"Benitez is poor in the transfer market"

[Maldini]

This statement seems to be seen as a truism by so many people, but it's just not true. Rafa has made bad signings, but all top managers have and Rafa's probably made less than his peers.

 

In his first summer he signed (discounting all the kids we've signed):

 

Josemi - 2m - bad signing, swapped for Kromkamp

Luis Garcia - 6m - great signing, provided a bit goal threat from midfield and scored some very important goals

Xabi Alonso - 10m - great signing, one of the best passers in the world

Nunez - swap - a lose nothing transfer, he wasn't quite good enough for us, but did a job and was eventually sold for a profit

Pellegrino - free - bad signing, his legs had gone by the time he signed

Morientes - £6.3m - in the end a bad signing because he wasn't suited to the league or the way we play football at the moment, but there wasn't really a way for us to know that before he signed, his record before and since proves his quality

Carson - £750k - a clever deal, getting one of the best young keepers in the country for less than a million, he'll probably end up going for more than 10 times what we got him for

 

In his second season he signed:

 

Reina - 6m - great signing, one of the top keepers in the world

Gonzalez - £1.5m-4.5m (his fee has never been officially confirmed has it?) bad signing, he looked great in Spain and in theory had all the attributes to make it here, pace, strength, sweet left foot, but he always seemed over-eager. A big club like LFC can be too much for some people.

Zenden - free - a decent free signing, filled in when needed, I wouldn't be his biggest fan but he did the job he was brought in to do

Sissoko - 5.6m - great signing, can't pass to save his life, but his work off the ball makes up for it

Crouch - 7m - Rafa was almost universally laughed at for signing him, but Crouch has proven his worth for club and country since

Kromkamp - swap - decent player, but never really settled here, eventually sold at a profit, hard to say if he's a good or bad signing, probably more of an opportunistically cynical signing

Agger - £5.8m - great signing, one of Rafa's best, one of the best young defenders in Europe

Fowler - free - good signing, more egotistical managers would have run a mile from this signing, but Rafs is pragmatic and saw Robbie would be able to add a bit to the side, and he did

 

In his third season he signed:

 

Aurelio - free - great footballer, but always injured, hard to call

Bellamy - 6m - this'll probably have to go down as a bad signing, mostly because we needed a goalscorer and Bellamy was never going to be that man, eventually sold at a profit though

Paletta - 2m - The consensus seems to be that the lad is s****, but I'm not writing him off yet, the jury is still out

Pennant - £6.7m - another the jury is still out on, he was pretty crap in the league for the first six months, but consistently good in Europe, after christmas he was able to transfer that form into the league and improved significantly, he still has a lot to prove though

Kuyt - £9m - Everyone loved him for six months, now everyone seems to hate him. Works his b******s off, creates a lot of chances, ties our attacks together in the final third but needs to become more of a goal threat, good signing though IMO

Arbeloa - £2.6m - can play all across the back, good defender, good on the ball, good signing IMO

 

Out of all those signings I think you can only really call Josemi, Pellegrino, Morientes, Gonzalez, and maybe Bellamy bad signings. You'll notice that nearly all of them were shipped out after a year.

[Billy Dane]

If any criticism can be levelled at Rafa in his transfer activities, it's with his choice of strikers/forwards. For me Crouch and Garcia have been the best of the ones you listed above. Kuyt works extremely hard as you say but spends too much time outside the box for me.

 

Hopefully his buys this summer will prove he knows a good striker when he sees one (at the same time proving you need to spend lots of money to get the right quality in this area)

Edited August 6, 2007 by le2red

[Benitez]

I always find it a bit baffling why anyone would consider him poor in the transfer market in comparison to others . You hear it said, but no one really knows why. I'm not sure where the thought originated. I think we have the opposite of Arsenal's PR man working for the club.

 

He's done better than many managers. All managers will take risks on players, and some don't work out, such is life, what is important is that most of your 'big' signings work out. Then if one or two of the lesser signings turn into something, then great. The only thing I think I'd pick up on is him buying too many squad players, too much quantity rather than quality. But then a heck of a lot of that was to do with spreading the cash. This summer he's finally been able to spend more on a couple first teamers.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Benitez

[njr]

If any criticism can be levelled at Rafa in his transfer activities, it's with his choice of strikers/forwards. For me Crouch and Garcia have been the best of the ones you listed above. Kuyt works extremely hard as you say but spends too much time outside the box for me.

 

Hopefully his buys this summer will prove he knows a good striker when he sees one (at the same time proving you need to spend lots of money to get the right quality in this area)

 

In the end I think Agger will prove to be the best

[Bootle Buck]

To be fair to Rafa the curse of the "Ineffective striker" has continued during his term as manager.

If you look the big money signings we have brought in and none have really paid off:

 

Heskey 11 million

EHD 10 million

Cisse 14 million

Morientes 6 million

 

I hope Kuyt, Crouch and Torres find their scoring boots this season or they could well be added to the list.

[Ginu]

I still think we needed Quaresma instead of Benayoun. Not that Benny is a bad player, but we needed a match winner rather than another squad player.

[Rimbeux]

Just to try and see it from the outside I think it comes from there being quite a heavy turnover of players and the way Rafa has generally gone for quantity over quality. It gives the impression that things are more hit and miss than may be the case. There is also a perception that he doesn't like big name players

[Guest PaulMcC]

Just to try and see it from the outside I think it comes from there being quite a heavy turnover of players and the way Rafa has generally gone for quantity over quality. It gives the impression that things are more hit and miss than may be the case. There is also a perception that he doesn't like big name players

 

Surely after signing Torres peopel with that perception realise they are wrong.

[Guest Portly]

I still think we needed Quaresma instead of Benayoun. Not that Benny is a bad player, but we needed a match winner rather than another squad player.

 

I think Benayoun is a lot better than just a squad player. By the end of the season he may well turn out to have been the best of our summer signings.

[Gray - YPC]

I think Benayoun is a lot better than just a squad player. By the end of the season he may well turn out to have been the best of our summer signings.

I think Pennant's form may limit Benayoun's appearances, unless he plays down the left a fair bit.

[Maldini]

We've needed a player like Benayoun for years, I think his presence will let the forwards get forward more because he'll be floating around in that area behind the front two.

[Stevie H]

I think Pennant's form may limit Benayoun's appearances, unless he plays down the left a fair bit.

i think benayoun will play more games at right mid than pennant this season.

[Leo No.8]

What I've liked aboput Benayoun so far is his ability to keep the ball under pressure.

 

A few times I've noticed him drawing in defenders to create space for the killer pass, which is particularly effective in more central areas. Like I've said before he's excellent in the hole but probably won't play there that much because of how many players are competing for that position (identical to the Garcia / Smicer situations).

 

He was a bit Beardsley-esque when he played off the striker in the first game in Rotterdam, albeit against poor opposition. There were times when he drew defenders out of postition and with a nice touch and drop of the shoulder wriggled away from them, which created space for others and allowed him to play an incisive pass to put someone into position to score.

 

As it looks like Stevie is going to be largely played in the centre, I'd expect Benayoun and Pennant to share the right midfield spot fairly equally between them.

Edited August 7, 2007 by Leo No.8