That's a bit lame from you - sure it's not one of your 'facts', you know, like Suarez leaving? ****ing muppet
We shouldnt take the piss, I questioned him on his writing of factual documents and got rather embarrassed when i found he had written several scientific reports...Rumour has it he nearly won a nobel prize for: ' Is it possible to reach enlightenment through continuous and rapid masterbation.'
Here is the list, don't blame me for any inaccuracies in the figures as I got them off transferleague.co.uk ...........................................Bought.........................Sold......................Profit/Loss Season 09/10 Glen Johnson........................£17,500,000.................still at club Chris Mavinga........................Signed[2] Stephen Sama.........................Free Alberto Aquilani.....................£17,000,00...................still at club Sotirios Kyrgiakos..................£1,5000,00......................Free...................-£1,500,000 Maxi Rodriguez............................Free.......................still at club Season 08/09 Philipp Degen............................Free............................Free Andrea Dossena.....................£7,000,000....................£4,500,000.............-£2,500,000 Diego Cavalieri.......................£3,500,000....................£1,000,000.............-£2,500,000 Robbie Keane........................£19,000,000...................£12,000,000...........-£7,000,000 Vitor Flora.............................Signed Alberto Riera.........................£8,000,000....................£5,000,000............ -£3,000,000 David Ngog...........................£1,500,000....................£4,000,000.............£2,500,000 Season 07/08 Javier Mascherano.................£17,100,000...................£17,300,000...........£200,000 Martin Skrtel........................£6,500,000....................Still at Club Damien Plessis.........................Signed Emiliano Insua......................£1,300,000......................free.................... -£1,300,000 Ryan Babel..........................£11,500,000...................£5,800,000 ............-£5,700,000 Yossi Benayoun....................£5,000,000....................£5,000,000 Sebastian Leto.....................£1,850,000...................£3,000,000............... £1,150,000 Fernando Torres...................£26,500,000..................£50,000,000.............£23,500,000 Charles-Hubert Itandje..............Signed Andrei Voronin..........................Free.............................Free Season 06/07 Lucas Pezzini Leiva............... £6,000,000....................Still at Club Francisco Manuel Dura................Signed Alvaro Arbeloa........................£2,640,000...............£3,500,000..................£860,000 Nabil El Zhar...........................£200,000.......................Free Dirk Kuyt................................£9,000,000...............Still at Club Jermaine Pennant.....................£6,700,000....................£0......................-£6,700,000 Fabiano Aurelio Free Free Gabriel Paletta...........................£2,000,000.................. £0.....................-£2,000,000 Season 05/06 Craig Bellamy...........................£6,000,000..................£7,500,000..............£1,500,000 Robbie Fowler Free Free Daniel Agger............................£5,800,000.................Still at Club David Martin Signed Jose Reina............................£6,000,000.........................Still at Club Jan Kromkamp Swap ? Paul Anderson Signed Jack Hobbs Signed Godwin Antwi Signed Peter Crouch.............................£7,000,000................£10,000,000..................£3,000,000 Mohamed Sissoko.....................£5,600,000..................£8,200,000.....................£2,600,000 Antonio Barragan.....................£240,000 .....................£680,000..........................£440,000 Boudewijn Zenden Free Free Mark Gonzalez........................£4,500,000...................£4,200,000...................-£300,000 Season 04/05 Scott Carson......................... £1,000,000...................£3,250,000...................£2,250,000 Fernando Morientes................£6,300,000.................£3,000,000......................-£3,300,000 Mauricio Pellegrino Free free Antonio Nunez Swap free Xabi Alonso............................£10,500,000................£30,000,000..................£19,500,000 Luis Garcia.............................£6,000,000..................£4,000,000...................-£2,000,000 Josemi..................................£2,000,000....................................................-£2,000,000 Djibril Cisse...........................£14,000,000..................£6,000,000................ -£8,000,000 Total.....................................£246,230,000............£187,930,000............... -£58,300,000 Total less players still at club...................................................................£9,700,000 profit
Light headedness is definately achievable, especially if chasing paint thinner whilst undertaking....(I just read that in chapter two of his report.)
