by bigmick » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:05 pm
This thing about Rafa not getting his first choices is a bit of a red herring in my opinion. I remember Ferguson trying to sign Ronaldinho before he went to Barca and not being able to get the cash together, Wenger hardly spends anything relatively and only Chelsea can genuinely be held up as an example of a team who can just about buy who they want. All managers have to work within a prescribed budget, they always have and I would venture that given we've spent the best part of forty million quid this Summer, or budget is bigger than most.
I know people will say "ah but hang on, we've got money in from sales" but it's worth noting that many managers are forced to sell their best players and don't actually get the money to replace them. Many managers have to cope with their best players being sold from under their feet, or their best players leaving for much bigger wages elsewhere (Hleb, Flamini and almost Adebayor anyone) so this often trotted out image of Rafa being some sort of badly done to down-trodden serf to his masters, doesn't wash with me.
I don't rate Rierra at all but hopefully he can leave what I remember of his Man City form well behind and be a good signing. If he does, and I'll be watching for any signs like a hawk, I'll be the first on here saying what a w@nker I am, how fantastic he is, how wrong I was and what a great signing he is/was. Similarly Dossena, from what I've seen I don't think he's good enough but I am eagerly waiting to be proven wrong. But just like it would be churlish should Rierra turn out ot be a World beater to deny Rafa any praise on the grounds that "he was lucky to buy him, it wasn't even his first choice" it would be silly if these players aren't upto it to stick to the "ah but they weren't his first choice" line.
Dossena was by all accounts about 7 million quid, which whether he was first, second or twentieth choice is a fecking lot of money for a left full back. Rierra if he is between 6-9 million quid, is an expensive signing in his own right. As supporters of a club, fans are entitled to expect such signings to be at the very least an improvement on what we already have/had, and perhaps a fairly big improvement. This I think applies regardless of any wish-list which did or didn't come to pass.
Last edited by
bigmick on Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".