4 Aug 2012

'Nobody does that!' - LFC legend blasts Benitez for signing £18m flop...

Transfer flop Alberto Aquilani joined Fiorentina in a €4m deal yesterday, bringing to a close one of the most protracted transfer sagas in recent LFC history. Whilst the midfielder's departure is undoubtedly a good thing overall, Liverpool unfortunately stand to make £16m loss on the player, who was was inexplicably signed for £18m in 2009. Such financial negligence in the transfer market is one of the reasons Kenny Dalglish got his marching orders in May, and like many Reds fans, Anfield legend Steve Nicol still can't understand why Rafa Benitez bought Aquilani in the first place.

Discussing Aquilani's transfer on ESPN, Nicol tried to be diplomatic in his assessment of the Italian's signing. He said:

"If I'm being kind I would say it was a poor signing, but it was the old regime under Rafa Benitez, and whoever rubber-stamped the deal to sign Aquilani needs their head looking at.

"He'd just had an operation on his ankle, and was definitely going to be out for at least two months! Nobody does that".


In August 2009, I wrote an article outlining in detail why it would be a massive mistake to sign Aquilani:

Great - Rafa Benitez is about to waste another £20m of LFC's money

The final line in the article was 'let's hope Liverpool don't suffer the consequences of what could become a very expensive mistake'. Well, that's precisely how it's turned out - Aquilani will almost certainly go down in history as a very expensive mistake.

The sting in the tail is that he will continue to be an expensive mistake for the foreseeable future due to a clause in his Fiorentina contract stipulating that Liverpool will pay half his wages - €3.4m - for the first two years of his contract (!)

Aquilani: the gift that just keeps on giving...

Jaimie Kanwar


116 comments:

  1. liverpool4life5659:37 pm, August 04, 2012

    Where you get the figures from?

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  2. Kenny signed Carroll who was injured and out for more than 2 months and never got fully fit for the rest of the season..No problem though, it was only £35mln for Carroll rather than the exorbitant £18mln Aquilani.

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  3. ive heard liverpool are to pay half of aquillianis wages for 2 years so we only recouped £1 mill for him, it was a to bigger upgrade for the team and he was injury prone witch cost rafa his job.

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  4. Did Nicol forget to mention KD mistakes at wasting 35 million on AC, 20 mill on SD, 16 mill on JH and 7 mill on ChA. I'd like to know what would he have to say if Rafa Benitez sign these players. Most of the ex reds/ pundits now r just F*****g hypocrites.

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  5. Chelsea paid Carroll transfer fee with their £50ml offer for Torres.

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  6. Why should Nicol mention Dalglish? The discussion was about Aquilani. Should he have mentioned Houllier's mistakes too? Souness'? He's not a hypocrite; in other interviews he's crticised KD's wastefulness.



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  7. Exactly. What people seem to forget is that JH agreed that whatever Newcastle were willing to sell Carroll for he expected £15m more for Torres. So what Newcastle wanted £35m Chelsea still paid the £50m for Torres. If Newcastle had accepted £5m for Carroll we would have let Torres go for £20m. Effectively we got Carroll for minus £15m so what's the problem?

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  8. We have wasted serious cash over the last few years ..and taken some very unpleasant hits in the transfer market . Some of our recent transfer have a lot to do this season to be considered succesful eg henderson ,dowling et al
    Keane
    Aquilani
    Carroll (perhaps Soon to be sold )

    BR said we dont have buckets of cash , well maybe if we didnt waste the money we have we wouldnt be in this situation

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  9. benitez signed xabi alonso 10m sold for 35m and torres 25m sold for 50m so thats 50m he made so rafa done well and got to 2 champions league finals so he wernt that bad as for kenny that man has do more for the city but non scousers don't get it (cancer wards and he never missed a funeral for the hillsbourgh victims) so why the fuck should rodgers get time when the messiah never i hope kenny sits in the kop every game

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  10. I'm sick of Nicols comments! He seems to be forever sticking the knife in (from what I see on this site anyway) Good player, but what has he achieved in management?!!!

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  11. Nice of you to drag your hatred for Rafa back to the front, you must miss him?

    Consider that had Rafa remained as manager we would not have had such a terrible few years and in this specific case Aquillani would have played more and certainly not sent out on loan year after year with no reason.

    Time for you to change the record,

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  12. No matter how you try to look at it, we still gave 35 million to newcastle to sign this donkey. All this 15 million net spent talk is crap...

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  13. 35m wasted is 35m wasted regardless of where it came from. Do you honestly think that Chelsea would have paid less for Torres if had Carroll cost us less?

