The end was bad no one denies that but look at our squad when he left, we had yards of dross in the squad and no depth. It's not really fair to leave out what was happening behind the scenes during those last two eyars, HnG nearly sinking the club, you think that had no effect Tobes? C'mon When we were getting CL regularly under him and hammering the likes of Madrid that was the time we needed to really invest in good players and the money was not given for that, unless you call ngog that type of player The policy was buy lots of potential who cost little and accepted low wages. Just blaming benitez without considering all of that is like blaming a captain for sinking a ship when the owners of said ship had cut a big hole through the ship's hull as it sailed along. We nearly went into admistration after steady CL, doing well enough in the PL. 2006/07 and the following 2 years was the time to invest, but after nearly winning the CL and getting another final, league HnG thought they were on to a money spinner. ******s they were, they even hated each other ffs. We had no FFP constraints then, that was the time to go get good players. The guy has his faults, for me, he's too much like a school master with players rather than getting them riled up and supporting him.
If you read my post you would have already known that, but you are trying to separate the circumstances financially at the club from benitez and his dealings. This is a debate surely not a game? Benitez obviously bought dross. When you go buy lots of cheap players because you are not given money to buy good players of proven quality, you will most likely end up with many that don't work out. That is the case for Wenger Fergie and even Jose, they have all bought players that didn't work out at all but, they won trohpies so it was all rather ignored. When given cash he brought in Alonso Mascherano, Torres, Arbeloa ect. Becuase HnG ****ed us by not buying players to compliment those types we ended up losing them, though with Alonso, Benitez royally ****ed up that situation by looking at Barry as a better option than Alonso Though to be fair, there is some mitigation, Alonso was not performing like he was before that Barry mess. Once he decided to leave, he was boss. It made it look so much worse The fact remains, you know little about Benitez and HnG's tenure. Just as I know little about Fergie's dealings with the Glaziers. Had the Glaziers gave Fergie the cash, how many more CL's n PL's might you have had? It does make a difference, Fergie succeeded despite the glaziers not because of them at times imo. But I don't know the ins and outs of that situation, only that United were not spending what other clubs of their stature were spending
In his last transfer summer Benitez sold Alonso and spent close to £40million on Aquilani and Glen Johnson. Granted Alonso was always likely to want a move to Real but as you rightly pointed out the prospect of losing his place to Garry Barry no doubt helped make up his mind!
The idea that Benitez was hamstrung by a lack or resources during his time at Anfield is a complete myth. Yes, by the standards of 2015 his spending was lower by comparison, but in the era he was running the show at Liverpool he was one of the highest spending managers in the division. You can't blame H&G either, as in the year prior to his sacking he finished 2nd with a side built by him that was patently competitive. In his last year he lost the plot, it started to go pear and he couldn't turn it around. It happens. It doesn't make him an awful manager, but it showed he wasn't the best around either.
"The idea that Benitez was hamstrung by a lack or resources during his time at Anfield is a complete myth." I do wonder why you take an argument, with many points, and turn it into that ^, I never said that. If Rafa for example had 100m to spend, under HnG he could not go and spend it on 3 players with the accompanying high wages. The club under HnG would not allow it, our squad depth would not allow it. Torres was our record signing. 20m, less than United spent on a defender many years before like, just saying, we were not spending on the quality needed when it was needed. Spending 100 mil on "potential" was not the answet to challenging Chelsea with their cash and United with Fergie. Look at Arsenal, thrifty, 2 FA cups in a decade. Even Liverpool and Rafa have done better, because we did spend more but in terms of fees and wages of United when they chose to spend and Chelsea, on individual quality players, we were not competing. Even so Arsenal are only winning something now because they shose to start buying good players on good wages in these past two years. I am not in the know, but our wage structure seemed like a big hinderance, and no one can deny unless they are being ****ing obtuse, that HnG ruined us financially and not by spending vast sums on players either. Their borrowing did that and it wasn't all given to rafa either. And yes I agree, Benitez is not one of the top bracket, but how bad is he when he gets the top jobs in Europe's leagues? Most of my posts have been to point out that all those calling him a ****e manager, and there are many, haven't a clue what they are talking about, that's all.
