This was discussed ad nauseum back in the day
When you need 5+ players and get £22 mil to spend and someone already well above you needs 0-1 and gets £20mil, the rational and real response isn't
"HAHAHAH YOU'RE SHIITE YOU SPENT MORE AND WE GOT A BETTER PLAYER"
but that's what the response was and still is.
Some great buys there... Alonso, Arbeloa, Reina, Agger, Kuyt, Lucas, Skrtel, Torres, Mascherano, and a few others did well too.
Interesting when you look back on it like that.
Yeah and the reason he kept buying so many players is because he kept buying duds and so needed to sell them off and replace them. Rather than get in a couple of cheap decent players and use youth as emergency backup and make big signings he chose to spend the money as he did.
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
comment by SAF_The_Legend-FreePalestine(7) (U5768)
posted 3 minutes ago
Yeah and the reason he kept buying so many players is because he kept buying duds and so needed to sell them off and replace them. Rather than get in a couple of cheap decent players and use youth as emergency backup and make big signings he chose to spend the money as he did.
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our youth structure was a joke. He overhauled it and brought in the Barca boys Borrell and Co to revamp it which took around 3 seasons to make the difference. We couldn't rely on youth.
utd had a title winning squad so could spend £20m on players when we had to take risks on 4/5 £7m players.
SAF It is not hard to understand that surely?
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
................
It really is hard to argue against this, yet a lot of Liverpool fans just want to bury their heads in the sand over it.
Its pretty easy actually, rather than waste your money on a range of players every season some of which you end up selling on because they're not very good and then yet again have to buy another replacement for, don't.
Fill up the backup places with free transfers and journeymen if need be, kids for emergency backup or smaller cup games, god knows SAF managed to integrate some pretty poor players into the United squad.
Its one of the things he specialised in I always thought, dragging some half decent performances out of poorer members of the squad or our own youngsters who weren't really United quality which allowed him to spend his money more wisely, something which Rafa failed at.
The summary is this. Rafa is an average to good manager, and they are lots of them who luck in to good situations and leave indelible marks on certain teams. Benitez and Liverpool are one of those pairings. At the end of year 4/5 he should have been able to sustain a challenge even without buying and he really wasn't. He has been lucky though. His Valencia reign and his CL win with Liverpool puts him in a certain standing even though it came from a confluence of things affecting madrid and barca. And the CL, 3 goals down.... Hmm.. Anyways... Its clear to a non Liverpool fan real could do better, then again we going into the CL would prefer him over Carlo any day so
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 6 minutes ago
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
................
It really is hard to argue against this, yet a lot of Liverpool fans just want to bury their heads in the sand over it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All managers make bad signings. Only 50% of signings in the premiership end up first team players. I know he bought a lot of dross. He had to rebuild a useless squad which meant he had to buy quantity. Fergie had a winning squad so when he did buy bad no one said anything as he was winning.
comment by SAF_The_Legend-FreePalestine(7) (U5768)
posted 7 minutes ago
Its pretty easy actually, rather than waste your money on a range of players every season some of which you end up selling on because they're not very good and then yet again have to buy another replacement for, don't.
Fill up the backup places with free transfers and journeymen if need be, kids for emergency backup or smaller cup games, god knows SAF managed to integrate some pretty poor players into the United squad.
Its one of the things he specialised in I always thought, dragging some half decent performances out of poorer members of the squad or our own youngsters who weren't really United quality which allowed him to spend his money more wisely, something which Rafa failed at.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Care to let me know who these free transfers were that we could of got. also remember players did not want to sign for us when he arrived as we were not a winning team
Is it only me that thinks Benitez would be very good for Liverpool again? He's dogmatic and stubborn and makes mistakes but his teams are always very hard to beat, he wins things and he showed when he nearly won the league that he can put very good sides together. As a United fan I don't fancy him ending up back there.
You telling me there weren't any free signings available in the years he was at Liverpool?
Also we are on about squad fillers I don't see why Liverpool not being a winning team would make attracting squad fillers a problem.
He should have stuck with the squad players there already rather than selling them off and buying another one, nobody forced him to buy 6/7 players each season, nobody forced him to spread the transfer money out over many transfers rather than concentrating It on one or two...
morons!... what part of he had to rebuilld a squad do you fools not understand??? the players he bought for first 11 like Alonso Reina Mascerano Torres and even Arbeloa were all world class. He had to buy squad fillers for 5-10 million as back up and also as a gamble they may make the cut. These of course didnt always work out. In the his last 2 seasons in total we had a minus net spend!!! H+G did not support him.....
Real Madrid want him , Chelsea wanted him. He won the CL with an average Liverpool squad. Won La Liga with Valencia... How much more proof do you biased fools need???
All managers make bad signings.
...............
Yes they do. But not generally so bad they have to off load them the next season.
