I don't want to jump on the bandwaggon but I'm going to anyway.

WTF is Rafa doing spending £17m on a right back when they only have one proven striker in their entire squad! I mean, Wenger gets some stick, but this is insane.

Ah well, fcuk em.

(They'll probably win the league now)

If we were all Liverpool fans, we wouldnt want a striker cos the team had scored the most in the league last season even though it clear we do

Well, I'd suggest their other striker is Stevie Me. Whether that says it all about Liverpool, I dunno.

I do think they are suspect up front if Torres is not firing. There's Kuyt who's always dependable but his play will be limited if he's on the right. N'Gog is a work in progress and Voronin isn't very good. Gerrard might have to sit back a bit now Alonso isn't there, so his game might be disrupted.

There's still time to buy I guess, but Liverpool haven't really been linked with any strikers this summer have they? Can't see them changing their system to suit anyone but Torres and Gerrard, so any newbie coming in will have to make do with a sub role, and most decent strikers won't like it, ala Keane.

Oh well. Sucks to be them. :coffee:

Top managers are always banging on that you need 4 strikers, Liverpool only has one established in that position. Kuyt plays right and Gerrard is supposed to be one of the top midfielders in the world yet he plays up front.

I just find it odd. Right backs don't win you games - strikers do.

It does say it all. In fact:

Says it all, I'm afraid. ™

We needed a right back after Arbeloa left (effectively months ago), he bought one.

We were highest scorers in the leafue without Torres and Gerrad for lots of the season so we get alot of goals from elsewhere.

I would like to see an extra attacker, and Rafa has said he has one lined up (not necessarily striker though) so we'll wait and see.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Kuyt did a decent job last season when Torres was out, he knocked in a few winners etc but Liverpool would be screwed if both he and Torres were injured at the same time.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle6798489.ece

:doh:

Lasted until January last season, looks like he's already cracking up this.

What a fuckin monkey.

Also, he knows they need another striker or he wouldnt have bought Robbie Keane last season. He's just a little scared after that.

Hope the FA go down on his fat arse quicker then they would on Faria Alam.

What a mentalist.

that's the whole thing with that transfer -- it seems like Robbie Keane wasn't ever his buy. Like Maureen and Shevchenko, that's why he never gave Keane a fair chance.


(that's appropos of nothing; they definitely need another striker.)

I think this season is gonna be the beginning of the end for him. He's already having a pop at an official after the 1st game of the season. Pool are nowhere near as strong as last year and I think are gonna finish outside the top four.

He knows that he can never replace Alonso and has lost his best player, the team has always been focused around Gerrard and Torres, but people seem to leave out the fact that Alonso was the starting factor in most of their attacks.

The strain is already beginning to take its toll on him after a shite pre-season for them and I honestly think he is gonna loose his head early into the season when pool cannot replicate what they did last year.

I thought he looked very old and tired at the post match interview on sunday, you could see the strain on his face starting to creep in. Time will tell of course but I seriously think this is what is going to happen.

I'm sure he'll be playing the "I've been given no money" card as soon as the wheels come off. I wish a journo would just say "You spent £17m on a right back and £15m on a crock FFS".

I'm amazed they were top goalscorers last leason. That's a fantastic achievement. But they wont get anywhere near as many goals without Alonso's creativity.

Would have been a perfect time to put Gerrard back into midfield and buy a second striker. They could have got Huntelaar for less than they paid for Glen Johnson.

Yep diffinately, there was an article that Jens' linked to where they were saying that he was getting the excuses out before the season started about not having the money for transfers should they fail to do any better or do worse. I think it also tried to defend that theory too judging by some of the comments afterwards from scouse fans, praising it as a good article!

What made me laugh though was that it said in the 5 years that Rafa has been manager there, he has bought 86 players in, only 9 of which have been successful, at a cost of £230m. out of that he has shipped 77 out.

To blow £17m on GJ and then complain that he has no money is retarded to say the least and just backs up my theory to me, that he knows they are going to struggle this year. On the BBC gossip section today it says he has been told that he only has £1.5m left to spend on new players....

