Crazy ol Rafa is talking “facts” again.
“Check the figures,” Benítez said. “It doesn’t matter what Ferguson says about money. They have more money and can spend more than us, so we have to manage and do our best in every single deal.”
Wrong again!
It turns out that Rafael Benitez has £43m more than Sir Alex Ferguson since joining the Premier League in 2004. Liverpool fans bang about the FSW’s net spent. Fair do’s. Liverpool have made more than United in the transfer market, around £26m better off. That still means United have done better by £17m in the transfer market.
The transfer website where I got these figures from details every clubs’ transfers since the Premiership began in 1992. Liverpool fans claim we have “bought” our success in the 18 years that have gone since their last title. Bad news for them.
Since 1992, United have spent around £11m more than them, an average of around £600k a season. When you compare the difference in success between the two clubs in that time, the difference in spending is laughable. When you then consider that when it comes to sales United have made roughly £13m more than Liverpool it becomes even more ridiculous. Since 1992, United have ten Premiership titles and have an average net spend of £11,799,118 per season. Since 1992, Liverpool have zero Premiership titles and have an average net spend of £11,908,529.
Facts, facts, facts. You gotta love em!
Man Utd News 24/7
He’s a fat cunt who is obsessed with United.
Now Rafa Beneathus FACT off!
Oh Jooon!Where are you?
So Rafa Beneathus has spent more that Houllier but he has never even finished second?WOW!At least Houllier has finished second and has finished above us one time.
the difference is manure have been able to go out & spend £30million+ on players because old red nose has been around for 20 years. hes already got the spine of his team & just adds every year. rafa has been there 5 years & has had to change the whole squad & he had rick parry buying the 3-4 choice players. now that hes got full control over his transfers we will see a difference. dont forget old red nose was close to being sacked 5 years in the manure job. anyway 1-4,1-4,1-4 we done the double over you.now thats a FACT!!!!!!!!!!!
liverfools are number 3 and that is a fact!
This is just ace, Scott, so thanks a million (gross, or net)! It’s wonderful that on his own chosen territory the FSW has got his facts wrong, and made a complete prat of himself – again – but actually, as I think you’ve argued before, United’s much-vaunted financial muscle has been the result of on-field success, not the other way round. There have been times when Fergie’s spending has been off-beam (Djemba x2, Kleberson, Bellion, Veron, about 15 goalkeepers etc) but overall he’s spent well and wisely, while simultaneously nourishing the green shoots of the academy system. Even when United kids don’t make it into the 1st team, they frequently still find a good career in football, often helped by Fergie’s after-care service years after a player has left the club (eg Keith Gillespie). United sometimes get quite low transfer fees for ex-youth teamers, often lower than the true market value, just to help someone who’s come through the ranks who Fergie feels some sense of obligation towards, having had them in his care since childhood.I can’t see FSW ever doing that. One other small point, it’s a nice touch of Fergie’s to refer to FSW as ‘Rafa’, in a sort of mock-matey way, a very subtle put-down, suggesting he’s really no threat at all.
Rafa Beneathus (good stuff costa) will look at this table
and say hey look we are higher than united and keep bringing in 20 shit player at 6million a peice and give out about united spending 30 million on a quilty player
a fact for rafa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciJNOfrbOw&
sing it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDOWztrFZ6E&
he`s a twat,needs to shut it,the hole he`s digging has just gotten bigger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciJNOfrbOw&feature=channel_page
Good post Giles Oakley.One little thing though and i know many in here might find me crazy.I think Veron was good.The problem was that he was a footballer of a past era forced to play the modern game.If through some time machine he had come to United at the beggining of the 90s he would have been great.He is a player the mold of Cantona,Rivaldo and Zidane(not saying he has the same quality).These types of players are extinct nowdays.It’s all about speed and power now,not so much technique.
You believe this information from that website as fact despite its disclaimer on the front page stating ‘ The idea behind this site is to give an indication of how much English soccer clubs spend on players and how that spending reflects on the clubs performances. It can never be 100% accurate because in some instances clubs do not release the details of transfers and we rely on media reports for the details. ‘
There is even an error reporting facility which highlights that there must be enough of them for this service to introduced.
To get a better balance of the cost of the each prem teams first team squad have a read of this article (doubt many of you will as it goes against you so called facts). Have a read , rather than taking one source of information and claiming it be be fact.
