Price of success

Imagine Rafa had £56.8m to spend on players without having to sell any of his current squad. Imagine how much he could enhance our squad with that sort of cash at his disposal.

Why £56.8m? Because that is how much more Man Ure's squad cost over ours for Sunday's game. That's right. Fergie spent £56.8m more than Rafa in buying the squad that Rafa's beat 2-0.

Look at the figures. The only department in the first elevens where Rafa has outspent Fergie is in goal - but then Pepe Reina is only 27 whereas van der Sar is 110.

Man Ure's defence cost a whopping £17.5m more than ours (apparently Rafa paid over the odds for Johnson!) and their midfield cost a further £6m more despite the fact Giggs and Scholes came through the youth team.

Up front, Fergie's two strikers cost a combined total of £57.8m while Torres and Kuyt cost a bargain £32m.

Both teams used two subs each. Fergie's cost £14m combined (although obviously Michael Shithead was free) while Rafa's cost just £8m and one of his (a £1.5m signing) scored the game's second goal.

Of the unused subs, Fergie's cost £5m more.

I've banged on a lot recently about money but the bottom line is had Rafa spent £23m on Berbatov instead of Torres, he probably would have been out of a job by now. Fergie can afford an expensive mistake or two. People have questioned Rafa for paying £20m for an injured midfielder in Aquilani but Fergie paid £17m for Owen Hargreaves and he's been injured for two years but Fergie can still field £18m Anderson, £18.6m Carrick and £16m Valencia in midfield, not to mention the old fogies Giggs and Scholes or currently injured duo Park Ji-Sung and Darren Fletcher. People also questioned Rafa for spending £17m on Johnson but Fergie's back four cost £17m more than ours and Torres made Ferdinand look anything but a player worth £29.1m.

So to Tom Hicks I say: "Never mind high-fiving your mates when Rafa's greatest buy bangs in a classy opener against the reigning League Champions. Get your fucking money out and give Rafa a chance to make us the reigning League Champions."