He's having a pop at an official, and rightly so after 2 valid penalty appeals turned down. Ferguson did it before the league even started.

This argument is based purely on speculation and typical tabloid reactions - a line on his face, lets sack him! Pre season means nothing and he knows that. It's all about fitness ratehr than results, especially in Asia.

Assuming that Aquilani (as long as he stays fit) won't be anywhere near as good. Rafa says he plays a better killer ball - it could end up that we create even more chances.
To buy replacements for top players you need to buy top players. This means spending big money. Wenger is blasted for not buying replacements, Benitez is blasted for doing exactly that. If he spends around £30M (depending on the instalments) and gets around £30M back then he should have money from the original budget - but Hicks says he doesn't. He only has £1.5M. Surely that indicates he didn't have a lot of money in the first place. In which case he has every right to feel aggrieved.

Is that 77 of his own signings, or overall since he's been here?

Saying only 9 have been successful is a little premature, considering many have been youth players and I assume Aquilani and Johnson are included in the list. Of course he's made clangers, but then so has every manager. The difference is he has had to buy stop gaps until he can get the better players. I'm not defending him on this, because sometimes I get annoyed by obvious mistakes, but i'm not going to criticise him either.

I dont know what his exact financial constraints are, but to be fair, if the owners have said they'll factor contract extensions and new deals into the planned budget - which apparently they have according to the reports saying his budget's £2m - he would've had Torres, Gerrard, Agger and Kuyt renewing taking a chunk out of it.

Wenger works to the same sort of arrangement hence us renewing Van Persie, Walcott, Wilshere, Fabianski and Ramsey's contracts has also taken a chunk out.

It's restricting and not particularly helpful but that's how it is

What I said is just my opinion nothing more, I just think the signs are pointing towards what I think will happen thats all.

The article said only 9 had been successful and that they had sold on 77 players and included it in a sweeping statement about how many he brought in so I have no idea if they were there already :good:

The point though that I was making was the fact that he has, on average, spent £46m a year for the last 5 years that he has been there and now he complains about not having enough money?

Also I dont buy that he had to buy stop gaps until he could get the better players, I think its more a case of that the players he bought, he thought would be good enough, but it turned out that they werent. Maybe he isnt that good at picking these players as you might think, the article certainly seemed to suggest that anyway.

I cant help but feel that an implosion is where it is all heading. Not so much for the club but just for Rafa. With all the business with his new contract and the unrest between him and the board, being near winning the title last season after a great performance and still missing out by a couple of points, the way he lost it with fergie and the refs towards the end of the season, the huge expectation to follow on from last season, etc I just think he is going to fall apart this time.

Ah, apologies for that then.

He has spent a lot of money, no doubt, but we don't know how much of that money was from players sales and how much was actually from a transfer budget. If it's the former then he does have a right to complain that he can't build a team when he has to sell to buy - as was journalised (that even a word?) last year. Not making excuses for him, but I can't think what else I'm doing so I guess I am making excuses for him.

The pressure is on him, there is a small section of discontent in the Liverpool fans for him to put up or shut up - but many realise that he's got a long term plan that looks like it is just coming to fruition. The majority would sooner have the owners gone than Rafa. Every manager complains about ref's and rival managers, it's part of their job (sadly) so to say he's lost it because he's doing the thing that every top manager has done for years is harsh imo.

:lol:

Im not saying he has lost it after one game, I agree that he had a right as any manager would about the penalty claim, but he sometimes goes too far with it. It was almost as if he blamed the entire performance of liverpool losing on the penalties that were turned down by the ref.

I am saying that I think he will loose it over time this season, but I dont think it will take too long if the team dont perform and as you say the section of discontent start to turn on him more vocally.

No, I don't think he does have a right to feel aggrieved.

He would have known his budget at the beginning of the summer. He chose to spend £17m on a right back, seventeen bloody million!!!! He's not exactly Cafu in his prime either.

Wenger paid less for Arshavin and our international right back cost £7m.

I don't want to have a go at Benitez - I quite like him. Exactly the same thing is happening to him as what happened to Wenger when he was challenging Fergie - lots of abuse from Fergie and Fergie biased media.

I get all of that.

