Admittedly, the team played badly and deserved to lose to a Lyon side that played well on the night. No one can be happy at seeing such an inept display at both ends of the pitch (with absolutely nothing in the middle) and the fact it was our fourth defeat on the spin only makes things worse. The players were clueless and there seemed to be an inexcusable lack of effort and urgency. For Rafa to then substitute our best attacking player and bring on fucking Voronin was mystifying.
However, to hear some supporters calling for Rafa to be sacked was just incredible. Can't these idiots see that the man has been handicapped by the club's owners? Can't these muppets see beyond the shit that was on the pitch last night and recognise that when Rafa is able to field his better players and those players are in any sort of form we will be a far stronger team?
Our starting XI last night was more similar to a Carling Cup XI. It actually cost a combined total of just £52.4 million. That averages out at just £4.8m per player. Add the cost of the three subs who featured and that total increases to £58.9m and an average of £4.2m per player.
Had they been fit, there is every probability that Torres, Johnson and Aquilaini might have featured last night. Their combined cost is £60m or average £20m per player.
Does it not make logical sense that a team with three players costing around £20m each will fare better than a starting XI plus 3 subs costing less than those three players combined?
When pundits are calling us a two-man team, etc. and when people criticise our lack of strength in depth, it seems to infer criticism of the manager. Does anyone think for one second that Rafa had the choice of signing Samuel Eto'o for £30m but chose to sign Voronin for free instead? Does anyone think Rafa eyed up Ashley Cole but thought Aurelio would be a better player for the team? Did Rafa decide against signing Glen Johnson last year because he really wanted Philipp Degen?
Last night laid the truth bare. Rafa has signed some excellent players when given the money to do so but he hasn't been given the money often enough to do so. As a result, we have a squad of weak players that Rafa has to rely on when forced to do without his top stars. Generally, if you pay £1.5m you get a Kyriakos or a kid like Insua or Ngog but if you pay £15m-£25m you can land a Torres, a Mascherano or a Johnson. You might land a Keane but then United signed Berbatov for £30m (half the price of our team last night) and he is atrocious. No one gave Fergie the grief Rafa got over Keane. At least we got rid of our duffer for a minimal loss. The difference is, Fergie can afford to make a bad signing in the £30m mark because he can always afford another. Rafa got back most of his money on Keane but hasn't been allowed to respend it.
Incidentally, Man Ure's first XI against CSKA Moscow tonight cost a combined total of £117.4m which averages out as £10.7m per player - that is the equivalent of signing an additional Daniel Agger or a Martin Skrtel for every one of our players last night. Including their three subs used, Man Ure's 14 players cost £135.95m or £9.7m per player. Oh and they were without £27m Wayne Rooney and £17m Owen Hargreaves, not to mention other first team regulars Patrice Evra and Park Ji Sung..
This is not a level playing field. Before people start slating Rafa, let's appreciate the great job he has done to have us competing with Man Ure and Chelsea at home and the biggest clubs around Europe without the same financial resources over the last five seasons.
The reality is that the formula for success is as follows:
MONEY + DECENT MANAGER = SUCCESS
The other variations are:
MONEY + CRAP MANAGER = NO SUCCESS
NO MONEY + DECENT MANAGER = NO SUCCESS
NO MONEY + CRAP MANAGER = MIDDLESBROUGH
I think we have an excellent manager but without money at a time when Chelsea, Man Ure, Spurs and City all have far more expensive squads, we cannot be expected to compete domestically and that means that short of a miracle, this group stage is the last we'll be seeing of the Champions League for a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment