Anyway, here is something I found at RAWK. I think it's a brilliant article which justifies the current situation perfectly. 'GREED' and 'SPOILT' are words I would rather not have the club associated with but unfortunately- it has come to that.
Here's the original link to the excerpt below.
"Because of what Rafael Benitez has done to this club, you've now become like spoilt little brats. He's given you something you couldn't have dreamt about 5 years ago, but now you want more. Greed, greed and more greed.
Take a step back, look at who we're competing with, and try to realise the size of the task we've got. We've massively overachieved over the past few years, mainly due to his brilliant signings (although they are ignored so people can criticise free transfers like Voronin - also ignoring the fact he's only still at the club as the money Rafa had lined up for a new striker was taken out of his pocket in the summer).
In The League, we're now competing with Chelsea, United, Man City and Tottenham; all of whom have assembled a more expensive squad than our own and have a higher wage bill than ourselves. Aston Villa and Arsenal aren't far behind.
Man City and Tottenham have been underacheiving due to poor management and underperforming players in recent years; ourselves and Arsenal have been overachieving - mainly due to good management. United and Chelsea are doing what's expected of them.
Not only do people expect us to win The League with the 5th most expensive squad and 5th highest wage bill, but they also expect us to win The European Cup as well. Not asking much are you?
"But we're Liverpool"
Not anymore we're not. Not as you once knew it. We haven't been for over 20 years.
Were we "Liverpool" throughout the past 15 years before Rafa came to the club, when we didn't have a sniff of the league and were regularly knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the early rounds? If we'd even qualified for Europe at all.
The current media frenzy surrounding our manager has whipped up the hysteria so much that everyone you speak to seems to view Rafa Benitez as a figure of ridicule. Fans of every other club are in on the act, but it's not even close to listening to our own fans buying into it and being caught up in the media storm. Nobody seems to have a mind of their own anymore and are taken in by the media machine, sometimes without even realising. Look at the hysterical reaction to him bringing on Aquilani last night. Hysteria over a time wasting substitution in a game we'd just won!
You're disappointed we went out last night because of the high expectations our manager has set over his previous 5 years at the club. Before that it was deemed as a massive success to even qualify for the Group Stages, never mind qualify from them.
Under Roy Evans we broke the British transfer record. Under Houllier we spent big money on players. So while Benitez has spent around the £20m on Torres, Keane, Aquilani and Johnson, the bar has been raised to a completely different level by the likes of Chelsea, Man City, Man United etc.
We've been left behind financially due 20 years of mis-management, but it's been made ten times worse over the past few years due to the leeches we now have as owners of our club that are slowly bleeding us dry.
Do you really think Rafa wanted to go into this season with one striker? Do you really think he wanted to sign an aging Greek centre half for £1.5m instead of Michael Turner for £4m? Do you really believe he didn't want to sign David Villa or David Silva in the summer?
In January Chelsea will go out and spend big money on new players. Man City will go out and spend big money on new players. Man United will go out and spend big money on new players.
Meanwhile, we'll just be hoping and preying that the players we have to sell don't go to one of the above!
It's time to wake up and smell the coffee for a lot of fans; time to wake up to the real issue and realise why we aren't going to be winning League Titles or European Cups for the foreseeable future.
The reason is not Rafael Benitez."
Damn right man. Rafa's achievements over the years have been nothing short of amazing, given the sort of nonsense in the club that he's had to work with.
ReplyDeleteCan only imagine what he would have taken us to if we had the sort of resources that Manyoo or Chelsea has!