What I hate is managers making excuses that it's all about money. Your owners took on debt to buy Torres - your club wasn't profitable enough to buy him. Yet that's forgotton and it's all about those baddy Americans stopping Benitez from spending.

Here's one fore you.... Live within your means and get a manager who can live with this!!

He's in the press today moaning about lack of funding AGAIN. Considering all he ever does is waste money on shit like Johnson I'd say the Yanks are well within their right to stop giving such a ridiculous amount of moaning. All he'd do is waste it.

Is that true? I don't know anything about that, one way or another, but the crucial debt that pool has is the debt created in order to allow Hicks and Gilette to take over the club. Just like the Glazers with manyoo. If I was a fan, I'd hate that. (As I'm not, I love it, but anyways.) My impression is that that's the debt which is really hindering pool.


About Benitez, I think on the whole he's done a good job there. They had a really good season last year, and he's built a fantastic base for the team. It's not his fault that Alonso was seduced by Marketing's siren song, any more than it is s'ralex's fault that twunty Ronaldo was.

We've all learned now that managers have no impact on their team's success. :whistle: So it'd be a real mistake for Pool to let Rafa go. The stability you get from keeping him on far outweighs any advantage you'd get from letting him go.

About lollerpool, I think the loss of Alonso combined with lack of squad depth could sink them this year. I know it was just one game, against a good team (ouch, that was hard to say) at their ground, but Liverpool looked poor. What's really important is they looked poor precisely in a "missing Alonso" type way.

Assuming no injury issues, I think Aquilani will turn out to be a good signing, and next year they could right back in the thick of things. But this year? with him coming to a new league and, moreover, not being able to play until the season's already a fourth over? This year, I think they're in trouble.

interesting analysis here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/20...so-rafa-benitez

since CK is having computer troubles, I'll give the article's take-away point -- Alonso's game was perhaps not attacking enough in itself, but he was key to Gerrard's ability to attack so successfully. The question is whether Aquilani (more attacking than Alonso) and Gerrard can mesh together as well.

Yeah he was only considered to be one of the best right backs in the league last year. :rolleyes:

To buy the good players (especially English ones) you have to pay over the odds, he admitted that himself. But as with Alonso last year, I'd rather pay the extra few million than miss out on him completely.

:goodpost: Jens (the first one) though I'll take your word for the Spurs game as I still haven't seen it. :ninja:

Apparently they're close to signing Greek CB Kyrgiakos for about £3m

The fee was 1.5M Euros and now it's reported to be nearer 3M Euros. Don't have a clue who he is but he's most definitely a replacement for Hyppia and will probably get around 15 games. Wiki says he's 6ft 5in so he should be a towering menace who will get a few goals as well.

Short term and possibly shrewd buy from Rafa. On the other hand, he may be shit and we'll never see him in a Liverpool shirt after his début.

No he wasn't, not by people who dont rave about any player that is English that is. Johnson is okay when he attacks but is useless in defence. 18m? pfft give me Sagna for 6m anyday.

Yes it's true.

They're run just like Manure but aren't as profitable so can't pull it off. I imagine the yanks are desperate to hike ticket prices but they won't get much out of scouse fans.

Their whole model relied on bulding the new stadium but that'll never happen. They'll end up selling up and some sugar daddy will buy em.

Rumours flying about that Rafa might resign.

:lol:

WTF?

Where are the rumours coming from?

Links?

http://www.koptalk.co.uk/news/duncan-oldha...pool-this-month

Probably a load of cock but it's funny stuff all the same.

so defenders have learned to get inside Torres' head?

sounds like a job for the Belgian Bastardo :popcorn:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/au...-rafael-benitez

:lol: I'm starting to develop a soft spot for that chubby waiter

Is it cos of the lack of funds? :lol:

That's the main jist of it yes. The supposed £1.5m warchest he has to play with has worn his patience out, so the story goes.

Well, I would hate to be proved right ;) :coffee:

The £38m he has spent (assuming add-ons count) has been wiped off the slate then?

And yes, I'm deliberately ignoring the money from the ALonso sale amongst other transfers out, like Keane, Arbeloa because Benitez is a loon.