He's a damn sight better than the waiter. ã17 million plus bonuses for 18 games from Aquilani? And a net spend of ã8 million just to pay Robbie Keane's wages for half a season. Not to mention Jermaine "Dude, where's my car?" Pennant. How I'll miss him
Rafa's and Fergie's mid-range (ã2m-ã15m) flop/success ratios are about the same, though Fergie lost a little more money. Rafa was rarely able to spend outside of mid-range. Wenger's is better but Mourinho's is far worse:
http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/11/mid-range-madness/
I could list all the waiter's **** purchases, but I really don't have all night...
Kromkamp, Benayoun, Nunez, Paletta, Josemi, Dossena, Arbeloa, Sissoko, Bellamy, Riera, Gonzalez, Crouch, Keane, Morientes, Luis Garcia, Penant, Reina, Agger, Lucas, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Kuyt, Babel.
Dublin, Heinze, Howard, Greening, Ricardo, Poborsky, Cruyff, Carroll, Fortune, Belion, Johnsen, Tosic, Djemba-Djemba, Forlan, Solksjaer, Smith, Taibi, Kleberson, Cantona, Silvestre, Blomqvist, Sheringham, Bartez, Da Silva, Da Siilva, Evra, Vidic, Obertan, De Laet, Pssebon, Park, Diouf, Kuszczak, Van Der Sar.
That's only the mid-range but for every Torres there's a Berbatov.
The Fergie list took me longer to type out.
Nobody expected Aquilani to feign injury for so long. He's certainly looked like a decent Alonso replacement since he got fit.
And who bought Keane? The way I heard it Rafa wanted Barry and Keane as a partnership but if he couldn't get both he only wanted Barry. Yet we somehow ended up with only Keane because the club wouldn't spring for the extra ã1.5m Villa were holding out for, which caused the whole Alonso saga. Ridiculous and thankfully it sparked Parry's exit.