by Owzat » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:05 am
Rafa came in to do one thing, win the league title. If he fails then noone should be excusing him because other clubs have more money, that's no excuse for not beating pompey, stoke and wolves to name three more recent failures to win. You play a footy management game you set out to win, you don't sit there grumbling because other sides have more money and better squads, you get on with it and have a sense of achievement if you do win the league/quadruple/whatever. You don't win with the resources you have you consider yourself to have failed. When Rafa came here he didn't seriously expect to have unlimited funds did he? So why does he consistently waste money, more so now than earlier in his time here? £20m on a midfielder he couldn't play and now doesn't play, £17.5m on a right-back when the one we had was adequate, £20.3m on a striker we sold back inside six months, £7m on a left-back who was so naff we sold him back to Serie A, £3m on a goalkeeper to sit on the bench, £11.5m on a striker who he plays on the left and isn't that good or consistent no matter where he is played. Sure other managers make bad signings, but Rafa is almost perfecting the art.
And you don't need to be big spenders to make a title challenge, we somehow managed it last year and should have won the league but for too many draws, and this season Arsenal are right up there as they have been for most of the past 15 years and they are not in the top three spenders. Maybe that's because Wenger can identify quality at a good price, not have to throw large sums at players hoping they are good enough. Arsenal may not always win, but their style of football is way better than our's, so money isn't everything as citeh have proved this season through poor spending. They went out and bought good and experienced Premiership players, like a lot on here would like Rafa to do, but they paid over the odds and ended up with a dressing room full of egos that simply don't gel.
Yet despite Wenger making most of not a lot, compared to Rafa making least of quite a lot, people still want Josie or MON or dick van dyke or genghis khan or anyone but in charge of Liverpool. Give Rafa £250m and I still reckon he'd struggle to win the league, I reckon he'd have to have a side with Rooney, Torres, Ronaldo AND Messi in it before there'd be so much ability on the pitch even his tactics and negativity would be hard pressed to stop the side succeeding. Sometimes you reach a point where you have to say it's not working and move on. Unless there is the imminent arrival of mr moneybags I can't see Rafa suddenly pulling a rabbit out of the hat, and if mr moneybags did arrive I'm doubting Rafa would definitely be in his plans either.
So plan A at the moment has to be to hope Chelsea and the mancs either go bust or are somehow penalised points by the FA for something. Even then we might be among the frontrunners, but no guarantee we'd finish above villa, spudz, citeh or Arsenal
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