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  14. Jaime, We know you dislike Benitez but surely even with your one eyed view you can see this epic waste of cash has as much to do with our medical team at the time. THEY got Aquilani's prognosis wrong, not Benitez,  saying Aquilani would be ready in 2 months but he only appeared in late October! Those doctors were sacked and funny enough since the new sports science team were hired by Benitez, they have made us the least injury prone team in the league.

    Perhaps you with your hotline to Steve Nicol should give Benitez credit for once for that? However, I very much doubt that...
     

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  15. I would have Benitez back anytime, the guy is a legend. It's not about finnishing top and playing beautiful football, it's about winning competitions and playing at the top level in Europe and premier league. Benitez did not have the support from the owners. Had to sell to buy . He improved the team every year by making 1 quality addition. Miss those champions league nights

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  16. True that !  Even if Rodgers finds a buyer we are to have loss on him and Dalglish had more time to make Carroll work than Benitez with Aquillani . 

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  17. It's always the same cliched stuff. I do not 'dislike' Benitez; it's nothing personal. I only ever comment on his managerial performance. What exactly in my article suggests a personal dislike for benitez? Like so many of his disciples, you just can't hack criticism of someone you put on a pedestal.
    Get over it already. Stop.worshipping at his altar for 5 seconds and accept the fact that Benitez made mistakes, and that people will comment on them.
    It's not the medical team's fault. Did they decide to sign aquilani? No. With Alonso gone, the breathtakingly obvious priority was to sign someone who could come in and fill the void instantly. Instead, Benitez made the choice to sign an injured player, and he paid for it with his job.





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  18. Liverpool have been wasting money for years under a few managers. Its hardly something peculiar to Benitez who at lea
    st brought more than a few who sold on for considerable profit.

    Any criticism of Rafa has to be tempered with realisation of how far we have slipped since he left.

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  19. I was really positive about hiring Brendan Rodgers but as the days go on I'm getting very frustrated and down heartened by the calibre of players we are linked with. I know we can't attract the very best players at the moment but gabbing just read We are after williams of Swansea as a replacement for agger, I am now really pissed off . Hopefully it's just paper talk as we have bought a player Brendan worked with previously (Borini) so therefore that's the basis of our transfer policy? Bad season ahead again. We either have owners who aren't ambitious (hicks and g) and a manager who tries to buy players like David villa (rafa) or a seemingly good group of owners (fsg) who gave over £100m for signings and our policy is buy British only for ridiculous fees and wages and now no money and buy players who won't improve the squad or will downgrade what we have (agger out Williams in). We need to be ambitious again.

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  20. The medical team was partly to blame, they advised Benitez incorrectly. Benitez trusted people to do their jobs competently and they never. No wonder he liked to run things himself do much. Yeah he made mistakes, all managers do, even the best. But the fact of the matter is that we havent competed domestically or in Europe like we did under Benitez since he was fired and for a long time before he was in charge, that's why the uefa stats proved we were the best in Europe at the time. He did a lot more things right than what he did wrong.

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  21.   I am sorry? If Benitez had remained Liverpool manager, then who knows? One thing about Benitez when he had BIG money to spend, did he get it wrong? No. The only time he got it wrong was when the yanks made him take a chance on 2-5mill players wouldnt anyone!

    As for the comment about Carroll, who is to say Kenny got it wrong. My point is, horses for courses. Aquilani might have had a decent career if Liverpool hadnt employed a manager that liked kick and hope football! (Hodgson)

    Carroll if he is sold could come back to haunt us, consider his age. I hear people talk about giving kids a chance (forget about the money) is Carroll much older?

    I know he is a legend, but I have read quote after quote from Nicol about Dalglish and Benitez. Stop hiding in America Steve and see how you you get on!

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  22. i think a lot of benitez mistakes came about because of the last owners. you know the ones that promised a new stadium and thouht they where going to make millions out of sale of liverpool .when they knew that was'nt going to happen they tried to make profit from selling players

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  23. Jamie,

    Maybe you know more than me, but for me Benitez didnt lose his job because of signings. Benitez lost his job because he knew what he was getting wasnt good enough and he rocked the boat. Thats why they hired a "yes" man in Hodgson.

    Benitez understood modern day football, the fans, and the club. He stood up for that, and thats why he got the sack.

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  24. Was a strange one alright.

    Firstly, Alonso left for tax reasons, google it.

    Then Rafa spent the cash while he had it and the fans were demanding a signing, I think he took an expensive punt rather than see the cash disappear on paying for the snake oil salesmen's leveraged buyout.

    Parry and Moores really ballsed everything up selling to Hicks.

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  25.  Rafa lost his job because Carra and Gerrard wanted him out, nothing to do with results on the pitch at all or bad signings.