I think AVB would be interesting. He and SC would make a good team, and the games with Chelsea would have even more spice. I think the FSG will favour AVB, too. They've played the previous manager card with KK and I'd guess they'd be loath to try it again so soon. They'll look for a young, successful, driven and malleable candidate. For me, nobody fits that description better than AVB. They should know - it's patently obvious! - that their next appointment, for the good of the club, needs to be a long-term one. We need stability and progression. We'd have got that had KK stayed on, but he's gone (but never forgotten - YNWA!), so there's nothing to do but look forward. Two managers in as many years is terrible for any club, especially a club renowned for their support of their managers. Provided the club choose soon (to minimise club disarray), make the contract a long one (again with stability in mind) and the fans get behind the new manager (as I'm sure we will), I feel we'll be making a great start.
Quality work! People will still believe Rafa was poor and that he had all the money he wanted to spend but pissed it against the wall, because thats the media perception of him. Nice try though but you are probably preaching to the brain dead zombies that sit in front of SSN all day only to get up to use the bog and reading a scum newspaper whilst taking a dump!
But in that time we were challenging, how many times did we actually challenge? Once. How many times did we fail midway through a season? Sign players like Aquilani or Pennant? I am an avid follower of Italian football and can tell you that he was sacked due to precisely your reason: changing the style of play. With a champions league winning team (that still hasn't been replaced entirely) he somehow got the idea that there was something inherently WRONG with the team style, that they had to play defensively (difficult to be more defensive than Mourinho, but he tried) and that certain youth didn't deserve a chance at the time. While you can argue that you would give him time, Inter's players couldn't stand his lack of man management and wanted him out. He always had that stubbornness to him which I couldn't stand, the belief that he as a boss must be respected and considered above all infallible. Let's see: His insistence on playing dross like Dossena and Voronin despite the availability of younger, more prospective players. His odd rotation policy (I know he didn't rotate any more than the others but he always seemed to choose the player who just scored a brace to sit out the next one). His overplaying Insua (and failing to sign senior cover for Aurelio). His blackout/censorship/shunning of the academy which was producing wonderkids. His failure to address constant morale problems. His rose tinted spectacles making a fool out of himself at the infamous FACKT conference. The Barry Saga. (Alonso is touted as his masterclass signing yet it's forgotten that Rafa drove him out of the club, too) The Keane saga. Overpays for a player after finally getting money, then plays him sporadically, finally selling him at a large loss once he began to settle. His charity work for example is always given as a positive. Thats all great and respectable but it has nothing to do with a manager role. You all forget that it took a massive payout to get him to leave, so despite knowing our lack of finances he still struggles to go, taking a large chunk of money with him which he partly redeposits into certain local charities. It's not his money, it's the money we had to give him. He's a good man for doing it anyway but let's be real, it won't cover up his dreadful backpass style. I'm not going to go on about all his flaws, because there are hundreds. I want you and FSG to remember them. Remember his last year in charge and how happy Gerrard/Carra were to see him go. Its nice to remember better times but was Rafa ever the top level manager you all make him out to be? Was he ever a "oh what a tactical genius" type manager? Why didn't he build on 08/09 despite getting money? He's not the perfect candidate and I think it would be a massive step back for the club with this appointment. That being said, he's a better option than Martinez and many free managers. However sentimentality shouldn't be a part of this since those days weren't all peachy either.
