfu team all went underground??? cos they couldnt take the ribbing. think why they get so much stick when they dont win???

supporting liverpool means we are here, regardless whether we win any trophies. not as often as we like, but we are still here. liverpool dont win that many trophies, but at least we dont need to hide when they are not winning. but the honourless knight has got 1 thing right. it doesnt matter if his team loses 4-1 to liverpool at old toilet. it is only 3 points, the same 3 points he gets from beating the weak teams, or teams managed by steve bruce. only his fans get insulted for getting walloped upside down, not him. and he knew that his fans wont get lost trying to get to the same underground hole to hide from the total humiliation.

in rafa we trust. YNWA.

[bochapsing]

Originally Posted by beck7777

So, that’s a total spend of just over £83m in 5 years at the club. An average of £16.6m a year.

A lot of the signings above have been stepping stones in rebuilding the squad, gradually improving it by replacing players with better ones.

We have a wage bill that is the 5th highest in the league. We can’t afford to pay players £70,000 to be sat on the bench like United and Chelsea can.

Where has this myth come from that he’s wasted money on shite players? Have a look through the lists above and try to point them out. There isn’t many.

The ones that haven’t worked out he’s moved on, and not very often has he made a financial loss on them.

And when comparing it to what United have spent in the same period is flawed, as they already had a title winning squad and all the foundations in place.

When comparing to Chelsea, they spent all their money before Rafa came to the club and just topping up an already established squad.

Man City have spent more than double in the past 12 months than Rafa Benitez has in his 5 year reign.

Do some people still want to get rid of him? If so, you’ve been listening to Martin Tyler's Monkey and the hairy-handed halfwit for too much and unable to look at the facts yourself to form an opinion.

We’re expected to win the league and European Cup on a budget and wage bill that is entitled to finish 4th or 5th in the league. We’ve been overachieving under Rafael Benitez, not underachieving.

I’m not even going to mention the environment he’s working in under them two clowns.

You’ll only miss him when he’s gone….

brilliant post, bro...

fully agreed with u..

[beck7777]

Ehh, dont reply as if I write the whole post leh..

I already mentioned is cut and paste from an oversea LFC forum which I feel makes alot of sense....

[beck7777]

Another article for bro AXL, who hate Souness to the core!

PS. AXL, you confirm will enjoy this!

The mess between 1991 and 1994 bears no resemblance to the current situation. Souness could field a team with an average of almost 50% of the transfer record; meaning by today’s standards, the average for each player in the XI would be £16m. Benítez has never got close to this; the only other Liverpool manager who did was Roy Evans.

Souness won 41% of his matches, compared with Benítez’s 57%. Souness had one good cup run, and even then he won the FA Cup facing only one top-division team; Benítez’s FA Cup, with Manchester United and Chelsea defeated along the way, was won against far better opposition, as was his Champions League success, while the two cup finals he lost were to AC Milan and Chelsea; hardly cannon fodder.

So for someone like Souness to imply that Benítez should be sacked is scandalous. He signed just one outright success, Rob Jones, and two or three players who had one, maybe two good seasons.

For those who haven’t read Dynasty, Souness spent the equivalent of £23m on Paul Stewart, £32.5m on Dean Saunders, £25m on Mark Wright, £25m on Neil Ruddock, £22m on Julian Dicks, £20m on Nigel Clough, £15.5m on Michael Thomas and £14m on Mark Walters.

(The record transfer fee is now roughly ten times what it was during Souness’ reign. Each of these totals is taken as a comparison of the transfer record at the time; in other words, as Dean Saunders set a new British record, he’s the equivalent of Robinho. At 52% of the record later in 1991, Michael Thomas’ fee can be taken at £15.5m by today’s terms.)

Yes, that’s how utterly useless Souness was.

(And I’ve not included his less-expensive flops, like Piechnik and Kozma, as I think too much is made of cheap punts that go wrong.)

But they have no shame, these pundits. No shame, and no self-awareness. At least Souness had the balls to manage; but at Liverpool he did it so fucking badly. So surely you’d slink off into the sunset and not utter a word?

I mean, has he yet to correct himself for saying a year ago that Yossi Benayoun is not good enough to play for Liverpool?

Some others simply defy understanding.

[_AXL_]

Originally Posted by beck7777

Another article for bro AXL, who hate Souness to the core!

