It’s clear Rafa has been searching for a right full-back to take over from Steve Finnan for years. Finally he’s got his man in Glen Johnson, however, for a long time the preferred choice was Daniel Alves. Nobody grumbled when we signed Morientes. A world renowned player with a proven track record, but the guy just didn’t do it for us. Let me guess, that must be Rafa’s fault too. The players have to take some responsibility for their failings. For example, Babel has got ability, he just needs to show it more often. You can argue that Rafa doesn’t play him enough, but when the choice is between the ever reliable and hard working Dirk Kuyt and the unpredictable Babel, who do you choose when you’re under pressure to win games. I know who I’d go for. As for Riera and Lucas who you mentioned, ell neither were expensive by todays standards and it’s hardly fair to call riera a flop considering the extra dimension he added to our play last year.

More recently it’s been the most open secret that Rafa has coveted David Silva and David Villa. Villa we may never get, but Silva should hopefully be within our range. Once again no deal has been done. Gareth Barry is another one. Do you think our squad would look much healthier, not to mention our starting 11 if we had Alves, Simao and Silva in it as well as Gareth Barry. If we were really lucky you could even add David Villa’s name to that list. Still don’t trust Rafa’s judgement? What about the way he picked the likes of Sissoko,Arbeloa, Skrtel and Agger out of relitive obscurity and got them all for peanuts. Those mentioned that are still with us are an integral part of our team, a team that nearly won the title last year. Those no longer with us have been sold on for a profit. Really the whole transfer thing isn’t as bad as it seems. OK perhaps he may have wanted to get rid of Alonso the season before last, but so what. Alonso performed as well as he has ever done in a red shirt last term so maybe he needed the kick up the backside. At the end of the day it was Alonso’s choice to leave. He wasn’t pushed. Doesn’t Rafa deserve credit for getting such an extortionate fee for him?

Finally, it is clearly harder to win it now than it has ever been, so you can’t even compare Rafa or the current side to those that we’ve had in the past. You can only compare Rafa to the men he is directly competing with now. Managers that have spent similar sums have done no better and in many cases much worse. Some have spent more and done worse. Those that have won more have clearly more advantages.

As for Mourinho, well we will never get him, not that we would want a manager that goaded our fans and called us a little club. We cannot lavish the guy with a big transfer kitty and he would not join a club with a warring boadroom so forget tabout that one. There are no special ones at Liverpool, there never has been. That is who we are. Things will go backwards before they go forwards if Rafa leaves and in this boom and bust game that football has become, that step back may be unrecoverable. At least now we’ve got a fighting chance.

Alonso left because of his backstabbing and the team is full of expensive flops like Riera,Babel and Lucas when he could have spent this money on much better quality!.Apart from a few good buys i don’t trust Rafa’s judgement when it comes to making new signings and neither do i understand his pre or post-match comments that are always identical!!!

We have a net spend less than Chelsea, Utd, Spurs and Man City. Our wage bill is less than Chelsea Utd, Spurs and Man City. We only have the 5th largest stadium in the prem. We are a team that only has the rite to fight for 4th or 5th spot and yet we’ve exceeded that regularly. Excluding our roll of honour, we are closer in stature to Spurs and Man City than we are to Chelsea and Utd, so really we punch above our weight.

He may have done wonders with Valencia by winning the league a few times but the Premiership is much tougher to win thus a different kettle of fish altogether.You can give Rafa five more years combined with £100 million and he’ll still be unable to win us the league because he hasn’t got what it takes instead if full of excuses.Just like with Houllier’s Liverpool we depend on a few players without whom we struggle to defeat the likes of Leeds Utd.Many fans are losing patience with this obese Spaniard whose tactics are often as amusing as his post-match “Groundhog” Day” comments delievered in terrible English.

I wish the Americans and Rafa would both get out because all three are as bad as eachother,Rick Parry must be laughing wherever he is!!