Benitez in a familiar pose
Rafa Benitez is a man easily upset these days. If it’s not beach balls, it’s referees not awarding penalties, or some other gameday irritation. However, his biggest career gripe has always been transfer funds, notably the lack of them.
Since joining Liverpool, owners have given him a decent amount of cash to splash when the windows are open, until last summer, when he was afforded barely enough cash to purchase Sotiros Kyrgiakos, a hackneyed, clearly bemused central defender from AEK Athens. His other signings, Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson, were paid for by the sale of Xabi Alonso, and it looks like this January, Rafa’s forced to sing off the same song sheet: loans, loans, loans, and maybe a couple of million to pick up a player out of favor elsewhere.
To further exacerbate his malaise, he’s not even been promised any money raised through sales. Imagine that! As if the task of getting back amid the Big 4 weren’t already challenging enough.
I can’t wait for his comments to the press about how the lack of transfer funds is dooming his squad, but more than that, I await the fallout.
Wild conspiracy time!
Overall, Rafa hasn’t spent his money that well. Most of his purchases as Liverpool manager have been duffers — Robbie Keane, Jermaine Pennant, Andrea Dossena, Phillipp Degen, and Ryan Babel to name just five– with few bonafide hits like Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres in the mix. While that quartet are world-class, he’s seemingly unable to strike a winning balance between high-profile signings and the role players that round things out. As such, over time, the American owners have given him less and less to work with; whether it was the meddling of ex-middleman Rick Parry or an empty transfer kitty, the writing is on the wall that if Benitez wants a brand new toy, he’s going to have to convince His Two Dads to buy it for him, and even then there’s no guarantee that they will.
Being the non-confrontational type after a year of messy, public PR gaffes (the not-so-secret Klinsmann meetings, the dust-up with Hicks’ son at a local Liverpool pub), the Americans are adopting a more passive-aggressive approach in their power struggle with Benitez. In making him endure another difficult transfer window with no money and increased pressure to succeed given a rough start, Hicks and Gillett are giving the Spaniard just enough rope to hang himself with. By hamstringing his efforts to improve a flagging and wafer-thin squad, they’re only inviting further criticism and tension in the relationship, which might, in a passive-aggressive way, send Benitez strutting to the exit.
Maybe then, they would woo a hip new manager like Mourinho, suddenly endow him with money generated by sales of the Montreal Canadiens, Dallas Stars, and soon, the Texas Rangers (cash they’ve made a show of withholding from the club, for debt paydowns or other reasons), and let the new man, whoever it might be, build the club in his image.
I think the lines of communication between Statler/Waldorf are irreparably damaged, and now they’re not going to let him waste any more of their money (not that they have much actual scratch to begin with) before severing ties completely. A wickedly perfect plan, though I doubt the American pair have the intelligence to have done any of it intentionally.
Rafa might be able to lure Maxi Rodriguez and “one other to follow” in January, but I doubt it’ll make much difference moving forward. If the team is going to get out of its hole, it’ll have to do it with the same personnel, and any resurgence will unlikely be thanks to any number of Benitez tweaks within the squad. Benitez craves autonomy at Anfield, something the Americans have been correct to hold back. Another window where the Spaniard feels undermined, and perhaps this will all end soon enough.
How much is left on Rafa’s contract? How much would it be to buy him out, rather than attempt to force him to leave by giving him no money?
Why lose the cash cow that is the Champs league money for next year, by not upgrading the squad now? Only to then put give an influx of cash to their manager of choice?
Either way they are just pissing away money. Whether they are trying to punish Rafa or not, they are actually causing themselves to just incur greater debt in the process.
Also, the sale of the TX Rangers is rather dubious, and doesn’t actually look to return much money. Basically Hicks added debt to the Rangers when he bought Liverpool. Factor in his sale price, as well as him retaining minor ownership in the TX Rangers, he isn’t likely to be receiving much, if any, cold hard cash to splash around as a result of the sale.
Far more likely, is that they just don’t have any money to give Rafa to transfer. And most certainly don’t have the money required to replace Rafa and pay 2 managers at once.
Degen was free. Still, point taken.
“A wickedly perfect plan, though I doubt the American pair have the intelligence to have done any of it intentionally.”
Yeah, because everyone knows the billionaires are always the idiots of the world….
The ones who have declared bankruptcy and ran their businesses into the ground probably lack the foresight to do something like this.
TJPierce: most of what they own is now sold, and they never seem to “pay” for anything they buy. It’s all loans and bulls**t!
cool picture.
how good is Maxi Rodriguez?
Good enough to start or come off the bench?
if we are judging by his goal in the world cup…he’s a starter…alas there is more to the game than spectacular goals. he’ll come off the bench.