PS. AXL, you confirm will enjoy this!]

u r damn right... i really enjoyed the article. exactly what i have been saying but this guy actually went and did the stats. the only success souness had was that he was forced to play a certain 17-year old robbie fowler, which cost him nothing from the academy.

But they have no shame, these pundits. No shame, and no self-awareness. At least Souness had the balls to manage; but at Liverpool he did it so fucking badly. So surely you’d slink off into the sunset and not utter a word?

I mean, has he yet to correct himself for saying a year ago that Yossi Benayoun is not good enough to play for Liverpool?

Some others simply defy understanding.

it is liverpool's misfortune that souness had the balls to manage the team. souness did not only do badly for liverpool, he has ALWAYS done badly as a manager. blackburn, relegation candidates until mark hughes took over and took them to europe. and then newcastle was stupid enough to engage his services, and he was the one who started newcastle's slide. wrong end of the table everytime, regardless what team he leads. christmas wish would be souness to take over as manager when the honourless knight kicks the bucket.

[omnia]

playing Voronin instead of Babel fm the outset in both the Fulham n Lyon games was a big mistake...taking Benny off at Craven Cottage was a big mistake...not keeping Sammi for another yr n taking on Kryg instead was a big mistake...

sorrie but to me it is no longer En Rafa Confiamos...

Originally Posted by _AXL_

. other than that, dont think anybody has anything to begrudge rafa...

in rafa we trust.

[rahl]

Originally Posted by _AXL_

and will someone tell souness to shut his fucking trap??? everyone in the world can criticise rafa, just not him!!! he is the biggest bungling idiot who brought liverpool down!!!

Souness is an idiot who is to be blamed for having us fall as far as we did. But it does nothing for Rafa to be compared with him

Hell, where have you been, forum's been falling silent without your interventions LOL

[_AXL_]

Originally Posted by omnia

playing Voronin instead of Babel fm the outset in both the Fulham n Lyon games was a big mistake...taking Benny off at Craven Cottage was a big mistake...not keeping Sammi for another yr n taking on Kryg instead was a big mistake...

sorrie but to me it is no longer En Rafa Confiamos...

call me conventional but voronin does not possess as much talent or potential as babel, but he makes it up in effort. babel has a tendency to blow hot and cold. and also i suspect babel has an attitude problem, which no amount of talent can make up for. please name 1 game babel played well in this season. the west ham game only when he came in on the right wing to cross for torres to head in the winner. cant think of any other. hindsight bias on babel for the lyon game. u wouldnt want to hire someone with a bad record, would u? unless u are going for the hail-mary pass...

liverpool deserved to lose the fulham game. benitez has to take responsibility for taking off torres and benayoun, cos he had his eye on the lyon game. fulham is in europe, for god's sake. no team in the premier league would be able to go to craven cottage with less than 100% and expect to steal 3 points. u can take me up on that. torres shouldnt have played at all. benayoun shouldnt have come off, but rafa had his eye on the lyon game.

sami hyypia was offered a 2 year contract from bayer leverkusen. same thing with pires and arsenal. it was too much of a risk, cos players on the wrong side of 30s will take a long time to recover from injuries. remember winston bogarde of chelsea??? it is a standing procedure with the club and it is not unreasonable. just that leverkusen took the risk. kyrgiakos was brought in as a stop gap measure, not as a replacement for hyypia.

if not rafa, then who??? no self-respecting manager would want the 2 americans as bosses. so, dont for a minute think jose mourinho would come to anfield. so who is your replacement??? it is easy to point out weaknesses and demand changes. solutions are usually harder to come by. rafa has certain weaknesses, but his strengths cannot be denied. liverpool has benefitted greatly from him. but the "well-meaning" press (who are mostly anti-liverpool) wants him out. that is saying something, cos the honourless knight has his balls in his mouth every single time his team plays liverpool.

just 2 cents from someone who wears the sacred jersey only when liverpool loses. u r at liberty to have your views. YNWA and i cant resist, in rafa we trust.

[_AXL_]

Originally Posted by rahl

Hell, where have you been, forum's been falling silent without your interventions LOL

without my interventions or my quarrels??? my views might be too perverse for this thread. anyway, with u and xgenre around to moderate, this thread will be better off without my antagonistic posts.

ps. lucas more decent recently, albeit still not consistent. was hoping he would take heart with the manure exhibition but still hasnt happened.

