Liverpool winger Ryan Babel was extremely disappointed about the Reds being knocked out by Atletico Madrid in the Europa League semi final last night. He described the atmosphere in the dressing room after the match to Liverpoolfc.tv:
“It hurts a lot because we controlled the game, more or less. We made one mistake and they scored. It’s frustrating when you know you are so close to a trophy and in the end it’s gone. It’s very disappointing. Obviously everyone was quiet and disappointed in the dressing room – nobody said a word. We all need to go home and then we’ll discuss things on Friday. It was difficult mentally for us to get that third goal. Definitely at the end of the season, when you have to play that extra 30 minutes against a good opponent, it’s difficult.”
The Dutch winger really put the effort in last night, chasing lost causes and delivering dangerous crosses into the box. It was not enough though as Liverpool end the season without the prospect of winning a trophy.
Pheeno, you idiot. I used to be anti-rafa but I’ve realised that resources have been heavily limited for years and so everything is not his fault. The truth is Rafa is a good coach, highly rated and respected by both Gerrard and Torres so he’s got the support of the dressing room.
The club is about to go through a transitional phase of its development, and provided that new owners with enough transfer funds come in, Rafa can pick out the “four or five” top quality players we need to compete again.
The fact is, we’ve grown as a club since he arrived, we’ve won big trophies and people shouldn’t be too hasty to get rid of him after just one bad season. I’m still putting my trust in rafa to take us back to the top. YNWA.
Limited resources? You are deluded,we have had as much as any other team (man city apart) since rafa came
The problem is wasted money on average players not limited resources,we’ve seen what unlimited resources do to clubs.
Morientes 6m
Babel 11m
Riera 9m
Johnson 17.5 m
Bellamy 7m
Keane 20 m
70 million pounds worth of mediocrity,wake up
Red Barry,dear chap!you and a few others keep blaming Benitez for signing Keane.Parry was responsible for buying Keane!!! and I think your figures re;Riera are wrong too!
Johnson should be playing ‘right wing’ with back four Carragher/Skyrtl/KyrgiakosAgger permutation !
Rafa had bought all players other than keane !!
He is at fault for our demise, we need a clearout big time….
Sell:
Reira £6m
Babel £10m
El Zhar £2m
Degen £2m
Caveleiri £2m
Ngog £3m
Aurelio £3m
Lucas £6m
Benayoun £9m
Kuyt £10m
Plessis £2m
Kyriakos £2m
£47m + £15m in kitty from previous transfers
Buy:
Clichy £10m
Turan £12m
Joe Cole £Free
Jovanavic £Free
Gary Cahill £8m
Higuain/ Aguero £25m
Total £55m
Starting XI
Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Clichy
Cole Gerrard Aquilani/Masch Turan
Torres Aguero
Subs: Gulasci, Skrtel, Insua, Kelly,
Barry- You personally do not know for certain what happened with Keane do you? Or tell me more if you do or did you read it in the paper? Let’s assume your right for arguments sake and knock 10 million or so off that we recuoperated on Keane…that’s £60 million on slightly above average players and that’s not including Aqualani’s 18-20 million. I maybe wrong about Rieras fee but I think I underestimated it anyway. If you are going to defend Rafas transfers that I’ve pointed out and you are satisfied with what he’s ‘built’ with this shortage of funds then obviously Liverpool football club is accepting second best and that will never be accepted by me.
Transfer fees are only half the equation, it is all very well saying we could have signed 3 or 4 £20 million+ players but they demand a wage of £150k a week. When the owners tell you the wage bill must not exceed X amount per week then this obviously affects the type and quality of player you can buy.
Rafa has got it wrong a few times with transfers but tell me one manager who hasn’t? United spent £30 million on Berbatov, he has been a flop, Chelsea spent £35 million on Shevchenko, he was a flop. The list of transfer flops in the premiership is endless, every Premiership manager has had their fair share in the last few years.
The fact is Rafa was told 2 years ago to start balancing the books and wheel & deal in the market, that’s what he has done and overall he hasn’t done a bad job. If supporters are expecting us to be challenging for all the top honours then we need top cash, we already have a top manager.
I ain’t got a problem with backing rafa for having to balance the books but he knows he has to do this and yet says we need 4 or 5 players. Well the ones pointed out above cost big money but are nowhere near good enough to take us forward. They are all HIS players and now he says he needs more…..well I don’t know if I trust him enough to spend it on the right players for Liverpool football club to take us FORWARD
Red Barry – “then obviously Liverpool football club is accepting second best and that will never be accepted by me”…
When was the last time we were able to attract truly world class players to Liverpool?? the fact is we have been second best for many years.
Secondly, granted Rafa has had a high turnover of players but what you fail to mention is that in order to do a complete overhaul of the squad he inherited Rafa had to trade up gradually by buying better players in most positions. Ideally, he would have had enough funds to buy 8 world class players (only Carragher, Hyypia & Gerrard were good enough)…and then quality replacements to cover for injuries/loss of form etc. The only way would have been to spend £200m+ in a short space of time (less than 2 years) as Chelski and Man City have done….since we are not able to do that…i guess…you need to wake up and smell the coffee mate..
cos right now unless we get new owners with deep pockets…we better get used to being second best!
