48 IN, 49 OUT: The truth about Benitez and his £150m Liverpool spending spree!

So what your now saying is that my figures were pretty accurate, he has spent the best part of 150 pounds, he has sold the best part of 72m pounds, so he has a net transfer spend of some 80m pounds and yet the best two players ta the club one of them was already there when he arrived, Thanks Mr Breen.

Good perspective put on Benitez's transfer dealings, however I'd still argue we'd be much nearer to the title if he'd focused on quality as opposed to quantity

Well researched, but the real fans always knew this........... one further point the value of the current squad is much higher than the squad he inherited !!!!!! Torres, Masher, Alonso, Babbel, agger, Skrtel, Reina, Pennant, Crouch, Carson etc. versus Cisse, Diouff, Biscan, Murphy, Traore, Owen & Smicer !!!!!

Man United, Man City, Tottenham, Newcastle and Chelski all have spent more than Rafa based on net spend, over the last 4 years. Everton are close to Liverpool over this period, based on net spend. However the media, Sky sports in particular, seem to have a strong anti Liverpool agenda. Rafa has lifted the european cup, super cup and fa cup, he is improving the behind the scenes at Liverpool, just look at the job Gary Ablett is doing with the reserves. Chelsea have a squad of players who cost them 20m or more. United have Carrick 18m, Ronaldo 15m, Rooney 28m, Ferdinand 30m, Hargreaves 20m, Tevez soon to be 28m, Nani 18m, Anderson 20m, basically again a squad of players @ nearly an average of 20m each. Liverpool have Masch @ 17m, Torres @ 20.5m and Babel @ 11.5. In theory we cannot compete, just give rafa the same money, and then judge him. It took old red nose at the scum 7 years to win the league. Rafa hasn't had his sort of money and has only been there for 4.

Rio - 30 m Veron - 28 m Rooney - 27 m ( in total) Van Nistlerooy - 19m Carrick - 18.5m Tevez - 10 m initially will be about 30 mil in total Anderson - 15m Nani - 14m Saha - 12 m Ronaldo - 12 m Evra - 5.5m (Aurelio was free) Plus youth Scholes Neville Giggs Brown I'd have loved to have seen how Ferguson would have completely re-built the Liverpool team without this sort of finance

moyes uses "they've spent 100 million" during his pre and post match interview today.

80 million net over 4 years is not a massive spend and the squad is vastly superior to the rubbish left over from Houllier's reign. When Rafa took over Liverpool had one or two class players -Gerrard and Hamman and were 9 players short of challenging for the title. Carragher was a rightback misfit on his way out under Ged. Now we have- Reina - def top 2 in the prem with cech Carragher- as a centre back Masch-worth every penny Alonso-still quality and if we sell will go for over 10 mill Torres Gerrard (plus Babel and Agger are much better than Pongolle and Traore ever were) Not only that but Rafa has proven he is a good coach by getting the best out of a lot of distinctly average players over the past 4 years. Can't people remember what we were like under Houllier? He spent a fortune and the team were sinking fast at the time. We are still improving every year but it takes time- SAF was given 7 years at Man U. Compare our progress and spending with Spurs since 2006!!! Bent 16.5 mill Berbatov 10.9 mill Hutton 9 mill Woodgate 8 mill Kaboul 8 mill Bale 10mill Zokora 8 mill Chimbonda 5.5 mill Boateng 5.4mill Dawson 8mill Rocha , Vega, Gunter- 3mill each That's 100 mill in 2 years and they are 11th in the league and can't defend. Yes he's made mistakes with transfers, but so does every manager (Veron 27 million anyone!? Wright Phillips 21 mill?) Let's be realistic to even be competing with Man Utd (loadsa money and all time great manager), Chelski (loaded) and Arsenal (poss the greatest manager ) is incredibly difficult. Also which manager would have done better the past 4 years with the same resources? Not many,if any in my opinion. While the team continues to improve we should stick with Rafa-if we don't improve then we say adios amigo.

Just look at newcastle and stop conplaining! You'll realise it might had gone the other way! Rafa has done a decent job. Hes still making mistakes but hes doing ALOT right.

There is also one fact which escapes most people which is the state of the Premier League right now. When Houllier took us to 2nd, the EPL was nothing compared to what it is now. The Premiership is the hardest league. Just look at the teams that are still in the Champions League. Out of 8 teams 4 come from the Premiership. Last year we had 3 teams out of the 4 in the semi finals. Liverpool who are 4th at this moment beat the best team by miles from Italy both home and away. The EPL is light years a head. That is why to even for anyone to begin to seriously challenge for the title, you need to spend heavy amounts like that of Man U who spent a NET £70 million over the summer on a winning side. How dare people ask Rafa to win the league by spending less that the likes of Spurs or Man City. Hopefully if and when DIC takeover things will change and then we can judge him fairly.

Benitez has built a better team on paper but we are still fightifor 4th spot 4 years after he got the job. Top of the table for a single week and out of the title race every xmas isn't good enough. Benitez does not understand that to win the Premier League he has to let the team attack far more, and not just at the end of games to try and snatch points. He is too cautious and drops too many points. He has next season and after that it's adios if he doesn't go very close to the title.

