hould they be doing better or not? You seem to bang on about how awful the manager, the playing staff etc are, then in the next breath your inferering that they underachieve.

he's comparing the potential of the club and the money spent with the actual performance of the manager and the players. there is absolutely no contradiction there.

But they're false comparisons, if he's comparing them to Man Utd and Chelsea who, as you so often like to point out, are somewhat more advanced and more importantly, have been since Benitez started.

Erm . . isn't it Benitez's job to close that gap, or at least some semblance of it? And hasn't he been given more than enough money to do so?

When a club is able to splurge £75 million on six new players in the space of one season, then let us hear no more shite-talk about how meagre their budget is. I wish my team could spend a fifth of that money on new signings.

We were within 11 points of Man Utd who had their best season for years. . We were also much further clear of 5th place.
Besides, I'm not saying the money Benitez has had to spunk hasn't been pretty good. Certainly not a drop in the ocean. And (contrary to what you may think) I think he's done pretty well with it too. Any dross has been got rid of pretty quickly and theres a great youth/reserve team developing together as well as attracting players of the quality of Mascherano and Torres.
It's just, as Chelsea have shown, to turn a team from 4th place to challenging for the league, you need at least 2 or 3 times as much money or as Arsenal have shown, 10 years to build a team.

I'm obviously the only person on the site who can't see what this veneration of a scuffler like Mascherano is about

hobbes wrote:

QUOTE:
We were within 11 points of Man Utd who had their best season for years. . We were also much further clear of 5th place.

But he's fallen back. Two seasons back Liverpool had more points, and were only nine points behind the winners. So, the £39m net spent since, has seen you fall back.

hobbes wrote:

QUOTE:
Any dross has been got rid of pretty quickly

Kuyt, Arbeloa, Skrtel, Finnan and Pennant are still there. And how has this thread managed to avoid mention of this guy?



The only reason he's need to get rid of dross like Zenden, Gonzalez, Kronkamp, Bellamy, Paletta, Josemi, Garcia and Carson pretty quickly, is because he signed them in the first place.

hobbes wrote:

QUOTE:
and theres a great youth/reserve team developing together.

Maybe one of them will get a run, one day, rather than be sold to Newcastle like Danny Guthrie just has.

hobbes wrote:
[quote]as well as attracting players of the quality of Mascherano and Torres.[/b]

He has Liverpool's history, a virtually guaranteed place in the Champions League and a whopping amount of wages to tempt players with. Unless you think Mascherano signed for West Ham because he liked the cut of Alan Pardew's jib.

hobbes wrote:

QUOTE:
It's just, as Chelsea have shown, to turn a team from 4th place to challenging for the league, you need at least 2 or 3 times as much money or as Arsenal have shown, 10 years to build a team.

Wenger's built four teams in that time (three of which won the title), and it only took him 20 months to win the title.

Mr Beast wrote:

QUOTE:
I'm obviously the only person on the site who can't see what this veneration of a scuffler like Mascherano is about

No, you're not.

Mascherano is the Argentinian David Batty.

Wow. All three stooges have posted on this single thread since 18:44. What's the chances of that....

By your use of the word "since", you do realise that you have just called yourself a stooge?

Kuyt, Arbeloa, Skrtel, Finnan and Pennant are still there.

Finnan has been a consistently good performer, Skrtel has been there 6 months and apart from one bad game has looked really solid (seriously, where does the idea that he's rubbish come from? I honestly don't get it) Pennant was a panic buy who'll probably go this summer (but had a few good games.) Arbeloa is a £3m utility player who can play anywhere in the back 4 and had Messi in his pocket in one of his first games (and made the Spanish squad this Summer.) Not brilliant, but better than Wes Fucking Brown by about 15000 miles.
Kuyt is a weird one in that he was wanted by 4 or 5 teams, didn't score as he ought to have done but has turned into a decent wide forward in a 4-3-3. Not brilliant and not worth £10m perhaps, but pretty good support for Torres.
I also notice that Morientes was used in a few posts as evidence of Rafa's ineptitude. He never worked out, but it was hardly a stupid buy. He was a proven striker who scored consistently in 2 of Europes leagues and in European competition. Who could have seen that he'd be so spectacularly poor in the Premiership.

Well Curly, I'm the fourth person to post on this thread since 18:44 so I couldn't be one of the Three Stooges, quite aside from having perfectly rational views on Javier Mascherano which would discount me anyway.

QUOTE:
The only reason he's need to get rid of dross like Zenden, Gonzalez, Kronkamp, Bellamy, Paletta, Josemi, Garcia and Carson pretty quickly, is because he signed them in the first place.

What a weird thing to say. All managers sign players and don't always get it right (Djemba Djemba, anyone?) All but Garcia and Zenden went for a profit, Carson was expected to be England's next goalkeeper until O'Neil wrecked him and Garcia was one of those players who fans just love. Inconsistent, but brilliant in flashes.

dalliance wrote:

QUOTE:
Well Curly, I'm the fourth person to post on this thread since 18:44

You're the third. Mr Beast posted at 18.44. "Since" means subsequently.

Interesting that you automatically assume that calling a player "the [x] David Batty" is exclusively a term of abuse and nothing more.

Surely "since" means "including"

No, it doesn't.