Theres no better man than Rafa for LFC!!
i blame riera for all this…and look at our bench…not ever near to fear n loathing or lock stock to barrel
I have trusted Rafa to bring the best players he can with the money available. Last year he spent approx £40-45 million pound on Aqualani and Johnson plus kirry the Greek etc. Are you seriously suggesting to me that 40 million pounds isn’t enough to buy 2 top players to add to Reina,Carra,Stevie,Torres and Masch? The argument that he needs more money and hasn’t been backed has run thin now cos too many average players bought with big money. He maybe the best manager for Liverpool football club but I am running out of patience with the excuses. Just my humble opinion
Trust Rafa is everyone blind??? Lets think seriously, we brought in benitez with a 5 year plan. In that time we have won 2 major trophies, but we did it in what was supposed to be our transitional period with a team that was largely Houllier’s.In the time when Benitez was supposed to have built his squad we’ve got worse, how many trophies???…none. Fair play with 2nd last season, but this was supposed to be the year we went on and pushed further, instead we’ve had one of the worst seasons in about 20 years!!!!we talk of lack of finances but benitez leaves a 17m man and a 10m man on the bench for lucas and N’Gog, then wonders where his moneys gone. and now we’re talking about another benitez transitional phase f off!!!!
Fully agree George,spot on. We are going backwards and now he says we need 4 or 5 players and you can better believe that if he doesn’t get another 40 million he will use that as his ‘get out’,blaming everyone else apart from himself again
I accept that rafa has made mistakes but he’s done something we thought he never would..come out and admit it. This shows me that he’s learnt from his experience and i truly believe he is the right man for the job..he posesses that inate ‘liverpool’ spirit and attitude, respects the traditions and values of the club…some of u fans dont understand that if rafa goes, we’re back to square one..who wud want to manage liv with all this uncertainty? Mark Hughes? Errikkson? The s*ns H Redknapp? Mourinho really? Dont make me laff! Trust and support rafa bcos when he leaves u will realise who reestablished u as one of the best in Europe.
Rafa is the reason we have respect in europe again!
And he is the reason we will be leaugue champions again…
The whole reason there is always media attention around Rafa,is they fear he is the one to take us back to the top again!
If it wasnt for the yanks and them thieving from our sales, we would have have won this league for sure…
Net spend in last 4 tranfer windows £4m?
Then we are expected to win the league…lol
We dont want one of the best manager in the world, yet the best teams in the world want him?
He is so bad in the tranfer market that they want to hand him £100m to spend…lol
You so called fans who want Rafa out havent got a clue!
IN RAFA I TRUST
redbarry- mate are you serious?
we sold alonso and arby for a total of £35m
Then Rafa paid £10m for johnson, as pompey still owed us £7m from the crouch deal. Then a further £17m aqualani for of which we have paid £8m so far..not to mention kyriakos for £2.5m
Thats a total spend of approx £20m on players in and £35m out.
Rafas tranfer kitty = -£15m
Wheres the £15m barry!! what have you and the yanks done with it!!
Spill the beans barry??
People always seem to think that Rafa’s had a fortune to spend but the problem hasn’t been the amount of money he’s had rather the way in which he has had to use it. Being given £50m for players sounds great but when you need 4 or 5 of them the quality of the individual players will suffer. When has he ever been allowed to spend big on just 1 player? Torres, and look at the quality.
The failures this season have been a combination of issues, none of which has anything to do with Rafa’s buying ovr the summer, we lost Xabi and Arbeloa, we gained nick the Greek, Johnson and half and Aqui, we had a lot of injuries, some bad luck and the teams directly below us spent a lot of money.
Money,money,money….It’s ALL about the money isn’t it…We would not have been in this postition this season had Rafa not tried to buy Gareth Barry and sell Xabi the season before last. We finished 2nd last year,have gone dramatically backwards in every competition but hey why not blame 2 clueless yanks instead of a spaniard that got it wrong
Rafahas done a fantastic job since he’s been at the club! Yes player turnover has been high and weve had a few buys that didn’t work out. However Rafa has never been on the same levelplaying field as the other clubs!
Since the Americans arrived the expidential upward rise the club was on has haulted to be replaced by a second year plateau and a third year decline.
But on the other hand the real issue is about the team play!
On arrival Rafa had a remit to make Liverpool into that fantastic Valencia side he had in Spain. Sadly the style and type of team play coupled with the poor defensive subsitutions is all the proof needed to highlight his failings. Its time for LFC to move in a different direction.
Hopefully the new owners and finance will be in place before the start of the new season and fingers crossed the new coach…Mourhino anyone?
Come on, does anyone really want Mourinho? Did anyone watch the semi-final? If you want Liverpool to play like that you need look no further than fat Sam, and I for one will start to go elsewhere. I love Liverpool, I have been a supporter for 49 years and have seen all the ups and downs. We were in the second division when I started as a fan and we have had plenty of great times from a succession of great managers (and a few not so great times). It will come again, and I believe that Rafa can do it. We now have an effective academy, and we need 4 or 5 decent players for the first team. In a few years we will be winning everything again.
Just remember 2 things:
If Manure had got rid of Ferguson in the first 5 years when they were rubbish where would they be now? You don’t become a bad manager overnight. Why would other big teams be willing to give Rafa big money if he was so bad?
i believe its a rafa is part blame and money is also a factor, if you buy 4 real players (not lucas, kuyt, babel, kirry greek, etc) then rafa can do something better but he is poor in general in buying players, should hav bought richard dunne for 2mil last summer, looking at inter on wednesday nyt jose mite not be a bad option for LFC ynwa!