Kinda silly way of going about it, you cant use CL winnings against signings he's made! But even so, a net spend of £20 million odd really isnt much at all, especially in comparison to United. You can use any transfer figures to suit your argument really, could get rid of the £17 million and say that deal starts at the end of the season and for Mascherano it should be £2 million for the inital 2 year loan deal. but thats just nit-picking. The fact is, when Rafa arrived there were two top-class players here, Gerrard and Owen. Owen never gave him a chance, leaving one. He put Carra at CB, making 2 again. The striker that was meant to fill Owens boots was pretty awful AND got injured after a monthish. His signing also took up a lot of transfer money. First, Rafa had to get in players to get 4th place, and then after that work towards the title. Its a marathon, not a sprint, and slowly we're improving. There'll always be disappointing seasons, like this, but even then we're only a couple of little bits of luck away from challenging. Take away Chelseas dodgy, dodgy penalty and we're 3 points closer to them. Say someone picks up Rooney in the first game at Anfield, Tevez doesnt score and we do then we're 6 points closer to them and all of a sudden, instead of being on our own in 4th on 62 points, we'd be on 67 points and only 4 points would seperate the top 4. I know, its very contrived and OTT, but its a very fine line between a great season and an average one. What Rafas signings should be measured on, is their value when they leave. Even the guys who havent hit it off particularly (Bellamy, Cisse, Gonzalez, Kromkamp) are sold for a really good price. I'll always have faith in a manager who can make signings like Torres, Agger, Mascheranom Skrtel and Reina. And yeah, its ridiculously hard to challenge in this current climate. Wenger has had years at Arsenal and is still struggling massively for a maintained challenge. Ferguson has had even longer, possesses a better side and has more money than Rafa, and Chelsea have a ridiculously good squad and mountains of money. Everyone moans that Rafa doesnt mount a challenge, whereas the fact is if he led this side to the title it'd be a fucking monumental feat, comfortably bypassing anything Ferguson, Wenger or Mourinho have ever done.

Lafa mentions controlling the game... even when they quite clearly havent JJ. PLease lad people in glass houses should be the last ones to throw a stone, or spit on an Everton Captain.

So do these players that he has brought in not earn more money and also do they not require larger signing on fees and agents fees. Do the out going players not receive contracts paid to see them move on or as sweetners to get them out of the club, do Liverpool not continue paying wages of players that leave the club. This first notion by the original post is not accurate at all, to say the spend equals basically the outgoings is wrong and misguided. Can you see footballers playing for nothing. At a guess in the last 4 seasons Liverpools annual wage bill has doubled. The original post is a fans view point, now can I see a full business view point!! tut! BTW SSN did something on this a couple of weeks back.

say Liverpool has 10 players on an everage of 50k a week, that is 26m a year, so how about adding 100m ontop of the first post for outgoings at least over 4 years.

Kenny, i created this article to try and give a perspective on your inaccurate Is Rafa Benitez a spent force at Liverpool after blowing £150m? 31 players above when signed were Under 23, players that haven't been good enough and he made a mistake with have been offloaded. The likes of Morientes, Sissoko, Josemi/Kromkamp, Nunez, Bellamy, Gonzalez, Paletta. Padelli didn't cost us a dime in terms of fees. If you calculate sales from their sales to what the cost it would be pretty even. Barragan we made a profit on him and first refusal. 8 of those 31 players Under 23 signed haven't even played for the first team and are doing wonders for us in the reserves and youth team levels which we have to get back to doing at Liverpool. Liverpool can't afford to go buy teenagers for 20 million plus. Which is why nobody looks to the future under Rafa they only see the here and now. It takes time to build a championship side. It took Utd 4 seasons to do so after their last one to add to players like Giggs, Ferdinand, Scholes, Neville. Including in that a man over the club who has been there for over 20 years and knows the English game inside out. Benitez has come to a different culture and is taking time to adjust to find the right ingredients in what it takes to have players and a squad to win it. He has done so well in Europe as the style of play is the same compared to the English up and high paced non-stop action include in that he has to pick 5 subs soon to be changed to 7 next season will provide him more options along European lines to use his tactical nouse like he does in the Champions League. I can barely remember John Barnes and co. lifting the title back in 1990 with a win over Q.P.R. at Anfield. I am patient to wait as next season with major investment in quality not bargain second rate players that we have had to do since he arrived. More than Torres and Gerrard, we have more than just them in the club that are quality. Names spring to mind Agger and Sktrel both under 24 years of age. Mascherano, Babel and of course Carra and Reina. For a man of his age and playing at this level Sami Hyypia as to be given a mention not world class like he was but as we seen today still a master at his trade. Arbeloa has been a quality signing in my view also. Youngsters not to get 1st team action, Nemeth, Spearing, Lindfield, Hobbs, Threfall, Amoo, Insua, are just some who spring to mind. Guthrie definitely should be coming back from his loan as many think Lucas is a bit lightweight and he could do with going on loan. Myhalov on loan to FC Twente is a class young keeper. The future is bright, just keep the faith!

I would even add Alonso, his form has been patchy but still he has the ability!

It hasnt worked mate, its only highlighted the fact that despite all the money hes spent your club are no further on in terms of winning the league( in fact arguabley further away) and youhvae two quality players and one of them was already there, hes blown out and been found out, the only things thats saved him is the debacle with the yanks and the fcat he won the ECL with Fooliers team.

Mr Breen, who do you support? why worry about Liverpool, spend a bnit more time worrying about your own team and manager. If your a Manc then good on you. Remember Rednose took a whileto win the prem, and hes got a lot more 20mill plus players than we have. I dont know many more managers that could get away with spending 30 mill plus on Veron and then seeing him flop. Sorry I should also concentrate on my own team rather than others!