[quote author=rebel23 link=topic=39473.msg1075885#msg1075885 date=1269446228]
Fans like you find hard to understand that the club has to be on a sound footing, that clubs like Man Utd and Chelsea are double our wage budget and that you need to be patient with LFC which is nearly a constant rebuilding job and with the thin resources available especially over the last 2 years when the taps have been turned off every signing has to be a success or shipped out quickly and money recovered, which is not easy. YOU have to accept that there are certain pressures and limits evident at LFC which are not prevelent at other clubs and that this will breed the inconsistency or lead to a poor season. [/quote]
Firstly, it shouldn't have to be a constant rebuilding job - do it right in the first place and you won't have to rebuild. To steal a familiar phrase from a building site "buy cheap, buy twice" - and that's exactly what Rafa has done, time and time again. Initially in his first couple of seasons it was excusable, because he did have a big rebuilding job on his hands, and the large sums of money he spent, he spent well.
However, there's only so long you can live off the same excuses, and I'm afraid time has been called on those ages ago. Mediocre players have been coming in and out season after season and Rafa still hasn't learnt his lesson - and he can't use the excuse that he hasn't had the money any more - the same summer we signed Robbie Keane for £19M, we also signed Riera for £8M and Dossena for £7M.
Now, given that Robbie Keane's ostensible position is either as an out-and-out striker, or as a second striker - and given that we'd just seen the devastating partnership of Gerrard-Torres really start to bloom, was it *really* necessary to spend £19M on that position? Especially considering we haven't had a proper decent winger on either side since the beginning of Rafa's tenure?
We'll write off Dossena and just consider Keane and Riera - for that money, a combined £27M are you seriously trying to tell me that we couldn't have bought two decent wingers and restored Dirk to his rightful position as a striker (backup to Torres).
Seriously?
I mean, the fact that we haven't had a decent wide player since Rafa joined, and this is *still* something that has not been addressed is cause for concern enough surely? Just in case you've forgotten, this is what we've had to put up with since he arrived:
Nunez (not his problem granted) - £1.5M
Garcia - £6M
Zenden - free
Gonzalez - £1.5M
Pennant - £6.7M
Leto (does he even count?) - £1.8M
Riera - £8M
Maxi - free
And those are the genuine widemen that he's bought (although Zenden is debatable as I believe he was playing CM/AM for Boro before he joined us). Of them, the only one that comes away with even the slightest amount of respectability is Lil Luis, and even as a fan of his I'd still admit that his talent was somewhat *ahem* 'mercurial'. Riera showed moments, and Maxi isn't a lost cause yet, but other than that they've all been pretty much shit.
Then we've got the non widemen who've been stuck in to 'do a job' - Kuyt - £9M, Babel - £11.5M and Yossi - £5M. Dirk and Yossi have been honest grafters and done their best, and sometimes they've done very well and sometimes they've been brutal. Babel has shown glimpses of talent and potential, but very little heart and generally made little impression.
So in all that time, he still hasn't addressed one of, if not our biggest problem areas - quality on the wings. He's has the opportunity to do so, and the money - but he hasn't done it. And this is one of the problems with Rafa - he seems to lose all perspective and the ability to prioritise correctly. This summer, when it was patently obvious we needed back up for Torres what did he do? Spent £17.5M on a right back and another £17M on an injured CM that he's refused to play all season. Admittedly, both of those positions needed addressing - but did we *need* to spend £17.5M on a right back (and don't get me wrong, I think Magic is great) - but is that not the sort of position that can be dealt with for half, a third or even a quarter of the cost? Okay, maybe a quarter is pushing it, but you can pick up a reasonable right back for less. Decent strikers tend to cost more, but we've had one costing £1.5M leading the line for us far too often this season. £17M on an injured player - is that wise?
And in seasons before he's been spending a couple of million here, a couple of million there on centre backs and goalies, bulking out the squad with players that will never see a first team game. If his money is so fucking tight then he should fuck the ressies off and concentrate on getting someone decent who will actually be on the pitch.
