posted Jan 10, 2007

Arsenal Fan here. I agree with your analysis, but not on the money part. Liverpool can hardly say they didn't have the funds to compete on the tansfer market when just this last summer you bought Kuyt (£10m), Bellemy (£6) and Pennant (£6m) which is a healthy £22m pounds which any Prem Club would love to have for transfers. The only issue Liverpool has is that out of the 3 signings Kuyt seems a great buy but the other two hasn't performed, and a bit pricey for such average (or as you put it second tier) players.

Wenger has always bought players (senior or youth) on the cheap, with the exception of Reyes (£17m) which is actually a mistake we'd like to get rid of now.

There was also a lot of first-team players for Liverpool, hardly a "weakend" side with the likes of Gerrard, Carrager, Hyppia, Garcia, Pennant, and Bellemy. The only problem is that the youngers and the first-team players seem raw and out of sync with each other, whichis again the result of Benitez rotating players without giving the squad a chance to gel and play together.

So it's really just down to Benitez not buying enough right players and not getting the tactics right which is causing inconsistency for Liverpool this season.

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posted Jan 10, 2007

Thanks jabbajoo for the Barbara Windsor joke - had me chortling for ages.

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posted Jan 10, 2007

Dr_John_B - Unfortunately I am saying that we cant compete in the transfer market- we just dont have the money. Yes we can compete against teams outside the top 4 - but when it comes to the top 3 teams, not a chance. Rafa has even come out and said the same thing today. He actually stated that we were looking at some of the same players that Arsenal was, but we couldn't match what they were prepared to pay.

Hopefuly if the money comes in, then we can, but until then we will struggle.

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posted Jan 10, 2007

Fender I suspect there is a difference between what Liverpool can afford to pay and what they are prepared to pay for an unproven player. Other than Walcott, 3.5m for Denilson was the most expensive of our young players. Even Rosicky only cost the same as Pennant.

In terms of the big name players Arsenal cant compete any better with ManU and Chelski than Liverpool. That is why they are investing so heavily in the youth team. The only way we can afford to have players of the quality of Cesc or Toure is by signing them before they become established.

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posted Jan 10, 2007

I'm an Arsenal fan from Colombia and I can't believe this result!!! I think that Benitez is a little lost and, for me, his rotation system is because he hasn't found the right team

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posted Jan 10, 2007

Had to laugh when you said you cant compete with the top 3, I take it you included Arsenal in that. How much money have you spent on players since Rafa arrived? and how much did you let Houllier waste?

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posted Jan 11, 2007

im an arsenal fan but i really applaud liverpool dey made arsenal concede 4 goals in only 2 matches !AWAY! (im being sarcastic if u havent noticed). anyways arsenal scored 9 goals in 2 matches against liverpool now u cnt complain about dat and dem 9 were at anfield a place liverpool hadent lost for like 9 months or someting/

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posted Jan 11, 2007

Score 9 at a ground which to coin an american term has shut out so many teams.

And fail to beat west ham, bolton, villa, boro it defys belief.

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posted Jan 14, 2007

yeah, that is true. After all, I heard that wotsisname....Gerrard? He is only valued at about 50 million anyway. Nothing on Fabregas' massive cost of an unprecedented 'nothing'.

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posted Jan 15, 2007

i don't blame most ars fans. most of them talk out of context, how many senior players were there is ti kuyt, crouch,reina finnan ,riise, i agree we have no excuse even the issue of resting players for a match is suppose to be so EXCEPT under really cirtical or maybe rather important situations.someone rafa rotationis due to inability to have a stable team,if players keep on winning no player will be tired of being rested

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