He can have good shows from time to time depending on the subject matter, but then all of a sudden you get a glimpse of how he thinks about football and the changes he would make and that's when I turn it off. Talksport has it's fair share of eejits who I can listen to but then go completely off within a matter of minutes when one of them spazzes out over something trivial.
***Midweek Football***(Spoilers within)
- Thread starter Greenlizard0
- Start date
He can have good shows from time to time depending on the subject matter, but then all of a sudden you get a glimpse of how he thinks about football and the changes he would make and that's when I turn it off. Talksport has it's fair share of eejits who I can listen to but then go completely off within a matter of minutes when one of them spazzes out over something trivial.
That isn't good news at all. Is it just bruised, not broken I hope?
To be honest I have to turn off when they speak to people on the phone, as the idiocy of the general public depress me.
Duhram (sp?) Especially. But I know he makes outrageous points to get people calling in.
Pigeon made a point earlier and you sum it up perfectly. In previous season's when Rafa signed the likes of Bellamy and Crouch you constantly went on about them 'not being Liverpool quality' and how we should have signed 1 top player instead of 2 or 3 cheaper players. Now you're saying the opposite.
One way or another we had to sign a rb, now we could have signed a lesser player and had people moaning that he's not 'Liverpool quality' and then resigned Crouch and again get told that he's not 'Liverpool quality' or we could sign somebody like Johnson (who was shockingly expensive) who's arguably been our best player this season and then have a thinner squad.
You can't have it both ways. There's a balance that needs to be struck and we didn't get that balance right this season, and it's been highlighted by our injury problems.
However despite all that, signing cover for Torres wouldn't have made a huge difference to us imo. We're having no problems scoring on the whole and although clearly not in the class of Torres, N'gog is starting to become a more than capable replacement. Our problems have well and truelly been defensively; drops in form to Carra and Skrtel, Insua's inexperience getting shown up and persistant injuries haven't helped (no fewer than 7 different cb pairing this season alone).
Hopefully with our injury problems starting to clear up, we can get back to a settled back 4 of Johnson, Carra, Agger and Aurelio with Masch in front of them and we can tighten up at the back.
edit: oh and 1 thing that Benitez highlighted at the end of last season as an area of improvement this summer was to keep the squad together and make quality additions to it, not replace players like we've had to in the past. That looked like happening when we were making bids for the likes of Tevez and Silva at the start of the summer, however it appeared as if the Keane sale money and the transfer budget the Yanks promised got lost down the back of the sofa.
You're being generous.
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Not sure regarding the extent of the injury, just caught at the end of the Champions League show on Sky Sports 1.
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Caporegime
The problem we've got is Torres will always be the lone striker when fit. Would a striker that cost around £10 million be happy with a few late substitute appearances? As it is Ngog only cost £1.5 million and has already scored 5 in 6 starts and looks like he'll be a pretty good backup.
As for the likes of Redknapp (most hated former player?), Collymore and Souness they're just media puppets who have been criticising Rafa since day one. I prefer to listen to the likes of McAllister and Aldrigde
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Soldato
Gibbs has Broken the first metatarsal in his left foot, out for 3 months.
Not good, November historically isn't Arsenals month
Who would you give the nod for left back? Silvestre or Traore? I would give it to Traore.
Caporegime
I thought the Keane money paid for Johnson and the Alonso money paid for Aquilani. The money that went down the back of the sofa was from TV rights, the Premiership and Champions league which was hell of a lot more.
We all know where the extra money that the club are generating is going. I was talking about the so called transfer budget and £16m from Keane. Since the Januaray transfer window we've made a profit of around £15m, where's that and the reported £20m promised transfer budget gone?
If you were cynical you might think that £35m went towards replacing the £50m the owners failed to raise from investers earlier in the year to go towards the refinance.
Did I miss something, or did Liverpool turn into a goldmine?