[quote author=Rebel]Benitez has revamped the squad, he's bought players for 20 million that are worth 80 million. This is not running the club down the tubes, this is doing a good job in my eyes and he ought to be backed and allowed to repeat the trick. If our revenue doubles and the value of the club increases again over the next 5 years like it has in the previous, Benitez will not only have paid for the yanks takeover but we'll probably be starting on a new stadium which will set us up for the next 30 years, so you need to be patient with a manager like Benitez and allow for stability because over time he's done a good job for the club AND the bastard owners. [/quote]
Fuck the money, there's only one way we're going to get a new stadium and that is new owners. It doesn't matter what profit Rafa turns on the odd player here and there, it's not going to be enough to pay for a whole fucking stadium on it's own. Not unless we had a team of Fernandos, and even then we'd be pushing it.
The *only* way we'll get a new stadium is new owners. The best way to make ourselves an attractive proposition is by winning stuff. We haven't won anything in a while, and don't look like doing so any time soon. Rafa is no longer looking like somebody who knows how to win with the squad he has, and while he was tearing it up in Europe and making progress in the league his idiosyncrasies could be forgiven. Now it looks like he's forgotten how to win in Europe, the league looks further away than ever (disappointingly, as once again last season he looked like he'd finally figured it out, only to draw frustratingly again and again against teams we should have been destroying) and his tactics and post match interviews resemble Ged's more and more each week.
His time has been and gone, we need new everything, including a manager.
[quote author=Rebel]it is a crime that he hasn't had more money to invest in players and has to wheel and deal and take chances. In addition, he has rebuilt the youth setup and brought in Barce coaches over the last year, give that a few years and we'll have our own factory of talent that will have you singing again[/quote]
This is the only sensible thing you've said in all of this. In fact it might be the most sensible thing you've ever said.
Yes - it is a crime the owners didn't give him more money. They're short-sighted money grabbing cunts that need a good shoeing, because this season really was our chance to capitalise on last years performance. Losing Xabi, Sami, and even Arbeloa has had a much bigger impact than any of us could have imagined, but it can't be said that Rafa wasn't backed to replace them.
Xabi - £30M
Sami - free
Arbeloa - £3.5
Aqualani - £17M
Magic - £17.5M
Kyrgiakos - £2M
So - sold £33.5M, bought £36.5M. He was backed, he had money to spend - he was the one who chose to spend it on an injured player he then decided couldn't hack the league, and if you were gonna really go all out character assassination then you could ask questions as to why those three players wanted to go in the first place - Sami is understandable, but given the amount that Kyrgiakos has played he actually would have still had a big role to play. Xabi had Lucas as competition and Arbeloa had . . . err . . . Darby? Okay, it's Real Madrid, but we're Liverpool - could another manager have talked them in to staying on, winning the league, winning the Champions League again and knocking those scummy cunts off their fucking perch? Surely that's the sort of challenge professional footballers thrive on?
Granted, the owners have a lot to answer for, but ultimately nowhere near as much as Rafa - and he's been here longer than them. I could go on in many other ways justifying this, but ultimately you just won't listen because you're a particularly special breed of mentalist the likes of which is rarely come across unless you meet those nutty Rapture folks who believe that one day all the sinners will burn in hell and some magic cloud will take them off to Heaven or some shit.
And that's exactly how you are with Rafa. Blind, brainwashed and utterly impervious to common sense. What's more you have this impregnable belief that you are the only person that can really see the truth, and that this unshakable belief in all things Rafa somehow makes you better than everyone else.
In other words, you're a sanctimonious cunt, the like of which make me avoid the fucking football forum. It's bad enough having a team that plays like a lepers eleven, but then having superfans like you bleat on about "Oh, it's not his fault" make me realise how Americans end up going postal and killing everyone.
You make me want to kick small defenceless animals in the head
