The Benitez legacy still present……!

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Having managed a Club for 6 years, a Manager is bound to leave a legacy. Rafa Benitez was much revered in his time at Liverpool, and many were sad at his departure. For those of you that love statistics or maybe are curious of the recent past, here are some facts and figures of the Benitez era.
The below is a list of players brought in by Rafa during this reign:
1. Josemi – Cost: £2m (Malaga, July 2004)
2. Xabi Alonso – Cost: £10.5m (Real Sociedad, August 2004)
3. Antonio Nunez – Cost: £1.5m part of Michael Owen deal (Real Madrid, August 2004)
4. Luis Garcia – Cost: £6m (Barcelona, August 2004)
5. Fernando Morientes – Cost: £6.3m (Real Madrid, January 2005)
6. Scott Carson – Cost: £1m (Leeds United, January 2005)
7. Mauricio Pellegrino – Cost: Free (Valencia, January 2005)
8. Peter Crouch – Cost: £7m (Southampton, June 2005)
9. Pepe Reina – Cost: £6m (Villarreal, June 2005)
10. Mohamed Sissoko – Cost: £5.6m (Auxerre, June 2005)
11. Antonio Barragan – Cost: Free (Sevilla, July 2005)
12. Bolo Zenden – Cost: Free (Middlesbrough, July 2005)
13. Godwin Antwi – Cost: Free (Real Zaragoza, August 2005)
14. Besian Idrizaj – Cost: Free (LASK Linz, August 2005)
15. Jack Hobbs – Cost: £750,000 (Lincoln City, August 2005)
16. Miki Roque – Cost: Free (Lleida, August 2005)
17. Paul Anderson – Cost: Swap deal with John Welsh (Hull City, November 2005)
18. Robbie Fowler – Cost: Free (Manchester City, January 2006)
19. Jan Kromkamp – Cost: Swap deal with Josemi (Villarreal, January 2006)
20. Ryan Crowther – Cost: Free (Stockport County, January 2006)
21. Daniel Agger – Cost: £5.8m (Brondby, January 2006)
22. David Martin – Cost: £250,000 (MK Dons, January 2006)
23. Craig Bellamy – Cost: £6m (Blackburn, June 2006)
24. Mark Gonzalez – Cost: £1.5m (Albacete, July 2006)
25. Gabriel Paletta – Cost: £2m (Banfield, July 2006)
26. Fabio Aurelio – Cost: Free (Valencia, July 2006)
27. Martin Hansen – Cost: Free (Brondby, August 2006)
28. Dirk Kuyt – Cost: £9m (Feyenoord, August 2006)
29. Nabil El Zhar – Cost: Free (Saint-Etienne, October 2006)
30. Astrit Ajdarevic – Cost: Free (Falkensberg, December 2006)
31. Alvaro Arbeloa – Cost: £3m (Deportivo La Coruna, January 2007)
32. Alex Cooper – Cost: £100,000 (Ross County, January 2007)
33. Jordy Brouwer – Cost: Undisclosed (Ajax, January 2007)
34. Francisco Duran – Cost: Undisclosed (Malaga, January 2007)
35. Ronald Huth – Cost: Undisclosed (Tacuary, January 2007)
36. Daniele Padelli – Cost: Loan (Sampdoria, January 2007)
37. Javier Mascherano – Cost: £18m (Unattached, February 2007)
38. Jermaine Pennant – Cost: £6.7m (Birmingham, June 2007)
39. Yossi Benayoun – Cost: £5m (West Ham, June 2007)
40. Lucas – Cost: £6m (Gremio, June 2007)
41. Andras Simon – Cost: Undisclosed (MTK Hungeria, June 2007)
42. Dean Bouzanis – Cost: Undisclosed (New South Wales, June 2007)
43. Krisztian Nemeth – Cost: Undisclosed (MTK Hungeria, June 2007)
44. Ryan Babel – Cost: £11.5m (Ajax, July 2007)
45. Daniel Pacheco – Cost: Undisclosed (Barcelona, June 2007)
46. Fernando Torres – Cost: £20m (Atletico Madrid, July 2007)
47. Andriy Voronin – Cost: Free (Bayer Leverkusen, July 2007)
48. Sebastian Leto – Cost: £1.85m (Lanus, August 2007)
49. Gary Stevens – Cost: Free (Ross County, August 2007)
50. Mikel San Jose Dominguez – Cost: Undisclosed (Athletic Bilbao, August 2007)
51. Daniel Sanchez Ayala – Cost: Free (Sevilla Atletico, August 2007)
52. Gerardo Bruna – Cost: Free (Real Madrid, August 2007)
53. David Amoo – Cost: Free (Millwall, August 2007)
54. Damien Plessis – Cost: Free (Lyon, August 2007)
55. Emiliano Insua – Cost: Swap deal with Palletta (Boca Juniors, August 2007)
56. Charles Itandje – Cost: Free (RC Lens, August 2007)
57. Lauri Dalla Valle – Cost: Free (JIPPO, November 2007)
58. Martin Skrtel – Cost: £6m (Zenit St Petersburg January, 2008)
59. Andrea Dossena – Cost: £7m (Udiense, June 2008)
60. Vincent Weijl – Cost: Free (AZ Alkmaar, June 2008)
61. Vitor Coutinho Flora – Cost: Free (June, 2008)
62. Robbie Keane – Cost: £19m (Tottenham, July 2008)
63. Diego Cavalieri – Cost: £3m (Palmeiras, July 2008)
64. Nikola Saric – Cost: £500,000 (Herfolge, July 2008)
65. Emmanuel Mendy – Cost: Free (Murcia, July 2008)
66. David Ngog – Cost: £1.5m (Paris St Germain, July 2008)
67. Philipp Degen – Cost: Free (Borussia Dortmund, July 2008)
68. Peter Gulacsi – Cost: Free (MTK Hungaria, August 2008)
69. Zsolt Poloskei – Cost: Loan (MTK Hungaria, August 2008)
70. Albert Riera – Cost: £8m (Espanyol, August 2008)
71. Christopher Buchtmann – Cost: Free (Borussia Dortmund, August 2008)
72. Victor Palsson – Cost: £250,000 (Aarhus, January 2009)
73. Glen Johnson – Cost: £18m (Portsmouth, June 2009)
74. Chris Mavinga – Cost: Undisclosed (Paris St Germain, July 2009)
75. Sotirios Kyrgiakos – Cost: £2m (AEK Athens, August 2009)
76. Alberto Aquilani – Cost: £20m (Roma, August 2009)
77. Maxi Rodriguez – Cost: Free (Atletico Madrid, January 2010)

