Rafa Benitez and His Transfer History With Liverpool Football Club
One such myth which seems to have appeared recently has been the same tired line about Rafa Benitez and his transfers since his time at Liverpool.
You will hear people claiming things like:
“A larger proportion of Rafa's signings have been expensive and poor.”
This does of course depend on how a person interprets the words expensive and poor—the latter obviously being down to their personal opinion of a player.
If someone wants to use the barometer of anything over a million pounds to be expensive and any player other than Messi or Ronaldo is considered poor; then anyone will struggle to argue against that logic—me included.
We can easily address the “expensive” part of this particular argument:
(Numbers in brackets are players still at the club)
£20+ million: 1 (1)
Torres
£15-20 million: 2 (1)
Mascherano, Keane
£10-15 million: 2 (2)
Babel, Alonso
£5-10 million: 14 (9)
Dossenna, Riera, Agger, Skrtel, Reina,Benayoun,Leiva, Kuyt, Pennant, Crouch, Bellamy, Sissoko, Morientes, Garcia
£0-5 million: 47 (36)
Degan, Cavelieri, Ngog, Plessis, Insua, Leto, Itandje, Voronin, Arbeloa, El Zhar, Aurelio, Palletta, Fowler, Kromkamp, Barragan, Nunez, Zenden, Gonzalez, Carson, Pellegrino, Josemi, Martin, Antwi, Hobbs, Miki Roque, Gulacsi, Padelli, Anderson, Poloskei, Crowther, Hansen, Saric, Ayala, Weijl, Blanco, Flora, Mendy, Ajdarevic, Simon, Bouzanis, Nemeth, Pacheco, Palsson, Brouwer, Durán, Huth, Domínguez.
It is easy to see that the majority of Rafa’s signings have been below the £10 million mark and nothing like the fabrication that he has bought mostly “expensive” signings. It is also interesting to note that a large proportion are teenagers bought for the future of the club and may not be on alot of people's radars.
With 49 of his 66 signings still at the club, it means the selling on fee cannot yet be properly forecast and it is near impossible to fully determine if the original fee paid for each player is expensive.
Here are some more comments and claims made about Rafael Benitez:
“He has bought 53 players for £190 million and sold 56 for £108 million, clearly a loss of £82 million proves he doesn’t have a clue in the transfer market.”
I think the easiest way to explain this would be to just show you a full rundown of Rafael Benitez’ signings since he joined Liverpool in June 2004:
Players bought in by Benitez: 66
Players still at the club: 49
First Team: 18
Alonso, Reina, Agger, Aurélio, Kuyt, Arbeloa, Mascherano, Lucas, Torres, Itandje, Benayoun, Babel, Skrtel, Degen, Dossena, Cavalieri, Ngog, Riera.
Reserve Team: 22
El Zhar, Insúa, Palsson, Brouwer, Durán, Huth, Domínguez, Pacheco, Nemeth, Plessis, Hansen, Saric, Ayala, Weijl, Blanco, Flora, Mendy, Ajdarevic, Simon, Bouzanis, Crowther, Poloskei
Out on Loan: 9
Andriy Voronin, Jermaine Pennant, Sebastian Leto, David Martin, Godwin Antwi, Jack Hobbs, Miki Roque, Peter Gulacsi, Paul Anderson
A figure of 49 players bought by Rafa are still playing for the club with the majority (29) bought as youth players for the reserve team—with the idea for future revenue if they perform to their potential. It will also save the club a great deal of money if they turn out to be superstars worth a large transfer fee.
From that 49 figure, there are 18 still playing for the first team and contributing to the clubs success on a very large scale—with the majority of them being priced by many as a greater figure than when the players were initially bought by Rafa.
From the nine players out on loan, only two are established players with the other seven being young reserve players gaining experience at other clubs—with the hope of either returning to Liverpool’s first team or making a profit to invest in future transfers, a policy utilised by many big clubs.
Players Sold On by Benitez: 56
Players Bought by Other Managers and Sold on by Benitez: 39
Players Bought and Sold on by Rafa Benitez: 17
For me, this is the key point from which poorly informed debaters’ opinions collapse. Most propaganda articles or rival supporters will wildly claim that Rafa has sold "56" players and made little money in return.
They claim the “majority” of the "56" players the Liverpool manager has sold on have been at a loss and “proves” his failings in the transfer market. This is such a misleading statement to make that I really don’t know how people can still get away with it, let alone acctually believe it.
For starters, Benitez has sold 39 players bought by other Liverpool managers.
Benitez cannot be held accountable for selling a player at a loss when; Benitez was not the one who identified the player as a target in the first place; sanctioned the over-inflated transfer fee when the player was first purchased.
You can only really judge him on the players he has bought and sold since he has been at the club and this brings the true figure down to just 17 players.
Profit: 7
Carson +2.25, Barragan +0.43, Sissoko +2.6, Crouch +4.0, Gonzalez +2.0, Bellamy +1.5, Nunez +0.5
Loss: 6
Garcia -2.0, Morientes -3.3, Palletta -0.8, Josemi (swapped for) Kromkamp -0.25, Idrizaj -0.19, Keane -3.0 (could be even less depending on contract triggers)
Even: 4
Pellegrino, Zenden, Fowler, Padelli (all four players were brought in and moved on for a free transfer)
So the true extent of Rafa’s failings in the transfer market is just six players from 17, coming with a loss of just under £10 million within four and a half years—the most expensive loss being just £3.3 million; nothing like the losses achieved by other established Premier League managers who manage to avoid the media abuse storm.