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/NG163483090304-1429.htm
Ill Summarise below:
‘The most expensive squads (excluding players out on long-term loan) are as follows:
Chelsea £207m
Manchester United £206m*
Spurs £188m
Manchester City £140m
Liverpool £127m
(*£226m if Carlos Tevez’s deal made permanent, given that it is initially a unique two-year £10m agreement, and very different from 99.9 of transfer deals. Effectively United are winning games with a £30m player.) ‘
rafa in 5 years has also given 2 home grown players league debuts
Sir alex in that time has given 11
in 5 years years rafa gave 2
in the first half of this season Sir alex has given 2
We do have a more expensive squad,but that’s because we don’t buy and offload 10 players every summer.It’s a long term investment by Fergie.The fair comparison is talking about 5 years and not the current squads.
For example,if Rafa had used the money he spent for 5 Paletas,he could have bought Wayne Rooney.And whereas Paletta is no longer at Liverpool,Wayne Rooney would have been.We can all use facts the way we want.At least those that Fergie uses are the absolute truth.Liverpool have spent more in the Rafa years.Rafa has even spent more than Houllier but he hasn’t had the same success(apart from the Ch.League).
Thats the point mate, Rafa hasnt had the luxury of being able to spend 20+ on one player, he has had to use his money more creativly and take chances on players rather than spending big money like 18 Million each for nani and anderson etc . Hence why some dont work out, Rafas buys have very rarely made a loss even if he has moved them on.
I support the real reds- one is an independent website, yours is a link from LFC…the cost of the current squads has fuck all to do with overall transfer spending, Liverpool have bought and sold far more than we have…one example, Robbie Keane £20 million…you’re an idiot mate, the point about the overall figures is that it gives an overall picture, taking a snapshot of this season’s squads is ridiculous, ours may cost more but we have pretty much only bought that squad in the last 5 years…whilst Liverpool have bought two squads and ended up with your current one…conclusion- Benitez is a pot luck transfer market man with no discernible policy and has bought more tripe players than any other manager in the league which makes your spending equal to ours, just that we have a good transfer policy and often only need to buy a player for a position once…oh and sky have got us at £3million more than Liverpool over the last 5 years…your lot are so fuckin deluded mate
sorry costas, didn’t see you’d already dealt with the idiocy of that point
The difference between United and Liverpool has been highlighted by the result last weekend.
Liverpool fans are celebrating a double over United, whilst United are celebrating the League and European Cup Double. Liverpool fans boo their team off the park when they draw 0-0 at home to West Ham, United fans sing for their team when we lose 4-1 to Liverpool at home.
I thought it was only bitter City fans who would celebrate a double over us (something they achieved last season, something West Ham achieved the season before, indicating it’s not really the best measure of your team!) but the fact that Liverpool are so short on silverware these days maybe explains why they’ve got so giddy over it. We’ve done the double over Liverpool for years… but it’s the trophies at the end of the season we’re bragging about, not individual results over them.
But why would he feel the need to chop and change so often?In the first season he won the Ch.League.Why let go of so many players?Was it really he end of the road for Haman,Smicer,Dudek and i don’t remember who else?If he had kept that nucleus,and spent his money buying fewer players but from a higher shelf,right now he could have had a much better team.Don’t forget that Fergie has changed his team a lot too.You know how many players we have from 04?8 out of 21.And 6 of them are home grown players.
oh and idiot Liverpool fan, why didn’t Rafa bring through youth players and save up and buy one or two really quality players each season…because he’s a fuckin idiot and thought he could win premierships with two-bit journeymen, he had a big culture shock moving from La Liga, you need top-class players, paying £5, £6, £7 million for crap so he can compete across all competitions was a ridiculous policy…he should have built the club up properly, baring inmind you were in 4th when he came
Scott,hopefully the difference will be highlighted this weekend.I want to see fire in our players’ eyes.And i want to see if that wins kickstarts LIverpool’s title charge or if ti was just their Cup final.
But guys why are we defending ourselves? We spent more, So what? I dont see a need to defend ourselves. Its only natural that the most profitable club in the world spends the most money. Lol we have a stadium twice the size as theirs. The market value of our team is twice theirs. Hell we should be spending twice the amount that the dippers spend!
Excellent work Scott. Perhaps we should call the FSW “Fact Stupid Waiter”!
The big difference between Ferguson & Benitez spending is the FACT that Benitez has had to sell before he could buy. Benitez has had to wheel & deal, swap, trade up etc, where as Ferguson could spend any amount of money on any player regardless if he’d just wasted tens of millions on crap players like Djemba, Veron etc.
Hey Scott could you please mail this to the F365 forum? Would be brilliant to shut the scousers up on those forums!
Yes Mike,but didn’t Ferguson start from somewhere as well?When he begun at United he also had to wheel and deal.Benitez could have trusted most of the players that brought him the Ch.League and every year make 3-4 additions to his squad at the range of 10-15 million pounds and at the same time sell 1-2 players.And don’t forget that Fergie has also wheeled and dealed in the past 5 years.As i said above,only 8 out of the 21 players that were in our 04 squad are still here and 6 of them are homegrown players.Face it guys,the gap is not as big as Rafa want you to believe.The difference is that Fergie knows how to bring in young players and Rafa doesn’t.
