I remember Thompson talking about it. You could afford him iirc, but he (Thompson who was nmbr 2?) just didn't think he was worth the risk.

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.![]()

You cant namea Rafa team with only 1 holding player.
Suarez was kicked out because he had a biting problem...![]()

I remember Thompson talking about it. You could afford him iirc, but he (Thompson who was nmbr 2?) just didn't think he was worth the risk.
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.![]()

It's true about Ronaldo though, history is changed through small things. We could have signed Dalglish![]()

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.![]()
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![]()

AND play European football every year.

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.
This is the squad Rafa left
Reina
Johnson Carra Agger Aurelio
Mash Lucas
Kuyt Gerrard Yossi
Torres
...
and Masch was unhappy.
Torres was already wanting out as well. Plus Agger was constantly injured.
Take those three players out that eleven and then look at it!
Torres and Masch wanted out because Rafa left.
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).