    Carra didn't get a new deal so he needed to get rid of Rafa to get one. His old friend Gerrard of course helped him out.

    The Aquilani deal was a mistake but we could only do business with clubs that owned us money.

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  26. Shahrill Sharwani12:24 am, August 05, 2012

     alonso, torres, mascherano, shelvey, agger, skrtl, Sterling to name a
    few all will make money for Liverpool in comparison carrol (35 million
    surely we cant sell him for 50, its an immediate loss), Downing( at 28
    this year at most we can break even if not another loss), Henderson from what Ive seen last year is the same standard as Shelvey(2years younger). So please get off Rafas back

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  27. I challenge you to write an Article on NET transfers of Rafa? Instead of writing these cheap pot shots, and quoting Nichol who obviously has his own agenda.

    Ever since Rafa left this club has gone backwards, hopefully it can be turned around before we become relegation fodder.

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  28. Rafa Benitez overpaid for Aquilani but made lots of money for Liverpool with the acquisitions and subsequent sales of players such as Torres and Alonso. Alex Ferguson overpaid for Sebastian Veron and made lots of money for ManU with the acquisition and subsequent sale of Ronaldo. Does that make either of these (very successful) managers incompetent?  I don't think so. You get some transfers right and some wrong, the important thing is to have a positive balance over the longer term.

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  29. Wasting that money on Aquilani or not I would have him back as mngr 2morrow. At least he brought some top players at the club. Just look at the players we r buying or we r being linked with and there is no hope at all that we will break into the top four any time soon. One day Jamie can u try and work out how much money he made the club from the CHL and from the players they were sold for profit against to how much money he's wasted on rubbish players. There's no mngr that hasn't made mistakes when players were bought.

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  30. If Rafa had not stood up to the Americans he would probably still be around, Aquilani or no Aquilani, and Liverpool would certainly be far better off than we are today. This is not to say that Rafa could not have been more diplomatic with our (admittedly incompetent) owners of the time, since his impatience provided Purslow with the necessary ammunition to pursue his own agenda and kick him out of Liverpool. 

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  31. Nice one. Challenge me to do something I've already done countless times.



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    Subject: [liverpoolkop] Re: 'Nobody does that!' - LFC legend blasts Benitez for signing £18m flop... | Liverpool-Kop.com

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  32. And LFC will continue to pay for 2 more years. 

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  33. you always write negative articles so doesnt surprise anyone that you already predicted aquilani as a failure.

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  34. Wrong Chelsea paid 50m for Torres, Dalglish wasted 35m
    of it on Carroll,then the remaining 15m he wasted on
    Downing, to think who we could have bought for that
    is gut wrenching,& to make matters worse FSG then
    gave Dalglish 6m compo. for his valiant efforts .I
    would not have Benitez back at any price,but Dalglish
    i would make him pay to watch the team at Anfield.

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  35. Makes sense. But at the time, 50 million for Torres was a good price considering his value to Liverpool was immense. He was a proven goalscorer, he did have problems with injuries, but he was a player that never had a lengthy break to recoup because of his exploits for Spain. He was settled, and full of confidence playing for Liverpool. Think of all the shirt sales, fan affection and reputation he had with Liverpool. 

    Carroll is still a loss to Liverpool, because he is no icon of football and quite frankly, who will want to buy his jersey ATM? Liverpool should have sold Torres for 30-40 million. Should have put that in the bank, and waited for the summer for better research and scouting for the next number 9. It was all panic to buy Carroll. 

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  36. People are saying Benitez made a mistake buying Aquilani. But my point is how is it a "big" mistake if the man never got a chance to manage the guy. Its more of a "big" missed opportunity. Im sure if Benitez stayed on for one more season, and Aquilani came back with a preseason under his belt Liverpool would be challenging for top 4 by christmas instead of being in the bottom quarter of the table. 

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  37. rightofftheshelvey5:33 am, August 05, 2012

    I'd give £20m to Benitez over any of the other last 7 managers at LFC.

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  38. LFC must bid £7million for Newcastles Demba Bar as he has a release clause in his contract and this would heap pressure on Newcastle who think they are so clever over Carroll - must bid TODAY - release clause ends tomorrow 

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  39. Sheer hypocrisy from Nicol. If we are to criticise Benitez for signing Aquiliani who in my book is a far better player and worth more to this current team than Adam, downing, Henderson combined surely he could have mentioned the fact that he brought in Torres on whom we doubled money, or Alonso whom we made a big profit, on Mascherano we made a profit too. And if Skirtel, Agger and Reina are released by the club we will make profits on them too.

    Im sure if Benitez had been offered the role when KK came in we would never have wasted in excess of 100 mllion pounds on the players we did. We will be lucky to get back 50 million.