[bochapsing]

Originally Posted by _AXL_

if not rafa, then who??? no self-respecting manager would want the 2 americans as bosses. so, dont for a minute think jose mourinho would come to anfield. so who is your replacement??? it is easy to point out weaknesses and demand changes. solutions are usually harder to come by. rafa has certain weaknesses, but his strengths cannot be denied. liverpool has benefitted greatly from him. but the "well-meaning" press (who are mostly anti-liverpool) wants him out. that is saying something, cos the honourless knight has his balls in his mouth every single time his team plays liverpool.

just 2 cents from someone who wears the sacred jersey only when liverpool loses. u r at liberty to have your views. YNWA and i cant resist, in rafa we trust.

bro, u've just spoken my mind....

btw, no doubt mourinho won epl & serieA with cheski n inter.. but both team he took over are already expensively assembled and he was further given unlimited budget... anyway, milan n juve wasn't the same since the corruption case hit them, serieA basically become one team show.. furthermore, mourinho is simply not the tradition "liverpool type" of manager i would like to see..

in rafa we trust... YNWA

[bochapsing]

Originally Posted by _AXL_

outstanding post, bro.

nothing wrong with rafa actually. for those who are clamouring for jose mourinho to take over, i sincerely believe he will take up the challenge, if offered. but is the guy any better than rafa??? besides his superior man-management skills, i dont think he is any better than rafa. and i believe jose will take time for his man-management skills to work, cos most of the players left in the liverpool squad now already learnt how to motivate themselves. moreover, with jose, he has had a lot of spending budget in his last 2 clubs. so, he is still unproven when managing a club with limited spending abilities.

i dont know about u guys, but supporting liverpool is different from supporting some kungfu-kick team.
in rafa we trust. YNWA.

i think managing liverpool is different from managing other teams too... liverpool is more than just a team or a club...

imagine someone who quit his previous job becos his x-boss bought a lamp when he wanted a chair...
but now, after his current bosses have been giving empty promises, betrayed him (trying to talk to klinsmann), getting him involved in all sort of power struggle.. yet, he still stick to our beloved team.. why?!

becos we're liverpool... we're special...

YNWA..

[omnia]

what can i say chaps?...at least the Reds did not lose last night...even had some sympathy for Rafa(well a little bit together wif a wry smile) when the Reds were 1-2 down n the brummie fans were chanting "sack him in the morning"...

good pts: Ngog is showing some potential at last even to extent of getting a pen when it actually sld not hv been awarded...glad for the lad, good for his confidence n Reds deserved abit of the rub of the green...GJ had a cracking game, perhaps once again showed that he may well be worth the 18m quid afterall...appearances of Gerrad n Aquilani was a heartening sight...even Lucas looked pretty good...n the lads showed resilience n toughness even when the ball wld not go in the net for them...kept their chins up n grafted...something i had not seen in the last few games save for the Manure match...

bad pts: not that many really...generally tot the lads played quite well n tight n dominated the game most of the time...poor high ball defending fm a set piece free kick caught them out again when the brummie's equalised agst the run of the play...this zonal marking system is just not working for the Reds this season...n as for the brummie's 2nd goal, Reina's fault for playing shortstopper instead of standing back on his line, but i wont hold it agst him because he has been one of the few Red Men who has consistently performed thruout this bad patch...so he is allowed to make afew mistakes once in awhile...but hope he learns fm this one...

pts to worry abt: Reira n Benny hobbling off injured...n Babel once again being put on the subs bench notwithstanding his fine cameo in Lyon...Rafa is killing this lad's confidence...

Reds just hv to dig in their heels fm now on n fight for that 4th CL spot...it is going to be one long hard cold winter...hopefully the 2 wk international break shall give the backrm team a chance to get the injured players fit for the fight...

[too_hot]

Actually i tot we played well. We basically dominated the whole game but i guess the only problem was (and it was a BIG one) is that the finishing let us down. I tink if we still had keane (or owen for that matter), they would have gotten one or 2 goals.

Glen Johnson is fast becoming one of my favourites - i never thot i'd be saying thing a few months back. Should be counted as one of Rafa's good buys together with Torres (of course), mascherano and benayoun.

Surprised to see gerard back and torres totally out. Tot stevie needed surgery. Aqui didn't show me anything to cheer about but its still early so lets just wait and see.