Hopefully that is one media myth that's now been eradicated.
So it appears the knives are out once again for the pervasively criticised Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez.
As if it wasn't annoying enough that national media sources seem intent on creating an ill-informed ideology about the Spanish manager; more and more of his own supporters look to be jumping on the bandwagon aswell.
Despite picking up exactly the same amount of points Manchester United did at this stage last year, it would seem "supporters" just cant be arsed to wait for all 38 games to be played anymore, before deciding that the title is over.
I never realised football was such a predictable sport and was so black and white.
Rafa's transfer history with Liverpool is the current stick of choice to beat the manager with, and once again the usual misleading headlines and unbalanced articles are saturating every football based website.
Not to mention forums heaving with the alarming views of some Liverpool supporters who are worryingly reveling in the negativity and outright lies that are being written about the manager.
Simply because they want Benitez out of the club.
Now this is not an article to claim Benitez is the best manager in the history of football when it comes to transfers. It is certainly not definitive. It is just a collection of details that will be added to over time, that many seem to forget or leave out of their articles or debates.
All i'm trying to do is present a slightly more balanced version of his transfer history with Liverpool; compared to the laughable one-sided rubbish spouted by experts and lauded by insanse supporters, too lazy to do a bit of research for themselves.
Statistics can easily disprove many of the myths that surround the Liverpool manager.
Here are a few of them. Feel free to twist them to suit your own reality.
£20million+ (1)
Still Here: (1)
1st team: Torres
£15-20million: (4)
Still Here: (3)
1st team: Mascherano, Aquilani, Johnson
Sold On: (1)
1st team: Keane
£10-15million: (2)
Still Here: (1)
1st team: Babel
Sold On: (1)
1st team: Alonso
£5-10million: (12)
Still Here: (7)
1st team: Agger, Skrtel, Reira, Kuyt, Lucas, Reina, Dossena,
Sold on: (5)
1st team: Garcia, Morientes, Crouch, Bellamy, Pennant
£2-5million: (4)
Still Here: (2)
1st team: Benayoun, Cavalieri
Sold On: (2)
1st team: Sissoko, Arbeloa
£0-2million (21)
Still Here: (10)
1st Team: Kygriakos, Itandje
Reserve: Insua, Ngog, El Zhar, Kelly, Martin, Palsson, Cooper, Saric,
Sold On: (11)
1st team: Josemi, Nunez, Carson, Gonzalez, Kromkamp, Paletta
Reserve: Barragan, Hobbs, Idrizaj, Ajdarevic, Leto
Free Transfer: (24)
Still Here: (16)
1st Team: Voronin, Aurelio, Degan,
Reserve: Plessis, Sanchez-Ayala, Hansen, Gulacsi, Amoo, Dalla Valle, Flora, Mendy, Weijl, Buchtmann, Poloskei (loan), Bruna, Mihaylov
Sold On: (8)
1st Team: Pellegrino, Fowler, Zenden
Reserve: Roque, Anderson (swap), Padelli (loan), Antwi, Crowther,
Unknown/Undisclosed: (9)
Still Here: (8)
Reserve: Bouzanis, San Jose Dominguez, Duran, Pacheco, Mavinga, Kackanaklic, Brouwer, Simon,
Sold On: (1)
Reserve: Huth
Players signed by Rafa: 77
1st Team Players: 37
Reserve Players: 40
Players still at the club: 48
1st Team Players: 19
Reserve Players: 29
At this point it's interesting to note that many claim Benitez has sold 66 players since his time at Anfield and "most of them have been at a loss", and "this proves he is useless in the transfer market".
Rafa may have sold 66 players, but of that figure, only 29 have been players Benitez
Players sold on by Rafa: 66
Players signed by another manager and sold by Rafa: 37
Players bought and sold by Rafa: 29
Profit: £37.6 million
1st Team Players: (9)
Alonso +20.0, Carson +5.4, Crouch +4.0, Sissoko +2.6, Gonzalez +1.5, Bellamy +1.5, Leto +1.2, Arbeloa +0.9, Nunez +0.5
Reserve Players: (2)
Barragan +0.4, Anderson +0.25
Loss: £12.5 million
1st Team Players: (3)
Pennant -7.0, Morientes -3.0, Garcia -2.5,
Reserve Players: (0)
Even: (13) - £0.000
1st Team Players: (7)
Fowler, Zenden, Pellegrino, Paletta, Josemi (swapped for) Kromkamp, Keane(with contract triggers taking effect)
Reserve Players: (6)
Idrizaj, Ajdarevic, Roque, Padelli (loan), Antwi, Crowther
Unknown: (2)
Reserve Players:
Hobbs, Huth
Very interesting reading aint it lads,
Rafa has signed himself, and sold at a profit of around £25million. But that "reality" doesn't make for a very sensational headline, now does it?
Take into account the deals from this summer are not included, but we actually made a profit this summer so if anything it helps the case.
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Originally Posted by redfanman