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  40. You are out of your mind if you want Benitez back. Fact is that FSG will not allow him to manage this club again.

    Rafa's total spend (amount paid out for players) is higher than his recouped (amount received for players sold) so he did NOT make a profit in the long run.

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  41. The Aquilani buy was the stand out mistake of Benitez. Sure, Benitez did made some good buys like Alonso and Torres but he also wasted a fair bit on other players. Though I like Benitez, he walked straight into a time bomb when he bought Aquilani. He bought an injured player who is out and needed recovery time when he needed an instant replacement to fill the vacuum left by Alonso. It was an unwise buy at that time.

    And to make matter worse, Hodgson and Kenny did not even try to give Aquilani a chance when he was already on LFC's books. I have seen Aquilani play in some LFC games and there were flashes of his talent.

    Now with limited funds, we can't expect LFC to be linked to big names because these players will be priced out by Manc City, Chelsea, Real Madrid or Barcelona. But as long as we add in players to fit into Brendan's style, LFC should do well once they are moulded into a team. I don't think we need big names coming in. We have a good pool of players for Brendan to work with. I think players like Downing will come good this season.

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  42. Robbie Keane is another player who Rafa made a loss on. Morientes and Babel were also expensive flops and we lost money on their sales too so Rafa did not get it right all the time when he spent big money.

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  43. Alonso cost Rafa his job or should I say Rafa hunting Barry to replace Alonso cost him his job? If Rafa put aside his stubbornness then maybe he would have stayed on longer. 

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  44. Fact is LFC will not get back to the heights that Rafa took them to when he was in charge.

    Our best players have been leaving us for years and no one of any real quality is going to be linked with us for a long time.

    I enjoyed the Rafa regime - wonder how long it will be before we are in Europe playing finals or challenging for the title again.

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  45. We have to spread the muck, Bekim is correct, lets criticize all the bad signings, the worst will and always be KD's wasted £100m, Aquilani was never given a chance to shine, which is a shame a BR is trying to bring in his own average players too, why blame Rafa?

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  46. Show us proof of this please

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  47. Dont get your defence in a twist, Carroll was way to expensive, and Torres was a Rafa buy, we basically made twice as much for his sale, and wasted it all on Hendo, Downing, Adam, do not deny that we made more money under Rafa than the last two and possible new manager.  BR is already showing his appetite for average players, God protect us.

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  48. True mate I hope KD will haunt every game and as soon as BR is exposed for the fake he is things will really get ugly for the owners and he will be forced to limp out too, Rafa by any standards carries the best record for present day managers, CL monies, good buys and bad buys but he managed to move them out.  Nicol is an imbecile, what has he achieved, he does not see the muck that Woy and KD brought in expensively, Aquilani will always remain a class act.  If thats the kind of game we are to play, as witnessed  the other day, BR will be out soon, still entrusting the same flops that got us to 8th.

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  49. That's why I asked Jamie to work out the money he spend and the money he made on player sales and through CHL. I'm sure yr wrong mate cos even now apart from Aquilani his signings are being sold for more than we paid for. We'll wait and c how long will it b b4 we c Liverpool playing against the best in Europe.

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  50. Those European nights were special and it will b long time b4 we c them again.

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  51. Nicol will always be like all the KD bootlicking pundits who were scared to make a comment when the team was going down so what legend is he? At Aldo did say things as they were, lets stop calling all our former players 'legends' it brings down the meaning of the term for other great players who served us well.  

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  52. The fact is that every mngr makes bad signings. No one gets it spot on. AF bought Veron for 28 million and sold a year later for half of that money. Taibi, Kleberson, Bosnich just to name the few. My opinion only but I still think that Aquilani is better than JS, CHA and SD.

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  53. pathetic article. if you have nothing interesting to write about than to complain about something which occured 4 years ago and about a manager who has been replaced 3 times over i suggest you take a day off from the old blogging

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  54. So, just because you disagree with an ex-player's opinion it makes them less of a player? What kind of rationale is that? The likes of Nicol and Aldo did far more for the club that the mass of flops bought by Dalglish, and they are entitled to their view just as much as anyone else.

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  55. You got him good!

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  56. Bekim - he is not wrong. Benitez's gross spend far outweighs the money he recouped, and it doesn't matter how much your try and twist/spin things, Benitez was ridiculous amounts of money:

    http://www.liverpool-kop.com/2010/05/exclusive-liverpool-fc-grossnet-spend.html

    As a comparison, consider Benitez's transfer spending compared to Ferguson between 2004 and 2010:

    Benitez: Gross - 289m
    Ferguson: Gross - 225m

    Benitez: Recouped - 226m
    Ferguson: Recouped - 185m

    Benitez: Net - 63m
    Ferguson: Net - 40m

    These figures are fact, taken from the club's accounts.