The players listed in Bold are currently Liverpool players. Bold Italics indicates they are still Reds but out on loan.

Here are some curiosities:
– Nine players are still playing for the Reds, one (Mendy) still with the reserves.
– Four are on loan.
– Eight have been sold since Kenny Dalglish took over in January 2011.
– The second official language at the Club remains Spanish with Reina, Enrique, Suarez, Maxi, Suso and latest (soon to be announced arrival) Coates all spanish speakers, with Lucas Leiva also comfortable with the language.
– Fourteen players from the first team are eligible to play for England; that stat taking a definite boost since Kenny took charge.

One season on from his departure, the legacy left behind by Rafa remains. Some will say he spent wisely, others say he spent too much. Statistic will say that the Reds made a loss exceeding Stg 100 million during his 5 year reign as Manager with players coming and being shipped back out. Figures also suggest that Arsenal made a profit in the same period, but did not land a single ounce of silverware!

Hope that was not too boring!

24 Comments

  1. Man.. did you see the difference between aquilani & Maxi?? and we still cant get anything out of him..

    1. Yes that’s true. Today I got bored seeing Man City and Utd battering North London’s elite to bits. So you think still having 14 players of which 7 being firmly in Kenny’s plans is not a legacy? Are we saying that Reina, Lucas, Agger, Skrtel, Maxi, Johnson and Kuyt are not part of his legacy? Anyway, my intention was to send in some curiosities, so let’t no make a big deal out of it. Relax! :-)

        1. As far as I am aware, Benitez’s dealings (in and out) landed a loss of around Stg 120 mil to the Club over the his 6 year tenure. With your same reasoning why are you claiming Dalglish spent Stg 120 million? Coz as far as I know the total spend was Stg 55 mil in January and around Stg 50 mil this summer. Take off (with you same reasoning) money from the sale of Torres, Babel and the others the net spend is more or less Stg 50 million so far!
          Your perspective is incorrect for a simple reason: you thought I was attacking Benitez but in fact I was just making a consideration and sharing information with others!

    1. Under a sell to buy policy, you would expect a large portion of players to be brought in over his tenure, it’s not like all of them where bought with the intention of keeping long term, some where stepping stones to sell on for a profit to buy players in the higher value bracket that he always wanted in the first place

      Life must be difficult for you eh?

      Why it is Rafa biggest enemy is the one who lacks the intelligence to look at the bigger picture and use twisted logic to make a point.

