Friday, June 04, 2010

What's next ?

Yeah Rafa's gone. I feel kind of sad. I don't think it could be called a firing or a sacking. It's got to do with the money available(or rather not available) to buy players.

Liverpool are not the financially strongest club in the EPL. ManU, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City can all easily outspend Liverpool. One can make an argument that even Spurs have a better purchasing power than Liverpool. I think it makes it that much more impressive that he has done what he has.

2005 - EPL(5th), Champions League (W), League Cup (Runner Up)
2006 - EPL(3rd), Champions League (16),FA Cup(Winners), UEFA Super Cup(Winners)
2007 - EPL(3rd), Champions League (F)
2008 - EPL(4th), Champions League (SF)
2009 - EPL(2nd), Champions League (QF)
2010 - EPL (7th), Champions League (Group), Europa League (SF)

People tend to criticize RB's transfer policies. I think he's brought in quite a few undeniably good players. I would put his transfers into 4 categories.

Good Transfers : Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Mascherano, Alonso, Kuyt, Torres, Skrtel, Agger, Ngog, Lucas

so-so Transfers : Babel, Aquilani, Riera,

Oh God what was I thinking : Robbie Keane, Dossena, Voronin, Pennant etc

Why did I let them go Transfers: Crouch, Bellamy, Alonso, Sissoko etc.

The total loss incurred on these players was about £15M. That's really not bad. (He made a profit on selling a lot of players like crouch, bellamy, alonso, gonzalez etc). Considering how other clubs have Purchased and had flops

ManU - Ferdinand(£33), Rooney(£26M), Anderson (£20M), Berbatov (£32M), Hargreaves (£20M), Carrick (£20M), Nani (£18M), Valencia (£16M), Ronaldo(£15) (That's a £200M).

Chelsea - Well Chelsea kind of went ahead and bought a whole new team. Shameless actually. I don't understand why anybody supports the club.

I think Liverpool's big problem was not Rafa, but those clowns in the board room. Dicks and Guillotine (Yeah that's what I call em jokers). In case you are wondering what the hell has happened and how did a stable club get into financial trouble.... Dicks and Guillotine took a £200M loan to buy Liverpool. They haven't been paying the loan off and interest accumulates on that loan @ 14% per annum. That interest clubbed with existing debt has helped reach a grand figure of yes .... hold your breath..... £350M. Under the previous owner David Moores Liverpool had a debt of £80M. I am sure that had David Moores taken a £270M loan to invest in players we would have been much better off. But not to worry. Other clubs are not that well off either. ManUre has debts worth £750M and Chelski has £500M worth of debt.

I am sad to see Rafa leave. Interestingly RB's stay at Liverpool coincides with my stay at IIIT. 2004-2010. Lets see what the world has in store for Rishabh and LFC.