    Benitez wasted lots of money. United had a lower net spend overall yet were more successful.

    As I said, twist it whatever way you want, but the facts speak for themselves.

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  57. Proof:

    http://www.liverpool-kop.com/2010/05/exclusive-liverpool-fc-grossnet-spend.html

    I still can't believe that Benitez's fans actually believe he made an overall *profit* during his transfer dealings. The mass delusion is truly something to behold.

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  58. jaimie you are a genius
    the love child of mystic Meg and Nostradumus
    can i have next week's lottery numbers please
    Nev the Red

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  59. we're talking about a man utd that was an established League winner who didn't need to buy a lot of players , and liverpool that was left by Houllier that needed rebuilding how does that compare. they already had quality, we needed to bring some in

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  60. your not very bright. rafa had many bad signings more bad ones than good. the problem is when the poor buy is so expensive and did rafa ever even ask the guy if he really wanted to play for liverpool. for kenny to make the exact same mistake with carroll so soon after aqua was unfogivable. could have done alot with that 35mil. never ever sign injured players their knackered from the start always laying catch up. and to all the rafa lovers 1 title race in 6 is crap for a liverpool manager he was usually out of contention by october yet people still think he was great.

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  61. Nobody does that? I'm pretty sure that Manchester United picked up Van Nistelroii for a big fee despite his injury at the time, and that didn't work out too badly for them. The difference was that RVN was actually given the opportunity to prove his worth for the club that shelled out such a vast amount on him, rather than constantly being pushed out of the door at the first opportunity and paid to go and play elsewhere while inferior players could be paid to take his place in the squad.

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  62. so you wont bother watching the kids in  the europa league this season. young squad young manager this tournament ccould give them great experience.also it lets the manager make a clear distinction between sunday team and thursday team. this gives the thursday night guys a reason to perform and also keeps the sunday team on their toes. lets take the positives out of things as fans were far to negative about the team. fsg pulled the redsox out of a much deeper hole lets start trusting these guys.

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  63. I admit that I felt (and still believe) that Benitez' reign had run its course and that it was both in his and the club's best interests to part ways (from a season before he eventually left), but Hodgson and Dalglish have both done miserable jobs in replacing him and only served to set the club backwards considerably imo.

    With FFP in place the protect the "haves", it is a dangerous time to be joining the ranks of the "have-nots" and I fear that this could be a repeat of our bad times which started when the Premier League and Champions League came around to the benefit of the those teams that took immediate advantage...

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  64. Nonsense - ppl love spouting conspiracy stories and secret conversations as if they were conclusively proven fact...

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  65. Ok. So 63 million net spend in six years. Is not that much really is it. Considering that he made the club lots of money from ChL and winning the European Cup.

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  66. To be fair though, what managers other than the smaller clubs in lower leagues actually generate a profit? It usually takes a freak bid, like Real Madrid's 80 something million for Ronaldo or Liverpool's 35 for Carroll to give a manager a chance at making a profit. Your article on Benitez v Ferguson shows although Fergie spent less, Benitez still has very close margins and a 10 mill spend is nothing in the modern era. United already had a steady spine after spending tens of millions in previous years (Rooney, Ferdinand) and were fortunate enough to have a midfield 4 made up of homegrown talent (Scholes, Giggs, Fletcher) and young players they bought, at the time being Ronaldo. When you compare this to Rafa, he assembled such a good squad in 08/09 by whealing and dealing, having to sacrificeplayers like Sissoko, Garcia and numerous strikers so he could bring in Mascherano and Torres for relatively modest fees. Taking this into account, I can forgive him for the Aquilani move but in hindsight ( a beautiful thing) it wasn't his wisest move. He gets a lot of stick for this move but had he been given a decent crack at the whip, maybe we would be signing Rafa's praises.

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  67. Maybe not everybody is as bright as u mate. 1 title race in six yrs. did u forget the European cup he's won. Than the FA cup than another Eupropean final. Semis in the CHL. Two years since he's gone an Lfc r nowhere near to challenge for anything.

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  68. and that was because Benitez got sacked,, when he bought Aquliani he said:  We  did not buy him for the next two months,, we bought him for the next 5 years.  And we will never know how Benitez might have used him had both of them stayed on.  

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  69. who cares who wasted what we havnt won the league for 22 years. lets stop crapping on about money and fourth spot please remind me who finished fourth last season cos i think their in the europa with us. in the last 10 years we care less and less about the league which rafa fuelled with his were out of the league by october so lets concentrate on europe attitude. 1st is everything all the rest are losers who do we wana be challenging city or arsenal?  