Let's see: His insistence on playing dross like Dossena and Voronin despite the availability of younger, more prospective players. But when he did play younger players, he got slated for that aswell. His odd rotation policy (I know he didn't rotate any more than the others but he always seemed to choose the player who just scored a brace to sit out the next one). The likes of Torres and possibly Gerrard have suffered greatly from overplaying or playing too soon after injury. Rotation is part of the game if you want perform in several competitions (I know everyone will say the league is the bread and butter but who didn't enjoy the latter stages of the champions league he regularly got us to?). Head on over to the Spurs board and see what they say about 'Arry and his lack of rotation and overusing players. His overplaying Insua (and failing to sign senior cover for Aurelio). See above regarding Dossena, Voronin. Insua was a good prospect, unfortunately had to play more than Rafa wanted him to due to injuries, but he wanted to give him a chance. Buying another player would have stunted his growth (therefore no point buying him in the first place) under your ideas we would not see Kelly in the team. His blackout/censorship/shunning of the academy which was producing wonderkids. Wonderkids? Can you name some please? The academy is in a much healthier place now, thanks to Rafa His failure to address constant morale problems. He wasn't that type of manager, I do think he needs a 'good cop' to his 'bad cop' I think he really missed Paco as his assistant, they were a great team. Sammy lee bless him, just wasn't up to him. His rose tinted spectacles making a fool out of himself at the infamous FACKT conference. He was stubborn, and the fackt conference was a little embarrassing in delivery but I liked that he was one of a very few who would stick it to Ferguson, much of what he said was true. The Barry Saga. (Alonso is touted as his masterclass signing yet it's forgotten that Rafa drove him out of the club, too) We don't know the whole story, I loved Alonso, I would probably class him as one of my favourite players in the last 10 years. He was about to become a father, did Rafa have an ink·ling that he wanted to go back to Spain? Besides he had a poor season leading up to that, he had his best season after all the rumours (Juve were the only team interested at that point and for a lot less money) The Keane saga. Overpays for a player after finally getting money, then plays him sporadically, finally selling him at a large loss once he began to settle. We are led to believe this wasn't a Rafa purchase, if it was yes he did overpay but I think most thought Keane would do a good job. The real idiot in all that though is Redknapp, why did he take him back, and why does he get away with doing the same thing Rafa did with him without any questions? I'm not going to go on about all his flaws, because there are hundreds. I want you and FSG to remember them. Remember his last year in charge and how happy Gerrard/Carra were to see him go. Its nice to remember better times but was Rafa ever the top level manager you all make him out to be? Was he ever a "oh what a tactical genius" type manager? Why didn't he build on 08/09 despite getting money? Well yes I would call him a top level manager, his record speaks for itself, and yes I would call him 'a tactical genius' you seem to forget wins like the one at the Nou Camp. He built on the previous season, for every season bar the last one. Some of his football was truly terrible to watch, when he did it right there were no better. Rafa has several faults and you would hope he has learnt from them, I'm sure he would love to prove the doubters wrong and there is no denying he loves the club. He lives in the area still and his family didn't want to leave either so he could be a man who could be with us 10+ years (would AVB, Klopp, Deschamps, Rijkaard ect. or would they leave when something better, closer to home came knocking?) I'm really not 100% sure it would be the right thing to bring him back but I have far more confidence in him than some of the people linked to the job
It was actually a simple cut and paste job, but yes I've got too much time on my hands at the mo, off work for a couple of weeks!
If i hear one more person use the Barry/Alonso saga as a stick to beat Rafa with i'll go f**king mental ! Alonso was gash for at least a season and a half before his final season with us. Rafa was right to look elsewhere. Anyone who says any different obviously didnt watch him play those penultimate seasons.
Here's my reason for it not being Rafa. We've just gone through a year divided into 2 camps pro & anti Kenny. Nothing could convince either side they were wrong. That happened before Rafa left the first time. It's already happening on this thread & he's not even selected yet. I don't think I could stomach another year of us snapping at each other because I personally (while I haven't changed my mind that I think this squad unchanged will perform better next year) do not see the £30 million fund being touted guaranteeing any manager 4th spot, If it doesn't look like we're going to get 4th we'll have a repeat of the Kenny debate only with Rafa; as opposed to the focus being on the owners not putting up the money to get us where they expect us to be. All well & good talking about plans & sustainability & I agree with it; but as they didn't believe KD had the right buys to get the points, if there's not another £100 mill available they may hire Jesus as manager because we won't get 4th. Again: all this talk of sustainable investment, well FSG you have to pay to get us there first!!!!
I doubt we'd get anywhere near a unanimous vote for anyone. We just have to hope that whoever gets the job will get the support he needs.
