I don't like to get into the blame game, but hardly any of this is Benitez's fault. Genuinely. Yes, I am sure the fact that we have a large number of dreadful players is not lost on most people. But to then extend that to 'Rafa fecking bought them' is so tiresome as to be beyond belief. He wanted a Dani Alves, before everybody knew how great he was. Parry told him to feck off. We got Alvaro Arbeloa. He wanted Samuel Eto'o during the prime of his career (who also wanted to come). We got Dirk Kuyt. He wanted Giorgio Chiellini, he wanted David Silva, he wanted...(etc etc). Parry, Moores, G+H, any combination of the above fecked it up, we got either bargain basement dross, journeymen, or mediocrities instead; the list goes on and on. The net spend argument is futile as well considering the state of the squad he inherited and the way in which his transfer dealing has had to work given the fecking plethora of intolerable contraints he has had to work under. The whole 'Rafa bought them, though' argument also breaks down at the very obvious fact that improvement under him has had to be, out of necessity, incremental. He buys/inherits a shitty player, because he has to. They are sold, to be replaced by a slightly better one. He in turn is replaced by a better one. And so on. He inherits a Steve Finnan (who wasn't awful I grant you that, but by way of example). Replaced with the OK-ish Arbeloa. Replaced with the better Johnson. See also Garcia, Benayoun, etc. He doesn't have the Chelsea-esque luxury of deciding that someone in a certain position is shite, then going out and spunking 22m off the cuff on the best replacement in the market. Sorry, boys and girls.
I'm not super fanning like to many of the 5,000+ posts, sarcastic to the point of deserving death, self-proclaimed ultra-loyal (but rather lacking in the cognitive abilities area) supporters on here. I just think that if you break this down analytically and detach yourself from the anger associated with how awful we actually are at the moment, this is the inescapable conclusion.