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  70. your crazy so many times rafa chose to buy 5 average players instead of one good one that was his problem. he also spent alot on youngsters who were suposed to be in he team by now. lucas is in the rest are gone.

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  71. Yes, how right you are - it's always sadly the same tired cliched hackneyed polemic from you...

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  72. The main reason for signing Aquilani was that Rafa wanted to replace Alonso, but there was no money so he could only buy players from Roma since they had not yet paid for Riise. Same reason why we got Johnson, Portsmuth could not pay their bills and we had money outstanding on the Crouch deal. If you look into most of Benitez deals you will find that he was often forced to sign a player that was not his main target. His biggest mistake was unsetteling Alosno since he could not get the money to have both Alonso and Barry in the same team although he was promised the money only for Purslow to wast it on R.Keane instead.

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  73.  Try Russell Grant...

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  74. Yes I think they do Jaimie, when you consider we were the statistically the 'Best team in Europe' and had statistically our 'Highest Premier League Finish'. Above doesn't take into account the value Benitez left in our squad and what we would recoup if we sold Reina, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Lucas etc. Benitez wasted no more money as you casually put it than any other manager competing at the  highest end (bar wenger). And with reqard to Aquilani, if you couldn't see he was a talented footballer worth taking a risk on, I question your judgement of footballers.

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  75. Spot on. Plus the 30million the club made on Torres.

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  76. Re Aquilani - I've stated repeatedly in various articles that he was/is talented, and that he was never given a proper chance at LFC. So what's your point?

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  77. It doesn't take a psychic to surmise that signing a perpetually injured player is going to end in tears.

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  78. No, it's not so much, but when you consider United's net spend during the Benitez era was 39.6m, it doesn't look so good, does it?

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  79. More excuses. Liverpool qualified for the CL in Houllier's last season. After spending 289m, where did Benitez finish in his last season? If Houllier's team needed 'rebuilding' in 2004 despite CL qualification and spending 140m LESS than Benitez, then using your logic, that must mean that Benitez left LFC in the worst position imaginable, right?

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  80. BS, Rafa admitted in "An Audience with Rafa" that he was the one who signed Keane. What is pathetic is that Rafa never gets blamed for anything. Blame always get pushed on to others.

    Best thing happened for LFC when H&G plus Rafa were sent packing. :)

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  81. You mention that you have done the analysis countless times? Where is the link of your Overall view on Rafa's net spend and transfer figures? I want to see the article please, and then i will get off your case.

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  82. With respect, have you ever thought about using the search bar, or clicking the 'gross/net spent' link in the links bar at the top. The Rafa info is easily available.

    http://www.liverpool-kop.com/search/label/gross%2Fnet%20spend?max-results=50

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  83. Exactly. The 'Benitez didn't want Keane' myth has been debunked lots of times, including by Benitez himself (!) yet his blinkered disciples still refuse to accept it.

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  84. no, look at chelsea team that that won the CL, or if you will how much a strong chelsea team had to spend on rebuilding when Mourinho joined. When Benitez joined our best players where leaving, the players who joined the year before all flopped, so he needed to restructurize, best players such as hammann, hyppia were in their 30's, he bought 2 players who really improved the squad, liverpool didn't have a decent striker the only one passable was Cisse, fowler ower heskey left or were leaving, kewell playing with injury, other players that were good were finnan, carra, dudek, Gerrard, riise, really struggling to name  others maybe smicer, we had le tallec coming through and sinama plus the likes of biscan traore, kirkland, diao diouf baros, i seriously think Man Utd had a much better team inluding a young ronaldo and rooney they bought for 30 mil, so i'm not coming up with excuses the team was poor and needed new blood badly, If you think Benitez left us in a worst shape that The king you must be deluded

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  85. When he did return to full fitness, and showed glimpses of what he was capable of, Rafa wasn't interested and left him to rot! Do you suffer from a short memory?!

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  86. Of course it was a problem, and he was duly sacked.

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  87. Some of Rafa's signings were absolutely appalling and some were absolute genius. All of Kenny's signings (except Bellamy and maybe Enrique) have been absolutely atrocious!

    Although a large part of that can probably be attributed to his bad management of them, rather than them having no footballing talent what so ever.

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  88. My only problem with this is Christiano Ronaldo. Not everyone can spot a talent, but specifically, to think a talent will go on to be worth 80M have a lot of luck in it(injuries, settling, adapting, and mental development).

