Liverpool FC's squad were never close in terms of depth when compared to Man Utd or Chelsea or to a certain extent, Arsenal. And among these, only Arsenal spent less than us in building a team. When Rafa came, his largest spending was before G&H's era and nobody could argue how well Liverpool FC were progressing, however, did Man Utd or Chelsea stop spending then? No, they were and still investing even till today.
Man Utd were crowned as the Premier League champions before they splurged 30 million pounds on Berbatov, so should we not spend more than 10k after getting a respectable 2nd place? Chelsea were champions last season, but they did not stop their spending, they bought Torres and Luiz, that's more than 70 million pounds spent without considering who they have bought before the start of the season.
Liverpool did buy Aquilani after selling Alonso and he failed in his first season due to injuries, Rafa's biggest mistake so far, but let's just see, Drogba took a while to start perform didn't he? Veron didn't come cheap as well. What about Shevchenko? Has Anderson live up to his value so far? Even the great
Arsene Wenger failed at Francis Jeffers so Rafa must buy good all the time?
In terms of free transfer, ok, Rafa sucked at getting players for free, but I don't see Chamakh performing at Arsenal yet and he was highly rated. I have never heard of Voronin or Aurelio prior to their arrival at the club. So I would overlook such transfers.
I do not want Rafa back for now, but to call him a failure at Liverpool? I would defend him for the man deserves better recognition than that.
=) Jeffers was just an average player...He wasnt meant to be a top class clinical goal scorer i guess, though he starts a number of games for Arsenal during his 2001 to 2004 period..