Mike, are you reading the stats correctly? If that had been the case, difference between purchases & sells would have been small. Since when did Benitez had to sell to spend? So who did he sell to buy Keane? Being taken as a fool by the manager of the team you support is funny huh?
your right costa ,bang on
if im wrong someone please tell me but i think when sir alex was just alex and he got the united job united where in the relegation zone.
if you can believe that
Four thoughts on Redface’s pathetic attempt at rebutting Rafa’s claim of 100M difference in resources between the United and Liverpool squads:
i) Benitez has the right of it, Fergie is attacking a straw man argument. Ferguson’s five year span and focus on gross rather than net spends is a smokescreen to the issue’s substance. The key question is: what level of resources has each club poured into assembling their present squads?
The excellent Paul Tomkins’ work demonstrates United’s resourcing of their squad is much the greater: http://tomkins-blogs.typepad.com/paul_tomkins_blog/2009/03/the-cost-of-premiership-squads.html).
iii) Liverpool were relatively well resourced in the 90s, United have really made their growing commercial might count over the last ten years or so.
Credit to United as a whole for that, and detriment to Liverpool (we’ve tolerated Rick Parry for far too long), but there’s no doubt Rafa is operating at a massive resource disadvantage.
ii) getting pumped by your biggest rivals on your own ground = stress, stress = drinking, heavy whiskey consumption = incoherence.
In one moment Redface suggests Rafa’s a chequebook manager who shuns youth development, the next he refers to the 50 youth players featuring in Liverpool’s reserves!
iv) Fergie’s incontinent, in the sense of lacking self control. A gobby old man who can’t help his mouth from leaking lameness.
Or maybe Redface’s afflicted with incontinence in its more usual sense, an old bull who just realised midweek the younger, stronger more intelligent challenger isn’t going away and will have him. Soon.
Brendan you’ve layed down your crap now hear the response.
i)Our current squad is more expensive for one reason:it has been built over 5 years.No one told Beneathus to buy and sell 10 players every year.Comparing the current squads is like me and you going out for a beer and compating our wallets on that particular evening.It’s ludicrous.
ii)True,it’s your fault that we have been much bettet at the marketing department.
iii)Fergie was making the point that you have a lot of players in the academies and the Reserves but for one strange reason,Beneathus hasn’t established any player from the academies onto the first team.5 years should have been enough.
iv)Your talking out of your ass here so it’s no use answering.
Please stop now Fergy. Anyone would think you’ve been affected by that hammering last week. How rattled do you have to be to invent a “sports technology dept.” Hilarious!
How biased can you Liverpool fans be to not see REAL FACTS when they are right in front of you.Any other scouser who wants to come here?Anybody else?
I would take sports technology department that speaks the truth over a Rafa piece of paper full of bullshit any day of the week.
Yawn, yawn Brendan. What puzzles me about all this is that Rafa started this debate by claiming that United has spent more than Ferguson in the last five years, which wasn’t true. He didn’t mention anything about Net Spend, or average spend per player (which would have been maybe a better angle if he’s gonna talk financial stats)… For a start, that fella’s table he’s put together shows United’s list containing three players more than Liverpool’s, so he’s not comparing like-for-like if his aim is merely to show how much a club’s spent…
I guess my point is that his original argument is flawed, because to come out and just say someone has spent more over a period of time is ridiculous. For example, Chelsea spent around £250m in the first three years of Abramovich’s arrival at the club, because he wanted to build (buy?) a team to win the league and Champions League.
As Costas rightly pointed out, I actually think Ferguson’s ‘player development’ argument is much more valid. Costas’ third point above sums it up. There hasn’t been anyone coming through the LFC ranks since Gerrard and Carragher as far as I’m aware, while Ferguson has brought through Evans, Fletcher, Welbeck and O’Shea, as well as developing Ronaldo into quite a useful player… My view with Liverpool is that if you take Torres and Gerrard out of that team, they’re very ordinary.
U can take that hook out of your mouth now Costas!
After you take yours out first franco.
Just for the Dippers out there, consider this: Last week was embarrasing and hard for a lot of United fans to take, i do not pretend otherwise. But would you rather win and be in third, or lose and be top? With a game in hand. And a superior goal difference. I know where I would rather be.
At the end of the season, you can enjoy doing the double over us in the league. We’ll just enjoy winning the league. Unfortunately City did the double over us last year too, and that was hard to take. But we did our own double.
Exactly Whiteside10.He started the arguement about his 5 years,but once he saw that the math weren’t adding up he changed his tune.Of course he never told us how come Gerrard Houllier with less money than him actually finished second for one time.Oh,i guess it’s best that he doesn’t talk about that either.