....................
He had to rebuild a useless squad which meant he had to buy quantity.
...............
He won the Champions League with that squad. It was hardly useless, just underperforming.
Just like BR's squad this season.
Op...so in rafas 6 seasons lfc finished in the top four 4 (may as well count as 5 due to cl win meaning we got cl next season) times, reached 2 cl finals, won the cl and the fa cup had a title challenge and were ranked europes number 1team all on an average net spend of about £25M per season.
What was Rafas problem again??
Lets forget he got Liverpool to NO1 in Europe. We were one of the most feared teams in Europe. Look where we are now!!
We were one of the most feared teams in Europe.
....................
You were not even feared in England so stop talking rubbish.
sorry Vidic but every team in Europe wanted to avoid us in CL. Sorry if that hurts your feelings... We were the most difficult side to beat in Europe. Does 2005 and 2007 final appearances not back this up?
"We were one of the most feared teams in Europe."
most feared of the English sides at least
sorry Vidic but every team in Europe wanted to avoid us in CL.
................
Please, get over yourselves.
okay so we werent we just beat Madrid and Barca on their own patch
comment by Vidicschin (U3584) posted 11 seconds ago
sorry Vidic but every team in Europe wanted to avoid us in CL.
................
Please, get over yourselves.
==========================
why? because we got to the final twice?? semis another twice? stop being so bloody blinkered
morons!... what part of he had to rebuilld a squad do you fools not understand???
......................................
Yes and by the looks of it he had to continually rebuild the squad because of his poor work in the transfer market...
This meant he continue to spread the money out over multiple players rather than one or two big signings.
At a quick count (might be a few out either way) he bought 48 players over those 5 years, you'd struggle to keep everyone satisfied with a squad too much bigger than 25.....
I think his last season at Liverpool clouds peoples judgement of his achievements. They were a great unit before then.
okay so we werent we just beat Madrid and Barca on their own patch
............
It happens. Celtic beat Barcelona not so long back.
Sign in if you want to comment
Rafa Benitez - An Unbiased Appraisal
Page 2 of 5
posted on 26/5/15
This was discussed ad nauseum back in the day
When you need 5+ players and get £22 mil to spend and someone already well above you needs 0-1 and gets £20mil, the rational and real response isn't
"HAHAHAH YOU'RE SHIITE YOU SPENT MORE AND WE GOT A BETTER PLAYER"
but that's what the response was and still is.
posted on 26/5/15
Some great buys there... Alonso, Arbeloa, Reina, Agger, Kuyt, Lucas, Skrtel, Torres, Mascherano, and a few others did well too.
Interesting when you look back on it like that.
posted on 26/5/15
Yeah and the reason he kept buying so many players is because he kept buying duds and so needed to sell them off and replace them. Rather than get in a couple of cheap decent players and use youth as emergency backup and make big signings he chose to spend the money as he did.
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
posted on 26/5/15
comment by SAF_The_Legend-FreePalestine(7) (U5768)
posted 3 minutes ago
Yeah and the reason he kept buying so many players is because he kept buying duds and so needed to sell them off and replace them. Rather than get in a couple of cheap decent players and use youth as emergency backup and make big signings he chose to spend the money as he did.
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our youth structure was a joke. He overhauled it and brought in the Barca boys Borrell and Co to revamp it which took around 3 seasons to make the difference. We couldn't rely on youth.
utd had a title winning squad so could spend £20m on players when we had to take risks on 4/5 £7m players.
SAF It is not hard to understand that surely?
posted on 26/5/15
5 s
Nothing more to add.
posted on 26/5/15
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
................
It really is hard to argue against this, yet a lot of Liverpool fans just want to bury their heads in the sand over it.
posted on 26/5/15
Its pretty easy actually, rather than waste your money on a range of players every season some of which you end up selling on because they're not very good and then yet again have to buy another replacement for, don't.
Fill up the backup places with free transfers and journeymen if need be, kids for emergency backup or smaller cup games, god knows SAF managed to integrate some pretty poor players into the United squad.
Its one of the things he specialised in I always thought, dragging some half decent performances out of poorer members of the squad or our own youngsters who weren't really United quality which allowed him to spend his money more wisely, something which Rafa failed at.
posted on 26/5/15
The summary is this. Rafa is an average to good manager, and they are lots of them who luck in to good situations and leave indelible marks on certain teams. Benitez and Liverpool are one of those pairings. At the end of year 4/5 he should have been able to sustain a challenge even without buying and he really wasn't. He has been lucky though. His Valencia reign and his CL win with Liverpool puts him in a certain standing even though it came from a confluence of things affecting madrid and barca. And the CL, 3 goals down.... Hmm.. Anyways... Its clear to a non Liverpool fan real could do better, then again we going into the CL would prefer him over Carlo any day so
posted on 26/5/15
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 6 minutes ago
It can't be complained that he didn't have the money when he clearly did, the fact he misspent it doesn't mean he didn't have the money, it means he misspent it.