  4. Plus maxi, Lucas , kuyt and Johnson were shit under benitez cos he stifles the life out of any one with any flare

  7. One point that is never raised is the term free, no player is ever brought in on a free there is usually a huge signing on fee split agent and player and excessive wages, this I would argue is the legacy of Benitez, a lot of players signed on huge contracts and excessive wages which would disguise the true net spend.
    I would argue that the Benitez legacy was lack of desire to win the league, Europe was his priority at all times. Let it be noted by all present and future LFC mangers the following quote “this is our bread and butter, europe has been good but this is our bread and butter” (not verbatium but you know what I mean) shankly.

    1. Very true. Dean Bouzanis on £10k a week barely playing reserves, then getting paid out to leave the club because he was so bad!

    2. Oh yeah because Rafa really wanted free transfers over the villa’s silva’s and the Agüero’s of this world.

      And Rafa was responsible for handing out the contracts ? NOT!

      Also Europe it where the money was idiot, that why he concentrated on it, we never had a squad strong enough to compete in all competitions thanks to being financialy starved.

  8. what are you saying ste…Johnson was simply at his best when Rafa was in charge…he scored 5 goals before he was injures…kuyt was also good…also, transfers are trial and error…we got the champions league and FA cup for gods sack !! also torres was amazing for us in his first seasons…WE got the best out of him …Alberto was never given a chance, Alonso and Mascherano where also great…STOP COMPLAINING !!

  9. King Kenny made just 7 new signings, the result are obvious and Rafa made an unbelievable number of signings only 8 are still active in the team. what a wasted money!!

    1. hey mate… no good comparing the king’s transfers with Rafa’s… especially when the transfer budget was never so huge… !! I’m proud of hw KK has managed to restore normalcy in such short time, but v’ll never know hw Rafa wud hav fared had he had such luxury… my point is altho Rafa’s time witnessed a whole lot of mistakes, it was more to do with the ppl around him than himself… YNWA !

  11. A true red fan will never blame benitez. those who do noe nothing abt the liverpool way N R JUS CUNTS. this guy loved the club n did well under those american scum owners. OTHA mngrs wld hav us relegated, ROYHODGSON ERA…. Besides the resale value of the players he bought in, wld be positive on de bal sheet. people shld stop cryin abt wages, its not money frm ur pocket dats goin. atleast he didnt waste cash lik de mancs n chelskis. n besides dat he won us de champs league, fa n almost won us de epl title.

  12. Yes Rafa loved that club so much! So many muppets choose to look only at rafa’s transfers in whatever way suits them to match their critical argument. Half of those players signed by Rafa were young ones and every manager has signed young players only to see them not work out, it’s a fact of managing clubs, where are all the young players coming thru chelsea city etc that are lighting up the prem? Practically all bought! Admittedly utd have got a few thru again but there was a lean spell after the beckham and nevilles so who the hell played in the underage teams thru this period??? And let’s not get started on Mr Wenger, youth and profit have left him with no trophies and an disgraceful 8-2 defeat at old trafford, they have now put themselves in the position of having to endure shit from ALL supportersand have no right to reply!!! Rafa’s transfer dealings were probably no worse to most managers so unless anyone has definitive comparisons to ALL mr fergusons succeses and failures and mr Wenger and any other manager you choose to discuss, the rafa argument is pointless.

    1. baffled how you critisise wenger. The team that were beaten 8 2 were a team missing about 8 first team players through injury and sudden sale, not a true reflection but man u playing their youth team. Wengers philosophy should be applauded,raising young players within your financial means for stability of yur club while playing attractive football. Not everybody has billionaire owners that go crazy splashing the cash, rediculous to suggest they should be competing

  13. Christian – I’M NOT COMPLAINING – I’m stating a fact that he stifles flair players – he built a powerful team that was hard to beat and we all had some great times – and he is a genuinely nice person – but the way he sets his teams up doesn’t encourage flair as we have seen with the turn around of certain players and the difference from one club to another -that said, if we had won the league I wouldn’t have cared about playing style – 2nd half of the season when we finished runners up was the only time he let them go out and play and they were great to watch then ! Just a shame it didn’t work out

    1. Have you bothered to check the amount of goals liverpool scored each season, it was also at the top, flair? alonso and torres, and johnson didn’t have flair? don’t make me laugh. It is true he likes tight, hard working teams, but what is wrong with that. In the season they enarly won it, he didn’t say ‘ o just go and do what you like’ to the players he did what he did every season…so that is some what dismissive of his style in itself, if you look at the games and goals in his time, it could be argued it was more exiting than barcas team, albeit without the quality

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