Last 5 years:
07/08: £10m
06/07: (£21m)
05/06: (£5m)
04/05: £9m
03/04: (£21)
So over the last 5 years ye have lost nearly £30m. Spending money that the club doesn't have isn't the answer- unless ye want to join Leeds and co.
Soldato
Liverpool fans can't have it both ways either BaZ
Like you say though there has to be a balance. Do you really think that there was no player out there that could be bought for the £10m mark who could score the goals in Torress absence ?? Liverpool without doubt is a top club for any pro worth his salt to play for. So why would a Bent or a Defoe not want to come to Liverpool. That's just two players. Not marquee players in the bracket of a Torres, Villa, Pato, Drogba, KaKa, Messi mold but two very good players who would still give you change out of £18m to buy a right back.
Then you look at Aquialani. Alonso sold. His replacement not touching the first team till only now. Surely Liverpool fans must know that he won't be hitting the ground running till at least the end of Dec start of Jan. Then you factor in that Italian players by and large have flopped in England with the exception of Zola and one good season from Ravanelli. So again it brings a question mark against his transfer dealings.
As Gerrard said in the post match interview, bar Torres, the squad is coming to full strength, so if it's not balanced then surely that's not the fault of Hicks, Gillete or Parry.
As much as he moans about having no money, wait till next year. The early exit from this years CL with the very real prospect of finishing outside the top 4 will mean there is less money again. He's like the boy who cried wolf
Caporegime
While the squad is nearing full strength a lot of the players aren't yet. Once everyone is 100% fit (not playing through the pain with injections or eating horse dick for dinner) and we can play an unchanged team for a few games I'm sure our results will change for the better.
Baz why would you really care what rival fans think. I certainly don't care rival fans not rating Utd players. It wasn't that long ago, Liverpool fans were claiming they had the best first 11 and that they wouldn't swap a single player from Utd with Ronaldo being the obvious exception. You had the best keeper in the world, the best defence, the best central midfield in football history and the best striker in the world but not a trophy to show for such a well assembled team.
It's not necessarily the fact that Benitez needs to go out there and buy top quality players every year, it's the fact that's he's brought no one from your youth setup through to play in the first team properly. It also wasn't that long ago, that Man Utd's squad was overrated, it had the likes of Fletcher, O'Shea, Park, etc... I think most Liverpool fans would bite their hands off to have the squad we do. They certainly aren't all world beaters but they were cheap, quite a few brought through from the academy, given their chance when more senior players were out injured. Benitez doesn't do this in the same regard. Instead he's tinkered with the staff at the academy, put out some highly regarded professional coaches and training staff who have been there decades and brought in his own staff along with a gazillion young players who seem to be sold on as quickly as they are bought.
Like I've said before, Benitez does have a legitimate case with the owners, failure to follow through promises made in public and to the fans, but as far as I'm aware the owners don't tell Benitez who to buy, they don't make daft substitutions or choose the team to play every week. That falls on Benitez. It's all too easy for some fans to point and only point directly at the owners and say poor old Benitez, not given the money, etc. Truth is, he has had money, he has spent money, it's not the money that is the issue, it's the quality of player he's bringing in. And it's not always necessarily more money = more quality. Look around at some of the quality players in the league, most bought for relatively low fees. How many of these types of transfers has Benitez made?
I really should edit, I forgot all about him. So in short, they wouldn't swap a single player then.
Soldato
Crikey it don't take long
"Dear Jedward, I hope you may be able to share your secret with me. You were poop week after week but kept on surviving. I'm in a similar position and need your help and advice. Yours truly, Rafa Benitez
"Dear Jedward, I hope you may be able to share your secret with me. You were poop week after week but kept on surviving. I'm in a similar position and need your help and advice. Yours truly, Rafa Benitez
Soldato
Now your just being ridiculous. It was the owners who bought Robbie Keane purely as a marketing exercise to sell more shirts. He had it all, the looks, the charm, the wit. Front cover of GQ, rescuing cats from tall tree's in Stanley Park. A transfer that Rafa had nothing to do with