................
It really is hard to argue against this, yet a lot of Liverpool fans just want to bury their heads in the sand over it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All managers make bad signings. Only 50% of signings in the premiership end up first team players. I know he bought a lot of dross. He had to rebuild a useless squad which meant he had to buy quantity. Fergie had a winning squad so when he did buy bad no one said anything as he was winning.
posted on 26/5/15
comment by SAF_The_Legend-FreePalestine(7) (U5768)
posted 7 minutes ago
Its pretty easy actually, rather than waste your money on a range of players every season some of which you end up selling on because they're not very good and then yet again have to buy another replacement for, don't.
Fill up the backup places with free transfers and journeymen if need be, kids for emergency backup or smaller cup games, god knows SAF managed to integrate some pretty poor players into the United squad.
Its one of the things he specialised in I always thought, dragging some half decent performances out of poorer members of the squad or our own youngsters who weren't really United quality which allowed him to spend his money more wisely, something which Rafa failed at.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Care to let me know who these free transfers were that we could of got. also remember players did not want to sign for us when he arrived as we were not a winning team
posted on 26/5/15
Is it only me that thinks Benitez would be very good for Liverpool again? He's dogmatic and stubborn and makes mistakes but his teams are always very hard to beat, he wins things and he showed when he nearly won the league that he can put very good sides together. As a United fan I don't fancy him ending up back there.
posted on 26/5/15
You telling me there weren't any free signings available in the years he was at Liverpool?
Also we are on about squad fillers I don't see why Liverpool not being a winning team would make attracting squad fillers a problem.
He should have stuck with the squad players there already rather than selling them off and buying another one, nobody forced him to buy 6/7 players each season, nobody forced him to spread the transfer money out over many transfers rather than concentrating It on one or two...
posted on 26/5/15
morons!... what part of he had to rebuilld a squad do you fools not understand??? the players he bought for first 11 like Alonso Reina Mascerano Torres and even Arbeloa were all world class. He had to buy squad fillers for 5-10 million as back up and also as a gamble they may make the cut. These of course didnt always work out. In the his last 2 seasons in total we had a minus net spend!!! H+G did not support him.....
Real Madrid want him , Chelsea wanted him. He won the CL with an average Liverpool squad. Won La Liga with Valencia... How much more proof do you biased fools need???
posted on 26/5/15
All managers make bad signings.
...............
Yes they do. But not generally so bad they have to off load them the next season.
....................
He had to rebuild a useless squad which meant he had to buy quantity.
...............
He won the Champions League with that squad. It was hardly useless, just underperforming.
Just like BR's squad this season.
posted on 26/5/15
Op...so in rafas 6 seasons lfc finished in the top four 4 (may as well count as 5 due to cl win meaning we got cl next season) times, reached 2 cl finals, won the cl and the fa cup had a title challenge and were ranked europes number 1team all on an average net spend of about £25M per season.
What was Rafas problem again??
posted on 26/5/15
Lets forget he got Liverpool to NO1 in Europe. We were one of the most feared teams in Europe. Look where we are now!!
posted on 26/5/15
We were one of the most feared teams in Europe.
....................
You were not even feared in England so stop talking rubbish.
posted on 26/5/15
sorry Vidic but every team in Europe wanted to avoid us in CL. Sorry if that hurts your feelings... We were the most difficult side to beat in Europe. Does 2005 and 2007 final appearances not back this up?
posted on 26/5/15
"We were one of the most feared teams in Europe."
most feared of the English sides at least
posted on 26/5/15
sorry Vidic but every team in Europe wanted to avoid us in CL.
................
Please, get over yourselves.
posted on 26/5/15
okay so we werent we just beat Madrid and Barca on their own patch
posted on 26/5/15
comment by Vidicschin (U3584) posted 11 seconds ago
sorry Vidic but every team in Europe wanted to avoid us in CL.
................
Please, get over yourselves.
==========================
why? because we got to the final twice?? semis another twice? stop being so bloody blinkered
posted on 26/5/15
morons!... what part of he had to rebuilld a squad do you fools not understand???
......................................
Yes and by the looks of it he had to continually rebuild the squad because of his poor work in the transfer market...
This meant he continue to spread the money out over multiple players rather than one or two big signings.
At a quick count (might be a few out either way) he bought 48 players over those 5 years, you'd struggle to keep everyone satisfied with a squad too much bigger than 25.....
posted on 26/5/15
I think his last season at Liverpool clouds peoples judgement of his achievements. They were a great unit before then.
posted on 26/5/15
okay so we werent we just beat Madrid and Barca on their own patch
............
It happens. Celtic beat Barcelona not so long back.
Page 2 of 5