You're right of course. There are plenty of good players out there on loan or having moved as free agents.
Eidur Gudjonsen went to Monaco on a free. Martin Caceres is on loan at Juventus.

We dont have the money because we sign absolute duds like that big greek fairy for 1.5 million when he adds absolutely nothing to our squad!! Danial Ayala is a better player at the age of 20! You say Saviola never made it at the big spnish clubs ? Our famous Greek centre back wasent wanted at Rangers FFS!!

On your note about Saviola. Ask the Barcelona fans if he was a good player, he got screwed with the EU regulations. He scored plenty of goals for Barca and was only loaned out because they had enough south americans at the club (after signing Ronaldinho). He was also a hit with Seville. And from what ive seen of him in his last 2 games against Everton he is twice the player any of our 'back up' players.

We're not moving forward, it is time for a change.

You do know the the owners include contacts as spending money? ie according to them we spent £20M getting new contract deals in Saviola wouldn't be cheap.
Your right Kranjcar was signed for little money then again Rafa wanted Turner (£4-5m) but was told we couldn't afford him so had to go with nick the greek.


Its unreal how many fans are clueless

We're not moving forward, it is time for a change

Yeah lets sack him because after spending £6m on players in two seasons surprise surprise the team aint getting better sure the list of managers is endless wanting to come here an manager for a team which has no money. massive debt and two owners who haven't a clue.'

Torres?
Benny?
Insua?
Reina?
Alonso?

All players who he bought who are worth well more than he bought them for.

Your living in a dream land it wouldn't surprise me if your one of the 2005 bangwagon jumpers

Why thank you

I love the way people go on about "net spend" now as if it somehow justifies the failure of those players brought in.

The fact of the matter is, circa £250 million has been spent and the team is no better than it was when he started. A lot of those sales to make up the difference between income and outcome has come about because that money he spent was wasted and they had to get rid.

Surely a five year mandate would be to get Liverpool to win the Championship. This looks as far away as it has ever done.

What is United's "net spend" over the same period? I bet that will give you a damning statistic on how well Benitez is doing.

PS I know City's net spend over the last 14 months is considerably more but that is not what we are discussing.

It's only Liverpool fans that give a s**t about net spend mate. I remember seeing a debate about Uniteds vs Liverpools not long ago and it was laughable. Half of the transfer fees were made up (Tevez was a United siging for £30m and it proved absolutely nothing.

I wouldn't mind if I agreed with signing Kyrgiakos, but I didn't, he's fuucking waank, I'll be the first to admit that and Ayala is better and should be playing. However, if you think that a £1.5m signing means we've got the money, it just shows how thick you are.

As I said, I like Saviola, but he's just not the type of player for Liverpool. A pint sized striker who's probably better at playing as far forward up the pitch as possible, when you compare that to the type of player we need leading the line, the type of player that usually leads the line in England, then it's clear he's a no fit. He's done well at Benfica, but Ricky Quaresma was good in Portugal, so was Nani, it's a smalltime league full of small fish in a miniscule pond. His strike partner, Cardozo, I'd rather at Liverpool, as he'd fit in more.

As for not moving forward, well, I'd agree, we haven't moved forward yet, but a club can't move forward with 10 players injured and owners claiming all of the money was spent renewing contracts.

I firmly believe, when everybody will be fit and firing, we'll be a stronger side than we were last year. Glen Johnson, IMO, is 10x the player Arbeloa is, whilst Aquilani isn't quite at Xabi's level yet, I still believe he'll go on to make us a more complete side, but that's just me. However, it's unlikely we'll be any closer to having everybody fit for at least a month.

Squad players are needed, but how do we improve our squad if the Americans are taking money from player sales? Alonso went for £30m this year, from what I understand, that was one straight payment from Madrid. Aquilani cost us around E20m in loads of installments, Kyrgiakos cost us £1.5m; where has about £10m gone? What about the money from Arbeloa and Leto?

I have explained why we aint won the title, am not going through it again.

and the team is no better than it was when he started

Erm it is alot better 1 to 11 we just lack the back up players.

City fans and many other clubs fans would give there right bolllock to see there team do what Liverpool have done in his 5 years here.

What is United's "net spend" over the same period? I bet that will give you a damning statistic on how well Benitez is doing

Hate it when people compare us its a joke big difference being they had/have an established squad of class players then they just add £15/20mil+ players

April 2008 a stat was released by a merseyside reporter claiming that we had paid £30 millon for Tevez and think our net spend came out as £12 million more than Liverpool. If you do the math since then also taking into consideration that Tevez didnt cost £30 million, Id guess Liverpool have spent alot more.