    If you would deduct the amount CR have gained them you will see a different picture. Moreover, if you would take anoyher year into consideration, suddenly FT's 50M change the comparison again.Now, I'm not a big benitez fan for a number of reasons(and game philosophy on top of all else), but for sure I think his transfer dealings have been better than any other during the last couple of decades.

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  89. There aren't many teams in sport with ambition who haven't made their share of poor acquisitions. The number of failures go up with changes in ownership and management. LFC needs stability to get on the right track. Don't thrash about past failures, but hope that future fiascos are minimal.

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  90. It's generally well known that for some time, Steve Nicol has gone bonkers.

    Some pundits talk sense and can form a well reasoned argument.  Others just say something they know will get a reaction.  The next day they'll be on to the next thing.

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  91. Yeah right.  Like it was a good move to appoint Hodgson and his 35 years of experience of negative football.

    Fool.

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  92. Kenny shouldn't get all the blame. Comolli did his share of the damage. 

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  93. Please explain where you're getting these figures from...How do you know we only got 4m and we're paying a chunk of his his wages. Hope I'm wrong as I like your articles but I'm beginning to wonder if you're full of publicity seeking nonsense

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  94. "Nobody does that"???
    How about a certain Hargreaves that Manure signed just about the same time as Aquilani signed for LFC?
    Did anybody criticise Fergucsum for that particular bit of business?  No
    He wasn't even missed, why? because Manure was not being asset-stripped as a club as LFC was under Rafa, and Ferguscum did not have to 'sell to buy' like Rafa was asked to do....

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  95. Of course I will watch them. I'll never stop supporting my club. I watched LFC even under R Hodgson believe it or not. I was at Anfield when we lost to the Powerhouse and the formidable Northhampton.

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  96. One day u and lots of people will stop and think just how good things were under Benitez. Ill b around to c just how long is gone take Lfc to become number one in Europe and play the best teams again. Of course I hope it doesn't take long at all Cos I love my club as much as every other supporter I hope we finish top four next season. But I'm realistic and I fear that its going to b a long time b4 we c CHL football again.

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  97. My point is that when looking at all the facts I disagree with your statement that 'Benitez wasted lots of money'.

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  98. apparently macia rated aqua, while the rest of the people involved in decision making were unconvinced. rafa went with macias opinion, and probably lost his job for wasting almost 60m on keane, aqua and johnson. not saying glenda is shite, just that we could have picked up a decent RB from abroad for a lot less and rotated him with kelly, while using the money to strengthen elsewhere.
    roma were rubbing thier hands with glee when that offer came in.
    we can make up for that now with some decent cheap signings and some top loan aquisitions.

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  99. agree completely. rafa would have brought in top class spaniards and argies and we'd have been in a lot better position that we are now. kenny has overseen the biggest waste of cash ever seen at LFC. apparently he has a rig at home that enables him to watch any sattelite football from around the world. fat lot of good that did him. he was out of touch and a relic, his methods so dated. he barely even took training. 
    its good to see FSG telling everyone how kenny told them, prior to getting the job, that he would step aside when the right man was found to do the job long term. he blagged his way into the job and waffled his way out of it.

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  100. don't disagree that AA was a bad deal. But I wonder why Steve Nicol did not mention the 50M recouped from FT (also a rafa buy) to cover up the series of massive transfer blunders committed by Kenny, which amounted to >75M (CA, AC, SD, JH), and if we include players with low ethical standards (LS), the total amount of transfer tragedies committed by Kenny will amount to >100M, the WORST amongst LFC managers. If we were to rank the biggest damages committed by LFC maangers in club history, Kenny's second spell should easily be ranked the bottom 2, second onlyly to Souness. Interestingly, no former Liverpool Greats have the guts to mention this FACT.

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  101. With both transfers and commercial aspects (until very recently) Liverpool has been mis-managed for years

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  102. Good point. We get rid of Aquilani, who has played for Roma, Juventus, AC Milan and now Fioretina, but we instead keep a player that has played for Rangers and Blackpool. Sums it up really. The future is not looking good, we need TOP players to get into TOP 4. Financially and football wise, Liverpool are gonna struggle. I hope im wrong. 

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  103. we were way more competitive under Rafa, he would put out a second string team and still get results most of the time. Dalglish try's the same thing, and the entire team was shambles. 

