Quote: Saddened! "Not really. Liverpool have spent more money per season since the inception of the Premier League than Man United have and considerably more during the time Benitez has been manager of Liverpool. Johnson, Insua, El Zhar, Ngog, Lucas, Voronin, Reira, Arbeloa, Degen, Krgyiakos, Babel, Josemi, Nunez, Pellegrino, Morientes, Gonzales, Bellamy, Kuyt, Kronkamp, Skrtel, Aurelio, Pennant, Dossena, Sissoko, Leto, Zenden, Palletta, Carson, Cavilieri, Keane, Aquilani.
That is a quarter of a billion pounds worth of footballing talent. None of that poop did much for Liverpool. Keane is a reasonable player, now in the English D5 (SPL), but what about the rest of them? Take that £200m+ and replace it with 6 or 7 top quality players instead.
Another thing Benitez should be criticised for is his lack of ability/willingness to bring players through the system. Since Gerrard, who have they brought through? Where are his Jack Rodwell's, Wayne Rooney's, Aaron Ramsey's? Where is the next Stevie G? Or the next Robbie Fowler? I went to watch Liverpool's reserves a few years back and saw a random collection of Argentinian, Spanish and French kids destroy Everton. The likes of Rodwell, Gosling, Anichebe, Coleman and Duffy are now involved in the first team for Everton. I don't think any of the Liverpool players have made it through.'"
Johnson and Aquilani? Aquilani so far has been a poor signing, but he hasn't even had the chance to prove himself. Who's to say that, when he's fit and firing, he isn't a better player than Carrick or Fletcher? I think Mascherano would start at United, but I'm sure the Mancs will disagree in their legions. I honestly don't know how Skrtel, Aurelio and Sissoko are in your list, maybe you haven't seen them play, maybe you just play too much FM, I don't know, but they are/were fantastic servants to the club.
As I have already said, he has signed many poor players in his time here, but your lack of thought/balance in your argument is, to be honest, staggering.
As for the whole next Gerrard thing, you actually have to have the talented players coming through in order to have them. Everton have been fortunate enough to have the likes of Rooney and Rodwell over recent years, just like we were fortunate to have Fowler, Owen, Carra and Gerrard over 10 years ago. It's not Rafa's fault that a set of coaches out of his control weren't producing players of the requisite standard, he can't just expect someone to have Rooney like ability, otherwise we'd be swanning around with a team full of homegrown superstars. You also have to look at the difference in expectations between Everton and Liverpool. Everton can bring in players like Rodwell, Baxter and the like, because little is expected of them. Rafa could do more with them in the cup, but he won't win trophies/challenge for trophies playing the reserves. I actually feel he could do a lot more with youngsters, but just expecting a Gerrard to pop up from nowhere is very strange
