Interesting read. But are the figures true?

[Guest Linton]

Just came across this article:

 

Benitez plans will shock owners

 

TEAMtalk believes the true extent of Rafa Benitez's demands for Liverpool's future will have hit the club's new US owners like a sledgehammer.

 

He knows that the side which failed so courageously in Athens to win the European Cup for the sixth time is not good enough.

 

The Anfield manager talks of moving the club up "two or three levels" to compete with the likes of AC Milan - the side who manoeuvred themselves into a position to win the Champions League but are certainly not a great team.

 

And the reality of what is needed to put Liverpool on the same level, financially, as Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, could be about to dawn on Liverpool's new owners.

 

George Gillett hugged Benitez as the manager walked up to claim his losers' medal in the Olympic Stadium, while Tom Hicks looked disconsolate.

 

These two sharp American businessmen may know how to operate state-side with more familiar sports, but competing now with the best of European soccer may test their financial muscle to the limits.

 

Gillett was seen on television prior to the game being asked what it would take to make Liverpool truly great again, and he theatrically pulled a stack of greenbacks from his pockets and threw them into the air.

 

Benitez will want to see a lot more of that folding money from now on.

 

The team Benitez has taken to two European finals needs major restructuring. Players who have been good and willing servants will need replacing.

 

The shockwaves reverberated around the team hotel today as players asked exactly what their manager had told the world's media.

 

The scale of what Benitez will ask of Hicks and Gillett even surprised those players.

 

Liverpool need a 30-goal a season man like Didier Drogba to rebuild the jigsaw - and they do not come cheap.

 

Benitez had been told he could have in excess of £40million to spend, but that figure is now hopelessly out of date. Say £200million instead and you might appease the Spaniard.

 

A Drogba would wipe out almost all that on his own. Big players who score lots of goals cost huge amounts.

 

Whether Gillett and Hicks can come up with that much on new players could be an outlay they are not really prepared for. How Benitez's relationship develops now with them remains to be seen.

 

He fell out badly with Valencia at just this point of their development and soon left.

 

Liverpool always seem to sneer at Chelsea's massive outlay, but to compete they will have to spend, spend, spend themselves and find players willing to come to Liverpool when the bright lights of London beckon.

 

Benitez pointed out post-match in Athens that Manchester United have just spent £20million on Owen Hargreaves, and for Liverpool to compete they must start spending similar mounts on individual players.

 

Benitez will ask himself one question as the preparations for next season start. How many of my squad are capable of winning the Premier League?

 

Take away Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Jose Reina and Javier Mascherano, and the answer is probably none.

 

Steve Finnan and John Arne Riise have been outstanding servants, but they are not going to get any better. Xabi Alonso could well be looking towards a move to Barcelona anyway, although he has two years of his contract left.

 

Jermaine Pennant, Bolo Zenden, Mohamed Sissoko, Craig Bellamy, Harry Kewell, Mark Gonzalez, an ageing Sami Hyypia and the limited Alvaro Arbeloa do not have the mark of champions.

 

Zenden, Gonzalez and Bellamy are already close to the Anfield exit door. More will follow.

 

Daniel Agger is still learning, but with Hyypia likely to be looking for a way out, Benitez will need another centre-back too.

 

Robbie Fowler and Jerzy Dudek already know they have played their final matches and Benitez covets Samuel Eto'o, but he could cost £30m. David Villa the same.

 

Dirk Kuyt lacks pace if not heart, Peter Crouch makes the best of what he has, but he is no Drogba.

 

Gillett and Hicks have now seen the level of quality needed to put brave words into force. Benitez has outlined the problem of working at such a rarefied level and you would be surprised if Gillett and Hicks did not flinch just a little.

 

Every top-line striker Liverpool fancy will also be on the shopping list of the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United.

 

And will they be able to persuade such talent to come to Anfield, regardless of new stadiums?

 

Benitez may well be prepared to be ruthless, and he may have lofty targets, but winning financial battles for the very best could well be beyond Liverpool.

 

He is running slap-bang into a wall that excludes him from the very best, and deep down he knows it.

 

Whether Gillett and Hicks share that realisation and can really change the way of the world, remains to be seen.

 

LINK

[BG]

Whatever happened to BB?

[floyd]

Say £200million instead and you might appease the Spaniard.

A Drogba would wipe out almost all that on his own.

 

but

 

 

Benitez covets Samuel Eto'o, but he could cost £30m. David Villa the same.

 

LINK

 

spot the s*it journo

Edited May 26, 2007 by floyd

[Spike]

my thoughts exactly floyd.

[Rimbeux]

Rafa has given lots of meat for filler like this. It's just a jobbing journo pontificating on the theme of Liverpool need to spend big. No insight, insider knowledge, just idle speculation and inaccuracy

[Guest Cardie]

No insight, insider knowledge, just idle speculation and inaccuracy

 

Could have read a Liverpool forum and just copied what was said. then.

[Mike]

load of old b******s

[Guest Prongsy]

Drogba, for £200m.

 

Sounds a little on the steep side to me.

[£440,000]

How many games has Alvaro played? He's hardly been here a minute and already people are writing him off.