……and with the squad we have got, with the young players coming through,we don’t need to buy anyone for another five years.
west ham did the double over united 2 years ago
good ol west ham
That’s the good thing about knowing how to establish young players in the first team.
I’ve just read back over some of the comments here. Is this a MUFC blog, or a site for the Dippers? The simple fact is clubs are entitled to spend whatever they see fit on a player. If United wanna spend £30m+ on Berbatov thats their perogative, just as if the Dippers want to spend £20m+ on Keane thats there choice.
Part of the managers job is to use the resources afforded to him to buy players that will build a team and squad able to meet the clubs objectives. Arguably United and Liverpool have the same objectives. Fergie wins trophies, Rafa wins less trophies. That simple fact says that Fergie is doing his job, and spending his money, better than FSW.
And you have to consider where both clubs are shopping. Rafa is obviously trying to build a squad to challenge, whereas Fergie is maintaining a squad he’s already built. Take the left back position for example. United needed a top draw, first choice left back a few years back, and they went out and bought Heinze who, for a while, was excellent for us. When Fergie decided Evra could turn out to be a better player he went and bought him and slowly integrated him into the team, which lead to Heinzes exit. In about the same peiod of time FSW had Riise, a decent enough left back but one who could be bettered so he went out and bought Aurelio, who’s no better, and Dossena, who’s a lot worse. From then to now United have gone from John O’Shea or Quiton Fortune, to Patrice Evra. Obviously a forward step. Liverpool have gone from Riise, to Aurelio or Dossena, arguably a backward step. So has Fergie done better business? Damn right he has! But the Unted and Liverpool jobs are so different it’s almost ridiculous to compare them.
My opinion of Benitez is that he seems to have a suck it and see attitude to players. Buy them, if they dont fit in, sell them and buy someone else. If they dont fit in, sell them and buy someone else and so on, and so on. Hence why people like Degen and Pennant we’re brought in. I’ll give him his due, he has signed some excellent players (Torres, Alonso, Skrtel amongst others) but the sheer volume or shite he’s bought (Lucas, N’Gog, Pennant, Degen amongst others) is why people really doubt his transfer policy. Should be an interesting summer either way. I’m predicting another 6-7 people brought in at Liverpool, none of which might actually effect the first team.
Well said davetian.I hope the dippers get a good look at your post.
Thanks Scott i read a previous transfer costs blog by yourself. Obviously that did not end up on the FSWs desk or they would of been a little more careful how they phrased this latest Facht outburst .
Davetian, i agree with your comments. The main point is, in my opinion, is that FSW has been trying to deflect attention from his own incompetence.
He has bought and sold on average 10 players a season. This “revolving door” policy will not win you the league, thats obvious. Its time to expose this wanker for the lying, conniving fraud that he is.
I’m glad SAF has finally come out with a measured response.
The scouse nonsense are rapidly becoming the “new Bitters”
“When I see John Terry, Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand lifting that trophy I want to do that, but I want to do that for Liverpool football club,” Gerrard told Sky Sports News.
HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHA HE KISSES THE BADGE
Off topic for the dippers: Stevie Me interview with Jeff Stelling Quote: ‘This has probobly been the best week in football I have ever had.’ This comment has re-enforced an idea of mine. Why not have another cup on offer each season? ‘The Manchester United Trophy’ The team that wins it would have had the best aggregate score home and away against us. Should a few teams end up level they could have a mini league and a final at Wembley. Clearly for lesser players such as gerrard this would become THE trophy to aspire to each season and would generate a more realistic sense of exitement for their fans. What do you think?
Yes United were in the bottom three when fergie took over. So you can’t compare the two managers, fergie inherited a poor side and Manuel a good one. But there lies the rub fergie and united are head and shoulders above Manuel and the dole-heads. Simple really.
Mark Moore: Manuel…..Classic! ‘I know nothing! this is a facht’
@Rob the red,
I was just thinking of the same thing, a special cup for the team that gets special treatment.
Another topic, why do they get special treatment regarding fixtures o the 15th April every year. To my knowledge we don’t ask not to play on the anniversary of Munich. Correct me if i’m wrong.
Scott: Doing a live blog today?
rc7: Funny that, just been sat on the bog curling out a scouser (which as we speak is on its way down the ship canal to collect its shell suit and signing on card) and I came to the same conclusion as you in that he is spouting all these nonsensicle fachts to hide his incompetence. I think it, you think it, so it is a facht! As for the fixtue dates what do you expect from a self pity city
What about the FAct Cup!
Rooney and Carrick out?Ok.
rc7: LOL!
