Quote Catalancs="Catalancs"A luxury both City and Chelsea could afford.
So why was he signed when the club and Benitez knew full well he was injured and likely to be out for some time?'"
I think he was signed because he was at such a cut price. A fit Aquilani would cost around £25-£30m, he's a very good player who some people have already come to the opinion of that he's poor already.
As for it being a luxury, from what I understand, only £20m was spent by us in the summer, the rest will be paid out in installments. Considering £7m of that £20m was money owed to us by Pompey as well as apparent money left over from the sale of Robbie Keane, it wasn't that much for us to spend. However, the board hadn't given him any money to spend in the summer, it was all money made from sales (Alonso, £30m, Arbeloa, £4m).
From what it equates to, it's something like £16m net spent each year by Benitez. I know a lot of people think that net spend doesn't matter, but when you're building a squad to win trophies it does. You simply can't build a team having to sell 5 players every summer and bring in 5 more who are only slight improvements. Remember the year United won the title (2007), that summer they went and signed Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson and Tevez. Last year, we finished second and were expected to build on our team, instead, we lost one of our best, a very solid defender and, in the hope we'd get a similar quality player to Alonso, had to sign an injured midfielder.
Anyway, as I've said, Rafa's on thin ice, the echo says the club aren't looking to sack him, but if we don't beat Stoke or Spurs, I find it very hard how the man can justify his job after an unbelievably bad season.
