Without opening up a complete can of worms:
Benitez was parachuted in the middle of the summer and was given 1.5 mill to spend. It’s also now clear from our financial situation that we were never going to be able to keep James on those wages even if we’d wanted to. He also had to make do with utter clowns at the back like Keane Holgate Coleman and Kenny. Yes the results were terrible and the fracture with the fanbase didn’t help either, but I always had some understanding that the conditions he was working under were some of the worst in the premier league (a major problem being our deluded fanbase still think we should be about 6th if we just play the fight formation and have a go a bit more, amazing how 6 managers now haven’t cracked that)
Koeman on the other hand was given time to plan, a squad containing Lukaku Barkley Mirallas Stones and then a blank cheque from Moshiri to buy whoever he wanted. Somehow by the end of his tenure he’s not only sold Lukaku Stones Barkley but had lumbered us with Keane Schneiderlin Martina Klaasen Siggurdson Sandro Vlasic Rooney Bolasie all on big wages.
The team he handed over to Allardyce was one of the worst in the league with one of the worst defences and he saddled us with debt that is still killing the club to this day.
I know people dislike Benitez more but honestly when you put emotion aside the damage the two did just aren’t comparable. Koeman is the architect of the majority of the problems we find ourselves in now. It would be one thing wasting the opportunity we had under him (which he did) the opportunity loss from that alone (not getting into europe, player resale values etc.) is bad enough but he actually went even worse and nosedived us into financial oblivion.
Sold all the Crown Jewels, took all our money, left us with one of the worst squads in the league all on massive wages over long contracts we couldn’t get out of. He absolutely screwed he.
