Just think, if he joined us he'd probably still be here (wouldn't have to leave England to find a big club) and you'd be complaining how he kept diving at Old Trafford this past weekend.
Yes but you can't name a Rodgers team with more than one. Rafa played two holding miss. Rodgers plays 5 attacking mids. I compromised on a diamond for sake of comparing the two with same positions.
It's true about Ronaldo though, history is changed through small things. We could have signed Dalglish
The risk being in terms of money it would cost given his age and wouldn't be first team ready at that point. At that time we couldn't afford to risk 7m on that type of player but we do it now which was my point. We've brought a few young players for that kind of money in recent years under fsg
You know what I was going to do following that post... Go to transfers...you bought a few players that season, among them Diao for 5m and Cheyrou for £3.5m
Diao played in the WC so wasn't an unproven 17 year old... And cheyrou was the next zidane (before that 20 year old from Nigerian side babadigwo)
Hands down Rafa's team. It was a team full of winners and leaders. It had such a strong spine which made us difficult to break down, and feared in Europe. Rodgers talks about characters and leadership - he and the team bar Sakho have it. Rafa's team had Reina, Carra, Agger, Hyypia, Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres. Rafa did inherit some of these players of whom were in their prime but Rafa also had to contend with horrible owners AND play European football every year. Yes, the emergence of City has made it harder to get into the top 4 - this would be a valid excuse if we were even CLOSE to 4th. But we're not.
You make it sound like a chore Fact he had European football and was pretty much guaranteed it every year until City came knocking made it far easier for him to sign players from abroad. We've seen that we struggled to attract big names from aboard because we weren't in the CL (Henri Ryan, Costa, Willian) and lets not forget that it was actually Rafa that started the downward spiral by finishing 7th. Since then (ignoring last year) we haven't been a CL team and when you have 4 teams in your league who can as well as other benefits (2 of them based in London, one being United who have money and a bigger brand and the other being City who can double any wage we offer) it will be hard to attract these players. This is the squad Rafa left Reina Johnson Carra Agger Aurelio Mash Lucas Kuyt Gerrard Yossi Torres Decent first 11 I'll give you that... was never a problem under Rafa. It was the depth that was the issue though. Cavielleri Degan Skrtel Aqualani Reira Babel N'gog With pyouth players like Insua, Darby, Spearing, Plessis, El Zhar, Eccleston, Pacheco Wouldn't say Rafa left us in a very healthy position in terms of a squad, especially when Aurelio was injured 90% of the time, as was Agger Lucas wasn't up to scratch at that point and Masch was unhappy.
As we've seen with Rodgers, managing a squad and extra games in Europe is not easy, but Rafa did it every year. Also, Rafa's name alone attracted players. Yes, CL football help but Rafa did a lot to attract players. And I reiterate - City's emergence is only a valid excuse if we were ever close to getting top 4. We've finished in positions like 6th and 7th so even if City weren't mega rich, we'd still not be good enough. I would also argue that City, Chelsea, United and arsenal are not as strong as they once were. The PL is in its weakest period IMO. United won of their last 6 games last season and we still couldn't overtake.
Torres was already wanting out as well. Plus Agger was constantly injured. Take those three players out that eleven and then look at it!
I'd say it was more because Rafa was replaced with Woy. Had we got someone in that had a equally high profile than I doubt they'd have been so bothered.
Some of the best youth players Rodgers has enjoyed using arrived because of Rafa. Players like Sterling wouldn't be at Rodger's disposal of it wern't for Rafa. Rafa may have left a team weaker than at any time previous during his reign but he had also had about 4 transfer windows on the bounce where we sold more players (£) than we bought. (or was even) I've no doubt he would have strengthened over the summer again (even if it meant selling) and we would have done better than Konchesky and Poulsen that Roy brought in (and told us was as good as we should expect).
Before even considering new signings, Rafa would have stuck with Aurelio and Insua rather than buy Konchesky. He'd have used Lucas and Spearing ahead of Poulsen too. the only good player Woy brought in was Meireles and he soon realised how **** it was and ****ed off again