 

You don't have to have the best player in every position to win the league. You have to have the best team.

[Rimbeux]

Could have read a Liverpool forum and just copied what was said. then.

 

Aye

[Guest Anders Honoré]

the 200 mio figure is likely b******s, but I think Rafa surprised a lot of people with his statement after the final. It wouldn't surprise me if the new owners felt the same.

[Guest Linton]

You don't have to have the best player in every position to win the league.

 

 

Correct. Ask Phil Neville.

[Buzz]

Benitez will ask himself one question as the preparations for next season start. How many of my squad are capable of winning the Premier League?

 

Take away Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Jose Reina and Javier Mascherano, and the answer is probably none.

This bit is utter Crap. Finnan, Alonso, Kuyt, Momo and Crouch are good enough to win the league.

[McBain]

spot the s*it journo

 

It means a signing of that type would wipe out £40m. Which it would

[wacko]

It means a signing of that type would wipe out £40m. Which it would

That's nearly twice what Chelsea paid for him.

[Guest spk]

This bit is utter Crap. Finnan, Alonso, Kuyt, Momo and Crouch are good enough to win the league.

 

doesnt score goals, doesnt score goals ... first season ... doesnt score goals ... is no drogba

[Guest RedLegend]

This bit is utter Crap. Finnan, Alonso, Kuyt, Momo and Crouch are good enough to win the league.

 

That journo seems to think that every player in a title winning squad has to be a superstar. They don't. You might need one, two or three super talents but if you surround them with good solid professionals with a good manager you probably won't be far off.

[George]

This bit is utter Crap. Finnan, Alonso, Kuyt, Momo and Crouch are good enough to win the league.

They are certainly the equal of John O'Shea, Darren Fletcher,Wes Brown, Alan Smith, Solskjaer,Heinze and Silvestre

Edited May 26, 2007 by George

[McBain]

That's nearly twice what Chelsea paid for him.

 

As he's not actually talking about Drogba it doesn't matter. The article says if our budget is £40m, which it may or may not be, then a top class goalscorer would wipe out a large portion of that. Which it would

[Armin_Tamzarian]

It means a signing of that type would wipe out £40m. Which it would

 

That's how I think it was intended to read, just a little poorly worded.

[hideNseek]

Yeah because every player Utd have is world class.

 

We're 3 top draw players and probably 3/4 good squad players from title winners.

 

Get in a decent forward (Tevez) and 2 decent wingers for left and right and we're there. Follow that up with some decent squad cover and we'll win the title, assuming Rafa doesn't mass rotate every game.

[nd]

Yeah because every player Utd have is world class.

 

We're 3 top draw players and probably 3/4 good squad players from title winners.

 

Get in a decent forward (Tevez) and 2 decent wingers for left and right and we're there. Follow that up with some decent squad cover and we'll win the title, assuming Rafa doesn't mass rotate every game.

 

3 'top draw' players? 3/4 'good squad players'?

 

Tevez and, say, Alves alone could conceivably swallow up the £40m figure being bandied around, leaving us reliant on sales. Even if we get our supposed £12m asking price for Bellamy (which I very much doubt we will) we're not going to get another 'world-class' player and decent squad cover for 3-4 positions from what we raise by gutting the squad.

 

I think this article, while speculative, makes a valid point. Something has to give, but that something will not be the transfer market. If the going rate for a 'drop draw' player is £20m and rising, and we need three of those *plus* more decent squad cover - inc. replacing any sales - then we're surely looking at a summer outlay of around £80m? That's Chelsea-style spending, and while Gilette and Hicks may be rich but they're not mental like Abramovich.

 

In the absence of figures re. our targets and our financial limits this is all just guesswork really, but let's not kid ourselves that we are in a position to help ourselves to large dollops of the cream of the transfer market this summer. We're not. If that is what Rafa really is asking for, and if he is of a mind to leave if he doesn't get it, then we should maybe begin to worry.

[Rimbeux]

Yeah because every player Utd have is world class.

 

We're 3 top draw players and probably 3/4 good squad players from title winners.

 

Get in a decent forward (Tevez) and 2 decent wingers for left and right and we're there. Follow that up with some decent squad cover and we'll win the title, assuming Rafa doesn't mass rotate every game.

 

 

Dont agree, we already have the squad players to do it, we just need the top draw people. Our squad players are right now at least the equal of the contenders' squad players, trouble is that they (our squad players) are in some cases the equal of our starters as well, symptom of getting in two good players over a great player. Even logic dictates that if 3 starters come in, 3 current starters become squad players

[nd]

Dont agree, we already have the squad players to do it, we just need the top draw people. Our squad players are right now at least the equal of the contenders' squad players, trouble is that they (our squad players) are in some cases the equal of our starters as well, symptom of getting in two good players over a great player. Even logic dictates that if 3 starters come in, 3 current starters become squad players

 

Lucas, Veronin, Leto? Rafa seems to want new squad players too.

[Rimbeux]

Lucas, Veronin, Leto? Rafa seems to want new squad players too.

 

 

I'm sure he does, and I want to be paid enough money to pick and choose when and where I work and live!