How do this pair sleep at night?

Take a look around at the teams forking out big money in this transfer window, and then take a look at whats going on at Anfield. Then ask yourselves, why is this happening?

In case you didn’t know, Tom Hicks and George Gillett bought Liverpool with loans and debts. The financial slump meant that the likes of RBS and Wachovia wanted some of the loans paid back, or perhaps even worse for the club, they wanted the interest on the loans paid back.

So as Stoke City’s boss Tony Pulis proudly states he wants to bring in four more players before the transfer window shuts, ask yourself how a club such as the Potters is managing to fork out for players, despite not needing to sell to balance the books? The Britannia stadium outfit has spent £29.5m in the past year on players. It has sold players to the value of just £3.5m.

Sunderland, who it seems has an owner willing to put his money where his mouth is, in the shape of Ellis Short, have spent almost £50m on players in the last year. Yes you read that correctly, £50m to bring in the likes of Lorik Cana, Frazier Campbell, Darren Bent, Michael Turner, Lee Cattermole, Anton Ferdinand, Steed Malbranque and George McCartney. In the same period of time £12.5m was recouped from sales.

I am not talking about us keeping up with the likes of Man City or Chelsea, but surely we should be ahead in the spending stakes of relegation threatened clubs. Take a close look. Hull City’s expenditure versus income from transfers was greater than ours in the past year, Hull City!

I really do not know how the owners think they can get away with the way they are running the club. It’s painfully obvious to all concerned that they are trying to run the club on a shoestring budget whilst picking up money here and there for themselves before probably trying to sell the club. Remember, they bought the club with loans! That is very important to realise. The loans they took out to buy the club need to be paid back and the Americans will clearly use any money they make to pay back the loans, this is a disastrous way to run a club.

Some will tell you that Rafa has had enough cash to invest, well those fans are way off the mark. Take a close look at the money Benitez has spent and put it up against money retrieved from sales over the past year or two and its clear that he hasn’t had a chance to build the squad in the manner the likes of Stoke and Sunderland have managed. If you look at the transfer spending made by our club against players sold in the past three seasons there isn’t a huge difference between the two and you will be hard pushed to see a club who has been quite so frugal as we have.

I have the utmost respect for our boss but pretty soon he will be so hamstrung by the situation imposed on him by the club’s money men that he will either be sacked or he will walk. Sure we have a good squad but in all honesty when you compare our entire squad against the other top four regulars we come up short. In terms of starting elevens we are pretty well matched but we lack the kind of strength in depth our competitors have and it can ruin our chances of winning the big trophies.

Should we end up without silverware again this season the blame will fall firmly on the two men at the top.


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