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  104. Jaimie can u please show one instance when Nicol has criticised Kenny?,Am surprised because u have repeated showed his hypocrisy last season when continued to back kenny when it was clear  kenny was not doing well even our owner said what kenny did last season was unacceptable tho if u ask steve nicol he still hold it was a mistake to let kenny go, really??????? to make matters worse nicol 
    criticised  rafa for playing mach in as right when we played atheletico maridid and sergio was attacking that flank and played glen jonhson on the left, when kenny played jonhson on the left  nothing was wrong, funny how arguably the best team in the world barca plays masch in defence as well , secondly am surprised how u can compare Rafa net spend to fergies, as clearly fergie didn't need to spend as much as rafa incase u forget alot of utd squad then and now still had players from their all conquering squad, i mean giggs and scholes r still playing today but fergie could still call on players like brown neville, fergie didn't need to spend all at once as some positions were and r still covered all he needed to do was spend where he needed new blood, rafa had to almost build a whole new squad its only logical u spend more

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  105. i think Rafa will remain 1 of the greatest lfc managers of all time alongside Shankly.....honestly he made liverpool a great force in the world.....Jamie can you analyze Rafa's achievements in six years against any other lfc manager apart frm Bill.....no 1 will near his achievement as lfc manager maybe Mourinho or Pep.he only struggled when hell broke loose between him n the f****ng Americans...when another set of Americans(who looks a project of the previous Americans,Hicks n Gilette)took over,they looked more confused than any other big club owners in any major league,their transfer policy was damn bullshit..young home grown players...yes there is much talent in UK bt there is very little quality that can handle the performance pressure at lfc,there is just lots of overated flops nowonder we finished eighth in their first full season at the club.....

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  106. Rafa didn't make a net profit on players but he kept us challenging at the very top of European football for as little as £10 million net spend per season. If you presented that to FSG now and said invest £10 million a year and I'll bring you top four and CL finals they would bite your hand off.

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  107. By your figures, Rafa was given, on average, a mere £12 million per season by the board to buy players.

    With this paltry investment he was expected to overtake a major rival on a 15 year winning streak from a standing start.

    He worked miracles to come 2nd to them one year

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  108. Rafa sacking...people responsible in no particular order


    Gerrard, cara, Purslow  
    = xenophobia, personal agendas, 

    London media  
    = wanted a brit in a big job, hated benitiz 

    some fans 
    = succumb to the false media narrative that benitiz was bad for the club

    hicks and Gillette 
    = benitiz resisted them whilst they plundered the club, chronic underinvestment, etc


    Rafa is NOT liked in the game in the UK I cant belive how many people (mangers, ex pros, journalists) including SAF have  said that rafa was responsible for the demise of liverpool , some often repeating misinformation and wrong facts 

    this should at least make you suspicious! i remember shanks as manager and i would put rafa as one of our best managers along with bob paisley and of course Shankley. I don't know why we are still debating this apart from the fact that media brain washing can take many years to sort out... lol

    oh and yes rafa benitiz made mistakes ...but i dont measure managers for their mistakes as i see that as NECESSARY to become a great manager...the media like to focus on his perceived mistake to make you forget the tremendous success he had in making liverpool truly competitive in ALL competitions

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  109. Jaimie - you're a bit myopic, I'm afraid.  All you are talking about is money recouped in SALES. 
    What you also need to take into account is how much money Rafa (and the players he brought in) generated for Liverpool through annual Champions League qualification, not to mention how far we went in the tournament.  What is it, £10m, £20m, per year for Ch.L. participation?  That's at least £50m you need to add to his totals - spent/earned.

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  110. That's a poor argument.  The fact is, the players that Ferguson had, the structure he had in place, the experience he - and his players - had in the Premier League far outweighed Rafa's at that time.  Therefore, Ferguson did not need to spend huge sums to create a strong team.  Look at what Ferguson is doing THIS year: to compete with Man. City, Man. Utd. is - surprise, surprise - having to spend (or think about spending) big money to get top stars in.  Let's see what HIS 'net spend' is over the next two, three or four seasons; I doubt it will be 'only £39m'.

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  111. STEVE NICOL - MANAGERIAL ACHIEVEMENTS....?

    RAFA BENITEZ - MANAGERIAL ACHIEVEMENTS....?

    Do we REALLY favour Nicol's judgment over Rafa's?  And if so, why? 

    As a footballer, Nicol was light years ahead of Rafa; as a manager....

    Quite.

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  112. Selective memory, Jaimie. 

    In actual fact, the priority was NOT to find an identical replacement.  Rafa wanted a great goal threat; Alonso was not that, because he did not often get near the opposition box, whereas Aquilani did.

    He (Rafa) said that he wanted to sign Jovetic AND Aquilani, and to play two out of those above and Gerrard, plus Lucas.  Taht would have made a fabulous attacking, fluid central midfield but with strength and solidity, too.

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  113. And how far we slipped before he left as well.

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  114. You really just can't argue with Benitez fans. It's pointless, the mass delusion is just too deep and pronounced. It's basically cult-like behavior and whatever logic you employ against them will get ignored/argued away on some meandering angle.

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