Costas: What?
here are the real facts since rafa signed in 04 fergie has spent 221.95mil gross 147.90 net liverpool 212.60 gross 111.39 net worth noting tevez pratracted 32mil isnt included cisse was signed by houllier before rafa joined fact! research before printing crap! FACT!
@Redregister
NOBODY BELIEVES YOU ANYMORE!
EXPOSED. Liars and frauds.
Redgister: We are on a loser here after all it would involve dippers having a basic understanding of mathematics, Beneathus is spouting this gibberish to deflect people from looking at his record….. No trophies for three years!.
Redgister: If you need help phone your helpline number, you should know it by heart having had it 3 years 0800 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 (won nothing, won nothing, won nothing, won nothing.)
Yes Rob.The team is VDS-O’Shea,Rio,Evans,Evra-Ronaldo,Fletch,Scholes,Park-Berba,Giggs.Roonay,Carrick and Tevez are on the bench.
tell me this redgister, if liverpool went out and spent £70m on players, would you be disgusted and accuse the club of trying to buy the tittle??? if ever a team will have to buy the tittle its liverpool cos they have no youth system worth speaking of
Scholes and Giggs both starting huh….
Well….maybe this in response to Sat. because honestly Rooney Tevez and Carrick were well and truly rubbish
Guys,f@$% the dippers.The only thing that matters now is 3 points at Craven Cottage.
I cant help but question the starting line up today….
Why does it look like our CM is Giggs and Scholes? Why is Fletch playing wide right, when he has proved countless times that is not a position he thrives in? Why is Ronaldo playing up front?
Oh well I guess…hope it works.
oh you mean the youth system rooney ronaldo carrick teviz berbatov vidid rio evra park anderson nani came through no doubt man u have a great youth system
Redregister, our starting line up today has Giggs, Scholes and Evans. So yes, we do. Thanks for noticing!!
And Fletcher*
Hell, O’Shea came through the ranks too. So, you just keep looking ignorant. As do I, seeing as how I keep forgetting players.
Fucking hell,10 men again.
ha ha red card you cheats 1 down go fulham you are choking
Now wake the fuck up lads
Nice selection too.Scholes and Giggs have bossed many midfields together haven’t they?
redgister go to school,learn what a full stop is and come back
Been here before lads! Dont panic. Come on you Reds!!!
Costas: thanks for team sheet.
At least Van Der Sar is awake and playing well…. they’ve had about 50 shots on goal already!!
Don’t mention it.I can’t see it but someone said that we started with Fletcher on the right and Scholes and Giggs in the middle.What was he thinking?
We have to go to half time with the 1-0 score line.It’s ou only hope for a draw.
Yup all fulham at the moment
when the ball hits your head
and your sat in row z
its zamora!!
Did Scholes have no option?
Yes he could have headed it
Well…we should have won the header from the initial corner. We didn’t. After that, it looked like he closed his eyes in the challenge and put his hands up. It was a schoolboy error…
easy when you are sat here
Scott must be pissing mad right now too…. Ronaldo has given the ball away every single time he’s had it. Usually, while in the process of falling down.
Touche rob…
And i hear he struck his free kick on Fletcher.Swell
I have to say this but SAF has done a FSW today – horrendous team selection…the team out there is clearly, clearly choking…and I have never understood why paul scholes is put on the posts – I always expect him to go in with his hands in those kinds of situations…I want half time and rooney, tevez and fabio on…Still no need to panic though, but this team needs a real fucking kick up the backside…
Time for Fergie to work some magic.
I agree… get Fabio on for O’Shea as step one. And Rooney/Carlos on for Berba, who has done nothing at all.
We’re a man down so we can’t afford to have two players out of ten who aren’t willing to work for the team (Berba and Ronaldo). So one of those HAS to come off at half time…
That’s what SAF should have been doing this week.Not wait until we are with our backs against the wall again.Giggs,Park out,Rooney and Carrick on in order for the team to become more threatening.
We need an on form Carrick on the pitch.
And I know its been said before, but fuck me if Danny Murphy played every week like he does against us he would be one of the best CMs in the history of earth!! That old man has been f’ing everywhere!!
Drew: Yes Rooney/ Carlito for Berba aswell I’d go for Rooney but tell him to keep a lid on it a bit, you could see him going bananas and getting sent off!
Yes the scouse wanker
take off both berb and ronaldo, for rooney and carrick,
giggs go on the left, park right, carrick fletcher.. we need fighters if we are to get anything from this game :@
ronaldo can fuck off
Macha: Say it how you feel mate!
Macha: “we need fighters if we are to get anything from this game”
Well said
Rooney on for Berba
How did we get into this mess?I can never recall United playing back to back games with 10 palyers.Someone should take charge in midfield.Oh,and we should move the Villa game back now.NO reason to take it lightly.
