Re: Festive Football Chat : Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:09 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

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 my post should have read: "since become evident."

I guess we rode our luck with injuries last season, apart from the lengthy absence of Torres.

Re: Festive Football Chat : Fri Jan 15, 2010 4:05 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

LFC end of season dinner details are out. You are all invited, sure to be a fun night:


Menu is as follows –


Starter – Sour Grapes

Main Course – Plaice (probably 5th or 6th)

Pudding – Selection from Kuyt, Ngog, Lucas, Dossena, or Degan.

Drinks will be available but there’s strictly no doubles. Trebles, and certainly no carling premier.

There will also be a selection of wines served by some fat Spanish bloke with a dodgy beard

Please note that dress code is strictly “late 80s” to celebrate our last league title.

ALL drinks will be served in plastic glasses as cups are not on the agenda again this season.

For entertainment on the night Rafa Benitez will be doing his party trick of making £250 million disappear into thin air with f**k all to show for it.

Reminds me of Peter Kay, this joke. First time I seen it, it was quite amusing, but each time after that it just gets tired and boring.

Must have come across it about 20 odd times this week alone.

Re: Festive Football Chat : Fri Jan 15, 2010 4:53 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

LFC end of season dinner details are out. You are all invited, sure to be a fun night:


Menu is as follows –


Starter – Sour Grapes

Main Course – Plaice (probably 5th or 6th)

Pudding – Selection from Kuyt, Ngog, Lucas, Dossena, or Degan.

Drinks will be available but there’s strictly no doubles. Trebles, and certainly no carling premier.

There will also be a selection of wines served by some fat Spanish bloke with a dodgy beard

Please note that dress code is strictly “late 80s” to celebrate our last league title.

ALL drinks will be served in plastic glasses as cups are not on the agenda again this season.

For entertainment on the night Rafa Benitez will be doing his party trick of making £250 million disappear into thin air with f**k all to show for it.

Like it.

Re: Festive Football Chat : Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:04 pm  

WireFanatic II wrote:

Reminds me of Peter Kay, this joke. First time I seen it, it was quite amusing, but each time after that it just gets tired and boring.

Must have come across it about 20 odd times this week alone.

It was posted on here just a few weeks ago by Mutt1. Very boring now, especially from bluenoses.

Re: Festive Football Chat : Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

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.

Re: Festive Football Chat : Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:27 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

LFC end of season dinner details are out. You are all invited, sure to be a fun night:


Menu is as follows –


Starter – Sour Grapes

Main Course – Plaice (probably 5th or 6th)

Pudding – Selection from Kuyt, Ngog, Lucas, Dossena, or Degan.

Drinks will be available but there’s strictly no doubles. Trebles, and certainly no carling premier.

There will also be a selection of wines served by some fat Spanish bloke with a dodgy beard

Please note that dress code is strictly “late 80s” to celebrate our last league title.

ALL drinks will be served in plastic glasses as cups are not on the agenda again this season.

For entertainment on the night Rafa Benitez will be doing his party trick of making £250 million disappear into thin air with f**k all to show for it.

The typical LFC sense of humour is truly evident on this thread

Re: Festive Football Chat : Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:35 pm  

With the reported money problems, one possible problem the board may have is they can't afford the pay off to sack Benitez, coupled with the fact the large backroom team he's assembled who would probably follow him out the door. The only way I can see him going is if he resigns but think he's a bit too stubborn for that to happen.

Re: Festive Football Chat : Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:46 am  

I did find Rafa quite amusing with his facts. Ironic really that a year ago they were top of the league prior to his previous rant.

Re: Festive Football Chat : Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:53 am  

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHHHHHHHHHT

Re: Festive Football Chat : Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:30 pm  

Dreading this game against. Stoke how bad is that?