So, old Whiskey Nose Ferguson has now confirmed he is in fact the one ‘cracking up’ after his latest rant against Rafa Benitez.
‘œHe’s well ahead of us in spending in the last five years” he claims.
Well, here’s the facts for you, Mr. Ferguson, courtesy of The Times newspaper so you can’t argue the figures are biased.
£221.95m: Manchester United’s gross spend on transfers (£147.90 million net) since June 2004, when Rafael BenÃtez was appointed Liverpool manager, up to and including January 2009 transfer window.
£212.60m: Liverpool’s spending (£111.39 million net) during same period.
It’s also worth noting Carlos Tevez’ protracted £32m fee isn’t included there and Djibril Cisse (£14m) was actually signed by Gerard Houllier before Benitez arrived.
As for Fergie’s rant about signing young players and claiming Rafa has a “different philosophy”, let’s look at the facts again.
Rafa Benitez has handed first-team debuts to Jay Spearing, Martin Kelly, Stephen Darby and David N’gog this season, as well developing Emiliano Insua, Lucas Leiva and Nabil El Zhar into first team regulars.
Maybe when Mr. Ferguson talks about developing young players maybe he means spending £12m on Ronaldo, £27m on Rooney, £15m on Tosic, £18m on Anderson and £14m on Nani?
Here’s another number for you Fergie: 76 – the number of minutes on the clock when your supporters emptied your stadium last week. You can check it yourself if you want.
Further reading: Paul Tomkins’ Blog: Ferguson is wrong
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