Carrick stripping off too
Spurs 0 Chelski 0 15:30 kick off there
I just hope we don’t start diving in our desperation….
Rooney and Ronaldo, I’m looking at you…
It’s a bit better, they will start to tire soon
Okay so berba off for rooney – next two for me, carrick on for fletcher (or tevez on for giggs), and fabio on for o’shea…i would keep ronaldo on because all it needs is a 5-10 min blinder from him…
Drew: me too
Why is Ronaldo doing wild tackles?
Starting to get on top
he’s lost his temper Costas
And i have lost mine with him ever since last May,at least i am not acting like a prick.Tevez in for Ronaldo now.
The team selection was bewildering to say the least – after thrashing fulham the last two times, I would guess you would to put them on the back foot even before kick-off but putting on an attacking, not a cautious, lineup.
I like what I’m seeing now…
The Reds starting to make themselves heard and a three chances in the last 5 minutes. Come on you Red Devils!!!!!!!
It might be too late now Mahesh.I can’t see 2 goals in 30 minutes with a man down.
Tottenham-Chelsea 0-0 at half time.
HOW DID WE NOT SCORE THERE!@!!!!
It’s coming!!!
Costas I’m telling you its not too late!!!
come on Park wake the fuck up man we gotta score that
When we score they will fold Costas
Woken up at last. Come on lads.
I don’t know MAhesh.I am learning the developments from you and other sites.I don’t see it but sounds to me like the second half at Celtic.Too much pressure but no end product.Where is Tevez?
costas – on cue, on comes tevez…
Murpppppphy off Tevez coming on. Park off?
and we are getting oh soooooo close!!! 20 mins to go – its very very doable! And I agree Rob, the sooner we score the sooner they fold…
tevez on for o’shea!
Who has come off?
?
On for O’Shea.
Who’s the right back?Fletcher?
COME ON YOU REEEDS.
Think we’re going 3 at the back. bet this hits the wall
3 at the back by the looks of it…
With Evra,it’s 2 at the back.
Three at the back I think Costas
losing momentum now – we needed one of those earlier chances to go in methinks…
Come on Reds!!!!!
Come on lads….just get one
Well at least we are going down with a fight.
Fulham are retarded…..why don’t they just keep possession and make our tired players chase?
Not yet! Costas
spurs 1 – 0 Chelsea!
Couldn’t someone like Carrick or Anderson come in and offer some new ideas at the moment?
CHELSEA LOSING!
One would think Costas….or at least better delivery from corners and set pieces. Giggs is hitting in terrible balls that aren’t dangerous at all.
Yeah and he is playing as a central midfielder in a game where we play with 10 men.He must be tired.Chelsea do have time left.Either way,we can’t expect both them and the dippers to drop points.
all over 2-0…thats that…
fuck
2 in a row ha ha man u are choking man u are choking
well, i guess now we just hope both chelski and the dippers drop points…i wouldn’t bet agaisnt it….
okay rooney sent off!
jesus christ.
we’re throwing the league away again.
we’re turning into a laughing stock…
what the fucks going on!
That’s what happens when you gamble in the second half.
yeah two in a row, AND WE’RE STILL AHEAD OF YOU YOU FUCK
What happened with Rooney?
redgister – we fuck up and still lead the league…what does that say about you lot eh? Go drown yourself in a pool of mediocrity!
I am sorry,did he throw the ball at the referee?Is he retarded?
Is it 3-0?
He threw the ball – no sure at the referee…but it was retarded nonetheless…and thats after having gone 2 down when you’d want to just limit the damage…honestly its like they want to throw it away…
not 3-0..but i’d prefer that to 2 send offs – especially rooney’s send off…
Our website fucked up on the tracker and wrote 3-0.Anyway.Not much you can do when the game begins in such a horrible fashion.Guys if this is a blip then the internationals come at a good time.I take it for granted that Liverpool will win.That means potentially 4 points difference.
We have to hope villa put one over liverpool but I dont see that happening at the moment.
We need to sort it out fast, otherwise im moving to another country if we throw this league away.
I did have a feeling before we played inter that it could all go horribly wrong after liverpool battering madrid.
thankfully we beat inter but since then we’ve been shit
Said at half time he needed to keep a lid on it. Stupid sending off
Toby– We’re were shit against Inter as well
It’s not as good as 10 points obviously but Ferguson has to know what it takes to stop the downfall.And rule 1 will be never ever bench Rooney again.It looks like he will rotate between Villa and Porto.Vida,Scholes and Rooney out of the Villa game.Rooney will miss just one right?
costas – I am still happy with a 4 point difference, but I am not going to take a liverpool win for granted tomorrow…I honestly thought this weekend we could restore the 7 points + game in hand gap…oh well…
I simply cannot bear to watch the chelski game now…
Thanx for the updates Mahesh.Did you hear the other one?We didn’t move the Villa game back so we will play them and Porto within 2 days!
wonderful, costas – I did not know about that…Did WE decide not to move it, or did the FA block a move?