Didnt you pay £10mil for the loan?

Wonder what your going to say if chelsea win the league when your yanks took all that money for Ronaldo meaning you had to buy a forward on a free transfer.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 946946.ece Then take into account the Ronaldo fee, Rafa has spent a hell of a lot more.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 946946.ece Then take into account the Ronaldo fee, Rafa has spent a hell of a lot more.

Robbie, are you comparing Liverpool to Madrid and Barça?

Ha ha ha.

It depends by what you mean with comparison. Despite our woeful form at the moment, I still believe we're one of the best sides in the world, at least our starting XI is. IMO, the top 4 from England and the top 2 from Spain are the best 6 sides in the world. Barca are better than us, but I'm still to be impressed by Madrid.

Nobody knows without insider info, United no longer have to declare any transfer fees to shareholders / the stock exchange and the like, so without seeing the books you couldn't be sure. That's what's laughable about the whole exercise.

If Chelsea win the league then good on them. They would've deserved it. I couldn't give a sh*t about net spend. Just because we got £80m or whatever it was for Ronaldo has absolutely no relation to the value for money or quality of the players brought in this year.

So your fine with Fergie not being even more money for the team from the deal and the owners pocketing the cash?

Arguing about which club has spent more?

You all sound like married couples arguing who has maxed out the joint credit card.

I would've loved to sign Villa and Silva, but we haven't. Rather than whinge about it, we have to get on with what we've got. No excuses, no moaning, we've spent enough in the past (like you) to compete for the league. That's what we need to be doing.

I'm attempting not to argue about that fact (not very well!). My point is regards to the ridculous stat of "net spend". It's a load of rubbish. United have a reported net spend of what? -£60m this season? I still expect us to compete for 4 trophies.

City would have indeed been delighted to have done what Liverpool had done but City fans and Liverpool fans have had a very different level of expectancy over the years and still do.

Remember, it's not that long ago that United had finished way off the pace, in third, behind Chelsea and Arsenal and so-called experts predicted their demise, the fans were in uproar about Glazer and the place was not a happy camp. They've won three league titles since and what has that vital "net spend" been since? You may not like the comparison but it just goes to show.

Let's face it, apart from Gerrard and Torres, how many of your players would any top club clamber to have in their side? Not only does the squad outside the 1-11 not look good enough for the top, the team is nowhere near of the standard required. Have you ever known a top side be so heavily reliant on the fitness of just two players? There's only one bloke who's fault that is.

Yeah, because Gerrard & Torres save goals, control games and do everything.

They're our best players, they're arguably the two best in the league, we're obviously going to be reliant upon them more than any of our other players; however, I do believe some of our other players get little credit for what they do. Benayoun is class, he's always creating stuff yet he's barely spoken of; why? Mascherano is one of the finest players around at doing what he does, the amount of games he keeps us in with his work rate and tenacity really does pass most people by.

IMO, Reina, Agger, Skrtel, Aurelio, Johnson, Mascherano, Benayoun, Gerrard and Torres are all easily good enough for the top sides. It's the rest of the squad we fall short on. We have some players who are boarderline top quality, like Kuyt, Carragher (now he's starting to get on) and Insua's still very raw.

I still believe we'll finish top 4, quite comfortably actually, but we're just gonna have to ride out this next month or so.

Aye.



I agree.

Jesus pal, he's not even as good as the top sides understudy, and i'm being serious.

Evra (Fabio), Clichy (Gibbs), A.Cole (Zhirkov).

Him & Lucas, possibly two of the worst Brazilians I've seen, Lucas is just so unbrazilian it's insane.

You're right though, Liverpool do have further quality than just the two players often spoken about, over the last three years or so, they've arguably been the most defensively sound side in the Premiership, perhaps to the detrement of the attacking stuff.

It's the lack of width (your wide players are all out to in rather than the other way, none offer genuine width, your best, Benayoun, does his best work roaming, being difficult to pick up etc), lack of options, and lack of squad depth that's the killer. With over 150 transfers during his reign, he should have rectified these glaring, glaring problems.

You got evidence that the money was used for other things. Maybe what Fergie said was true, that the players he wanted to sign were valued too high and he wasn't prepared to pay over the odds.