Josemi Malaga £2,000,000 26 July 2004 Antonio Nunez Real Madrid £1,500,000 17 August 2004 Xabi Alonso Real Sociedad £10,700,000 20 August 2004 Luis Garcia Barcelona £6,000,000 20 August 2004 Mauricio Pellegrino Valencia Free 5 January 2005 Fernando Morientes Real Madrid £6,300,000 13 January 2005 Scott Carson Leeds £1,000,000 21 January 2005 Boudewijn Zenden Free Transfer Free 4 July 2005 Pepe Reina Villarreal £6,000,000 4 July 2005 Antonio Barragan Sevilla £240,000 4 July 2005 Momo Sissoko Valencia £5,600,000 14 July 2005 Peter Crouch Southampton £7,000,000 20 July 2005 Miki Roque Lleidav Unknown 15 August 2005 Jack Hobbs Lincoln £150,000 18 August 2005 Besian Idrizaj LASK Linz £190,000 22 August 2005 Mark Gonzalez Albacete £1,500,000 20 October 2005 Paul Anderson Hull Swap 1 January 2006 Jan Kromkamp Villarreal Swap 4 January 2006 David Martin MK Dons £250,000 12 January 2006 Daniel Agger Brondby £5,800,000 12 January 2006 Robbie Fowler Man City Free 27 January 2006 Craig Bellamy Blackburn £6,000,000 1 July 2006 Gabriel Paletta Banfield £2,000,000 4 July 2006 Fabio Aurelio Valencia Free 5 July 2006 Jermaine Pennant Birmingham £6,700,000 26 July 2006 Dirk Kuyt Feyenoord £9,000,000 18 August 2006 Nabil El Zhar St Etienne £200,000 21 August 2006 Astrit Ajdarevic Falkenberg £750,000 11 January 2007 Daniele Padelli Sampdoria Loan 12 January 2007 Jordy Brouwer Ajax Undisclosed 24 January 2007 Francisco Manuel Duran Malaga £66,000 30 January 2007 Alvaro Arbeloa Deportivo £2,500,000 31 January 2007 Javier Mascherano West Ham Loan 20 February 2007 Lucas Gremio £5,000,000 11 May 2007 Krisztian Nemeth MTK Hungaria Undisclosed 25 May 2007 Mikel San Jose Athletic Bilbao £270,000 28 June 2007 Sebastian Leto Lanús £1,800,000 1 July 2007 Fernando Torres Atletico Madrid £20,200,000 4 July 2007 Andriy Voronin Leverkusen Free 6 July 2007 Yossi Benayoun West Ham £5,000,000 12 July 2007 Ryan Babel Ajax £11,500,000 13 July 2007 Charles Itandje Lens Undisclosed 9 August 2007 Emiliano Insua Boca Juniors £1,300,000 26 August 2007 Lauri Dalla Valle JIPPO £600,000 8 November 2007 Martin Skrtel Zenit St Petersburg £6,500,000 11 January 2008 Javier Mascherano Media Sports Investment £18,600,000 29 February 2008 Philipp Degen Borussia Dortmund Free 3 July 2008 Andrea Dossena Udinese £7,000,000 4 July 2008 Diego Cavalieri Palmeiras £3,500,000 11 July 2008 David N'Gog Paris St Germain £1,500,000 24 July 2008 Robbie Keane Tottenham £19,000,000 28 July 2008 Albert Riera Espanyol £8,000,000 31 August 2008 Glen Johnson Portsmouth £17,500,000 26 June 2009 Alberto Aquilani Roma £17,100,000 7 August 2009 Sotirios Kyrgiakos AEK Athens £2,000,000 21 August 2009 Daniel Ayala Sevilla £160,000 17 September 2009 Maxi Rodriguez Atletico Madrid Free 12 January 2010 Raheem Sterling Queens Park Rangers £600,000 27 February 2010 Jonjo Shelvey Charlton £1,700,000 10 May 2010 Milan Jovanovic Standard Liege Free 8 July 201 I still to this day am dumbfounded by the amout of ****ty players he signed Benitez certainly takes the blame for much of this list, though the scouts and club have to take their share of blame also. Spending all that on a 3rd or a 4th as many players of quality instead would have served us better imo, just too many hopefuls for buttons But.. the wages would have been far higher than those on hte list got paid had Rafa been allowed to do just that. Obviously there are some just downright disasters on there like Aquaman and the like. There's no excusing those but other managers like Fergie also made those types of blunders with transfers. We should never have been buying players like Pennant when wanting to challenge for the PL and CL
That list proves just how dreadful Benitez was. He single-handedly ruined the owners of the club and nearly took it down with them. Had he done his job properly, 'Pool would not have got itself into the trouble that it did. In the end - if you all remember - the owners stopped Benitez buying players and did all the buying themselves, and as a childish protest he wouldn't play them. Take Robbie Keane, for example: the club spent £19m on him, but Benitez petulently only ever played him as a sub in order to miniize his impact, in order to make a point to the owners, and in so doing brought the club to its knees. It never ceases to amaze me how Mousers idolize a man who, because of his ego, almost destroyed their club!
At least we got something out of him, Aquaman cost more and we got **** all but headaches There are some gnarly buys in that list tho
You miss the context of why that list was posted then try just use the list out of context to prove your point. You are a Spurs supporter, you know **** all about Liverpool and its internal dealings. No one is saying he didn't make bad buys, no one is saying he didn't spend a fair bit of cash, no one is saying he's a great manager. No one is saying he is blameless. Do get to know what the **** you are talking about before you talk about it HIAG, for a change like he's a good manager with a good record, and that is all I've ever said. You can remind me I'm a twat like you when I start telling you everything about Spurs the club and their managers and internal dealings yeah You started gobbing off about Benitez without knowing anything about the man, or the clubs he managed.
Shall be start a "FREE STERLING" campaign. The player has kindly asked 'Pool that he not attend their upcoming Asia tour, and I suspect that the ungrateful ****ers are going to force the poor lad to attend against his wishes.