I’ve said this before, and I maintain this now…this is not “ours to lose”…we’ve never been that good this season…if we don’t get much much better, this was never over by a long shot! We’ve been relying throughout this season on the mediocrity of others, not our own brilliance…
Not the best starting line up today it must be said.
exactly, rob the red – at this stage of the season, it really has to be your best 11 starting the game every single time…
hopefully only 1 game out for rooney. he played really well while he was on. dismayed at leaving giggs in center mid for the whole game, his retention of the ball was shocking at times. park played well again, shame he cant finish though.
2nd half was a lot better, fulham were asking to get beat… shame we couldn’t do it today
come on spurs!
drew- yes we were, but we scraped a result.
Knowing chelsea they’ll nick two goals right at the end..
not entirely fair mahesh, the defence has been outstanding up until the liverpool game. true we havn’t played as well as we can going forward though. hopefully fergy will restore the defence confidence and we can have a lock out till the end of the season
The FA decided to give us two options after SKY told them when they want the game:Saturday at 12:45 and Sunday at 16:00.Both times are awful.The Saturday one might give us time to rest for Porto but it guarantees that the players will be exhausted from their internationals.Sunday is too close to Tuesday’s game with Porto.In the end it would have been our call,but Fergie prefered Sunday.Now that i think about it,it is better since Fergie will rotate anyway.Rooney,Vida and Scholes won’t play with Villa but will play with Porto.Any news on Chelsea?My internet is fucking me up.
Well even if it had been a more balanced side, didn’t understand the front two line up at all.
Ferguson claimed yesterday that Liverpool were “well ahead of us in spending in the last five years”, but the statistics appear to support Benítez. United’s gross spending since June 2004, when the Spaniard arrived at Anfield, totals £221.95 million compared with £212.6 million by Liverpool. Ferguson’s net spending over that period is £147.90 million compared with Benítez’s £111.39 million. The Times
“I worked out in the last five years Liverpool have spent £24 million more than Manchester United,” Ferguson said. “I talked to some people in the sports technology department and told them to check it out. He is well ahead of us in spending in the last five years.
“In that time, we’ve signed 18 players, eight of them young ones. We like to develop our players but other clubs are maybe different. Rafa has a different philosophy from me about producing players, but that is the great thing about football. Everyone has a different way of doing things.”
Benitez may wish to ask Ferguson to show his working. The figures suggest that it is, as the Spaniard posited, United who have spent substantially more since he swapped the Mestalla for Merseyside.
In terms of gross spend, the difference is not vast. Ferguson’s purchases have set United back some £185 million, while Benitez has parted with just a little shy of £180 million. It is in the net spend, though, that shows the true extent of United’s vastly superior financial power. The Telegraph
And they’re facts.
2-0, and that’s a fact
Still 1-0 to spurs
still 1-0 spurs, 5 mins to go…
Today it should have been the 10 that started against Liverpool in order to redeem themselves.Not Scholes.
will stay here and post the score till full time for you Costas
stoppage time at the lane, still 1-0 spurs…
Chealski just hit the bar 1-0 injury time
omg spurs game so tense..chelski just hit the bar in 93rd min
Thanx guys
F.T. 1-0
Sprocket: So what?
Thank you so much Rob.I always hate losing,i hate it even more on days when i can’t watch it and the internet shuts down.That’s a bad blow for Chelsea.They lost on the day that the leaders dropped points.
thats that costas – chelsea drop 3 points too…now, if only the dippers do the same tomorrow it might not end up being that bad a weekened…
Mahesh thank you too.
As i said,i do expect them to win because Villa resemble our form.Let’s think about one final thing.United have lost 2 games going a man down.And this is not going to happen in every game.
Keep the faith Costas! and don’t worry it’s the United way to make it difficult for ourselves.
I want to pick up some of you guys.Me?I don’t know what to think right now.We made it hard for ourselves the last two years as well.The problem is that back then we were running out of games.Liverpool also have to go to Fulham and they entertain Arsenal way before we do.So there could be more dropped points for them as well.
no problem costas – i know how frustrating it can be not having minute to minute updates on the score…
And I am sure liverpool will drop points – starting tomorrow! Not basing this on form, just on a hunch!
I have been spoiled.I have watched almost every game live this season.But Skysports banned my country’s Premier League provider from showing the games on the traditional 3 o clock kick off because of some violations.
