I don't think Benitez was a success in English football overall.
Liverpool were so much closer to the top in those days, they could have won the league with a different manager.
Neither Wilshere nor Delph should be anywhere near the squad, and I'm not completely sold on Milner either, although he has a better case.
Dier, Alli, Drinkwater, Noble, Barkley - they all have good cases.
Hold on, whose mentality and desire? You were criticising my defeatism remember, not the players'. If you think I'm so powerful that me really really wanting us to win from the comfort of my bedroom is enough to turn the game around, I'm happy to send my powerful psychic rays in the direction of Villa Park.
Otherwise, if your criticising the players' mentality, then I don't know why you took issue with my statement that the game is lost. It sounds like you agree.
I really don't think we have.
The reality is we got good prices for Young and Downing - what's that, five years ago? We made a decent financial deal for Milner, and spoiled it by including Ireland. Since then, we sold Delph for peanuts, Benteke for his release clause, and nobody else for any significant sum of money whatsoever.
And that is why I have a grim admiration for Pulisball. No other manager could get a clean sheet out of a game when the opposition had 34 shots on goal. Yes, it's desperate to watch, but crikey it's effective.