I don't see it so much in terms of profit and loss as most of his signings were bad and didn't come through at LFC. Aquilani being a classic example.

OP

Read this article and you will be much wiser. Especially the part attached to each player saying where is he now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1221975/Rafa-Benitezs-229m-spending-spree-The-76-players-signed-Liverpool-managers-reign.html

Robbie Keane – 20.3m – sold for 16m after starting just 19 games

Alberto Aquilani – 18m – about to leave on loan to Italy.

David N’Gog, Milan Jovanovic, Scott Carson, Mauricio Pellegrino, Bolo Zenden, Peter Crouch, Mohamed Sissoko, Gabriel Paletta, Robbie Fowler, Nabil El Zhar, Diego Cavalieri, Sotirios Kyrgiakos........... etc
Ryan Babel – 11.5m – has scored only 21 goals in 3 seasons at Anfield, and most of them as he came on from the bench in the second half. Still hasn’t lived up to his expectations.

Albert Riera – 8m – sold for 3.7m, made just 15 appearances last season and didn’t score even once.

Andrey Voronin – 1.8m – had two spells one on each side of his loan to Hertha BSC, and was finally sold to Dynamo Moscow for 1.8m

Andrea Dossena – 7m – sold for 3m, made almost zero impact

Phillip Degen – free – played only 10 games for Liverpool, has been loaned out to Stuttgart

Jermaine Pennant – 6.7m – scored 3 goals in 3 season, was loaned out to Portsmouth for the last season in his contract

Fernando Morientes – 6.3m – sold for 3m, one of the worst transfers in the history of the Premier League.

Mark González – 4.5m – lasted only one season at Liverpool, sold at 4m

Antonio Nunez – part of the deal which saw Michael Owen leave for Real Madrid.

Gabriel Paletta 2m – 3 appearances for 2m, young star, who didn’t shine

Josemi 2m – swapped by Jan Kromkamp who was also unsuccessful.

alot of his buys were less that 10mil and didnt get his first choice, id have him back in an instant.

Just cos Kenny's worse doesn't make Benitez good

As a football fan I don't care about profit or loss on players. That's for the money men.

All I care about is were the players good enough.

Rafa made ALOT of signings, many were poor, many were good, a few were exceptional.

He is no better or worse than most other managers in the market.

Kenny has started badly since coming back in terms of quality of signing, but it hasn't been many players to make a fair analysis. Assuming he gets another transfer window and signs another 4 or 5, then next year will be a fairer time to judge.

Rafa got stick because he's a 'fat Spanish waiter' who manged Liverpool, implemented rotation and used zonal marking. IN other words did everything proper English football clubs shouldn't do.

Mostly because he was a fat spanish waiter though.

Reading that link I would say 80% of those players were bad signings. Honestly.

Agree with OP.

Every manager makes mistakes in the transfer market, it's how often he does it that defines it. For the majority of Rafa's reign he had little money to work with, so he was forced to buy bargain stop-gap players such as Josemi, Nunez, Kromkamp etc.

Rafa identified many first-class players and wanted to bring them to Liverpool, such as Villa, Silva, Aguero, Alves, Simao etc, but couldn't due to not having the funds there. This shows that Rafa did have an eye for a good player, unlike what some people think.

When you look at that list you notice how many of them were just youngsters. Signing young players for the academy is always going to give mixed results - some make it, some don't. To list every single one of these players and then suggest he was poor in the transfer market is wrong IMO.

I strongly believe that if Rafa had the money to play with back then that we are led to believe that our current owners have, then I believe we would be sitting in a much much better position than we are at present.

wasnt his net spend over his tenure something stupid like 9 million?

id have him back in a shot!

stop this defending Rafa nonsense.

He's a fat spanish waiter and not half the manager Redknapp, Moyes and Hodgson are. Proper British managers. World class.

'did everything proper English football clubs shouldn't do'

But which many now do

I've always thought most of his big money signings were a success. Keane was the most obvious failure (not sure why he played so badly), Aquaman divides opinion & Babel's main problem may be himself, not his talent.

He signed plenty of players who weren't good enough, but they often came cheap and were perhaps value for money, but carried a low value.

Comment by righteous1 (U7048)

Totally agree and people are blinded by senitment of Istanbul and build up and facts they can find!

Yes Rafa was very good at times, some exceptional, but he did have some very dark dark times too!

any

'Rafa identified many first-class players and wanted to bring them to Liverpool, such as Villa, Silva, Aguero, Alves, Simao etc, but couldn't due to not having the funds there. This shows that Rafa did have an eye for a good player, unlike what some people think.'

A blind man could see these guys are class.

'He signed plenty of players who weren't good enough, but they often came cheap and were perhaps value for money, but carried a low value.'

Yes, bad cheap players were his speciality.

he's the anti-Wenger

Wenger gets surprisingly very good players for cheap but craps the bed when he tries to spend cash.

Rafa could spot world class at high but still bargain prices and missed regularly in the bargain bin.

redconn

comment by redconn > (U5676)

'Rafa identified many first-class players and wanted to bring them to Liverpool, such as Villa, Silva, Aguero, Alves, Simao etc, but couldn't due to not having the funds there.

......................................

There is the problem. You can very nearly see it, so let me help you along.

1. As has already been said, it wasn't hard to spot those players.

2. Once you realise you don't have the funds for these players you have to be able to spot the bargain for the funds you do have. For examle Wenger, Harry and now so very obviously Alan Pardew.

3. Look at the lists of failed players provided and it is blatantly obvious Rafa was inaqequate at this. The very quick turnaround of players is ample evidence of this.

Rafa could spot world class at high

................

This wasn't a talent, you and I could do it.

redconn, maybe they should team up?

Vidicschin, that article is a load of nonsense. 35 of the players in that list were youth players who went into our youth system/academy. If we started looking at every youth player a team has bought then lots of managers records will start looking bad.

And at least half of the first squad players were relatively successful, some of them were excellent.

As with any manager there are some bad buys.

A lot of the players were less than £5m. You know you're not buying quality if they cost less than a £5m but thats what budget was available. He had to wheel and deal a little. Redknapp gets lauded for it but Benitez gets panned for it.

comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 2 minutes ago
Rafa could spot world class at high

................

This wasn't a talent, you and I could do it.
______________________________________

We all know you've taken that out of context...

comment by FatJanMolby (U4297)