Hope you are right about Liverpool.If they win,it will kick off a talk that this is their year,that Rafa has beat SAF in the mindgames ad other crap.It’s good that the Internationals have arrived.It will give the media a chance to focus on something else and our players to wake up.
Without doubt all three will drop points, sometimes at the most unexpected times. We have got away with it today as the biggest threat to us also lost. Even if the dippers win tomorrow they will run out of steam or bottle it at the death anyway. they only need another injury to gerrard or torres that would stop them, and if none of those things happen you can rest assured Beneathus will completely fuck it up for them. As I say we got away with it but we really must get our act together.
Ronaldo wants to make us tell him to fuck off doesn’t he?
http://www.thisisanfield.com/news/2009/03/heres-the-facts-for-you-fergie/
I think Rooney let us down today???
What do you think??
Oh dear. Looks like old geoffrey might have been better asking the sports technology dept how to beat Fulham!
great article scott, your welcome!
otherwise another dark weekend….
By anyone’s figures Benitez’ net spend is less than Ferguson’s. An analysis of gross spends is completely irrelevant.
Considering where Liverpool were when Rafa took over compard to where United were at the same stage, it’s incredible Rafa has managed to close the gap to the extent he has.
Where were Liverpool under Houllier tom?They weren’t so much worse were they?Houllier did take them second within 3 years didn’t he?And he had a smaller budget that RAfa had.And let’s not forget the fact that you won the Ch.League with basically Houllier’s group of players.You said compared to United.United were pretty shity at Rafa’s first season.We were in a transitional period ourselves.We had sold Beckham a year ago,Ronaldo and Rooney were still immature as talents and the only good players were Scholes,Giggs and Ruud.The differences are not so big in the budget for the past 5 years.Rafa is talking as if he has Torquay’s budget.United have buyed fewer,better players than LIverpool in the last 5 years while at the same time keeping only 8 out of the 21 players we had in 04.
In 03/04 the season before Benitez arrived, we finished 4th, 30 points behind the leaders. Of that squad, 3 players remain. We’ve gone from being a side who are happy to finish 4th to one who will, this season, be unhappy if we finish 2nd. We’ve gone from being a side who rarely got to the latter stages of European competition to one which is involved every year at the business end of the champions league. Reina, Skrtel, Agger, Mashcerano, Alonso, Torres. These players are in a different class to the players they replaced.
I personally think comparing the spending of Rafa to Ferguson over 5 years is odd. Ferguson’s been in charge for over 20 years, it’s hardly surprising his turnover of players is going to be smaller. Comparing gross spend, as Ferguson tried to do last week, is absurd too. We had to sell players such as Momo Sissoko, Peter Crouch, etc to raise funds for other transfers. Hardly world beaters but players who improved the overall strength of the squad. Try, if you can, to imagine if Anderson and Nani had been signed for Liverpool for the amount Ferguson signed them for and had been used as sparingly and in the case of Nani, been as unimpressive. Rafa would be getting slaughtered for it. Rafa gets slaughtered for signing Lucas, a player who’s had a more positive impact than Nani and someone who was signed for a 3rd of the price.
When you win everything you’ve done is genius, when you lose, everything you’ve done is foolish.
We’re 1 draw worse off than you this season albeit having played one game more. 1 draw. Is Benitez really doing such a bad job? Either the players he’s signed are better than people say they are, or he’s better at coaching than people say he is. One thing is quite clear, Liverpool are getting closer, why?
I told you why.Because no matter what Benitez says,the gap in spending is not that big.That’s why you are close.Not because the only way Fergie can have success is money like Rafa implied yesterday.You are also close because you have played 6 games less this season.Around this time it takes something out of you.I understand that he bought and sold Crouch to get Voronin and then sold him to get Keane.I get what you are saying in that respect.He could have done something else.Invest on a player.If he had bought Carrick 3 years ago,he would have sold his problem for the next 5-6 years.He wouldn’t need to constantly buy 8 players in a summer and then replace them.Money is a good crutch to use.When you are 10 points away,you can say that United spend more.When you are 1 point back you can say that we are challenging a side with more money.But if you look back to the United side in 96,the Arsenal teams in 02 and 04 and even the Blackburn team in 95 you will see that they won the title without being the richest club in the league.One final thing.Houllier did get you to second place.He is the only manager in the last 19 years to finish above United(until perhaps this year).And the fact that you won the Ch.League with basically his players,proves that maybe Benitez shouldn’t have been so rush in chopping and changing.
tom earnest is back after a Liverpool win…fair-weather Liverpool fan…idiot
ye liverpool have spent more but….they have always had to balance their books by selling, fact..they have actually made a profit in the transfer market the past 5 years, so stop talking nonsense, fergie can buy 30mill player liverpool cant, this is reality and has been for a long time….so money is a big issue at anfield