Rafa Benitez is considering his future following the second round of talks with the reds temporary chairman Martin Broughton.
Benitez is believed to have told the board that he wants to stay at Anfield but that he must be handed a transfer budget to bring in new players. For the last two seasons, Liverpool have been running a transfer surplus.
It is understood that Rafa has also been seeking assurances that any money raised from player sales will be re-invested in to the squad and not on the reds enormous debt payments.
We understand that Juventus are still waiting in the wings for the outcome of these talks, having promised Rafa Benitez a war-chest to resurrect one of Italy’s most famous football clubs.
One of the key elements in the club’s stated strategy is to strengthen the football squad. Even though manager Rafa Benitez has frequently complained about not being given sufficient resources to compete, his much-loved facts do not appear to support this view. Since his arrival in the summer of 2004, the club has backed him to the tune of spending £249 million on bringing players to the club.
To be fair, Benitez has recovered £141 million from player sales, but that still leaves a net spend of £109 million, second only to the big spenders at Manchester City (£228 million) and Chelsea (£145 million). However, it is considerably more than Manchester United (£32 million) and Arsenal, who actually have a transfer surplus of £26 million over the same period. Given that all this transfer activity has only resulted in a mediocre seventh place in the Premier League, I would argue that this strategic objective has not been achieved.
The significant spending on new players is reflected in very high amortisation of £45.9 million. The accounting treatment here is to write-off the costs associated with buying players over the length of their contracts, based on the (conservative) assumption that a player has no value after his contract expires, since he can then leave on a “free”. To place this into context, this is higher than amortisation costs at Arsenal £23.9 million and Manchester United £37.6 million, while it is only a little lower than Chelsea £49 million.
The other component of players’ costs are wages, which is normally a very strong indicator of how well a team is likely to perform on the pitch. For example, this season the first three places in the Premier League were filled by the teams that respectively had the highest wage bill (Chelsea), second highest (Manchester United) and third highest (Arsenal). The only team to buck that trend was Liverpool, who finished seventh, despite having the fourth highest wage bill. To sum up, Benitez has been given an awful lot of money to spend on both transfers and wages, but the statistics indicate that he has under-performed.
Makes for harsh reading Rafa !!!?
url http://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php?topic=30162.0
Rafa can’t sell unless someone is interested in his flops at half price,if so again we’ll be making a massive loss on top of the current mess and civil war at the club!.With the world cup getting nearer i was hoping that some activity would have taken place by now but as usual we seem to do everything at a snail’s pace.
No point in having talks until we have new investment or buyers but with our greedy owners that looks highly unlikely!.I don’t foresee much change for next season other then the addition a few cheap freebies like Voronin that no one has heard of or interested in.Rafa with his anti-football philosophy will continue to blame the owners for everything!
Spurs wont even qualify for the first round proper. sorry but thats a fact. Think about it Dave. We had a poor poor season yet still it took you up until 2 matches before the end of the season to secure 4th place from us. We over achieved the season before but we definitely under achieved this season. Same can be said for Spurs they over achieved this year but I bet they think they can win the league next year lol. Arsenal are and will always be the biggest club in Nth London and as for London on a whole Arsenal are the biggest name down there. Chelski have done well but players go there primarily for the dosh. Players join L’Pool because of the name CL or Europa it dont matter we still a bigger club than yo… Danny Wilson anyone
Nice one lad you tell em !!!!!!!! YNWA
This lazy Scouse bastard has a full time job and travels 240 miles for a ‘home’ match.
I travelled up for the last game of last season, Liverpool v Spurs.
Keane wasn’t good enough for our 1st team, we sold him back to you. He was so good you loaned him out to Celtic! He scored but we won 3-1. You didn’t qualify for the champions league, again. Ha ha ha!
Well worth the trip considering I didn’t have a ticket until 1 hour before kick off but I got one for £40.
The last time you had any success, ie won a European trophy was when? I remember your record breaking UEFA run when you didn’t even make it into the final, that was funny!
A northener living down south but a true fan all the same, I remember my roots and know our history.
Andy Southern
what a disgusting post by dave, so much so i have reported it to the governing body, how do you come on here and write almost racial posts at liverpool and the people of liverpool, if i see any more posts by you attacking people from liverpool i will keep taking it that one step further. that the last time i will be warning you over the almost racial remarks over an area or set of people, you are in trouble young man, you really are?
Ha ha why are Spurs fans are such knobs?
Because like any stupid fanbase that gets a little taste of glory they now think they’ve made the big time. Just like all southern shite bags who run around with their heads up their arse this country was made off northern backs while they toff around fuckin their bezzi mates. Enjoy ur little taste spurs cuss it wont last long ‘ FORM IS TEMPORARY , CLASS IS PERMANENT !!!!!!!!!!
Y.N.W.A.
Forget what raffa is doing, Now that the tories are in power,does that mean you lazy scouse bastards will have to WORK to pay for your match ticket,instead of us southerners having to help you pay it from your dole money.At least you wont have to get a ticket for the C L, Top four is out of your reach for good now
Ha ha, good one.
I’ve got some bad news about the Tories getting in though. You’re going to lose your day jobs selling hankies in the market. So you Spurs fans will have to provide oral and hand relief to twice as many men as you normally do so you can pay for our match tickets.
We’ll see you in the Europa League after you get knocked out in August.
Oh and thanks for the £15M back on Robbie Keane.
RAFA DON’T SELL Aquilani
KEEP TORRES AT ALL COSTS
DEVELOP MAXI
THATS HE SPINE OFF THE SQUAD
COME ON AND BRING US BACK
rafa wants 60 million pound worth of investment, this is know this for a fact, my brother is a sports media executive for bloomberg and a list that has made his way to the desk is a list of so called players that are on that list.
forlan, mata, banega, martinez, parker, llorente,joe cole,turan, silva are all targets, however, the club are trying to raise the 35 million to put towards the sum of that 60 million, if rafa can not be told of this as a fact, he is going.
Since when have managers ever told the press anything? Journalists – even your brother – come up with the biggest load of speculative nonesense on a regular basis. Your brother knows Jack! He’s just blowing off some to look like the big man he isn’t!