Rafa

As soon as he won the Champions League with Houllier's team, he set about changing it - for the worse!
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We won that champions league mainly down to Benitez's superb tactics in Europe and fantastic individual displays in different games from players like Gerrard, Dudek, Carragher, Garcia etc.

Time has moved on. Why keep raking it up?
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Because it’s a discussion forum?
There are plenty of prophecies elsewhere, if you want
to go Back to the Future. Me, I like to skip time-zones, like Doctor Who.

Gazing into a crystal ball in one thread, and examining the dusty records of 2009, in another

it all went wrong when rafa decided to give up Alonso to go after Gareth Barry.

Fergie has been managing in a financial situation which considering his success should annoy him
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Interesting comparison, because Fergie’s record over his first 6 years was absolutely dire, compared to Rafa’a 6 years.

Inherited a team that had finished 4th the previous 2 seasons, and finished in the bottom-half of the league 3 times. Having spent more than any other club, and twice as much as Dalglish at Liverpool.

Which just goes to show that knee-jerk reactions are not always correct, (though United had to draft in extra police for home games to deal with the anti-Fergie demos).

I miss Rafa

comment by Kemlyn Road (U10652)

posted 16 minutes ago

Fergie has been managing in a financial situation which considering his success should annoy him
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Interesting comparison, because Fergie’s record over his first 6 years was absolutely dire, compared to Rafa’a 6 years.

Inherited a team that had finished 4th the previous 2 seasons, and finished in the bottom-half of the league 3 times. Having spent more than any other club, and twice as much as Dalglish at Liverpool.

Which just goes to show that knee-jerk reactions are not always correct, (though United had to draft in extra police for home games to deal with the anti-Fergie demos).


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I am not criticizing anyone supporting rafa, my point is rafa caused his problem. If he maintained the peace and continued to do his best regardless of condition (like fergie) He would still be manager even now with new ownership.

Management is knowing what battles you can win. Rafa was never going to win that battle and for that what does he have to show for it? A career ruined. The club he was apparently fighting for? New ownership and a musical chair of managers and ever increasing stench of mediocrity. If Fergie did what rafa did, we would be in the same situation.

Patience in management comes from not only the management but from the supporters. I advocate every manager, no matter the start, no matter the financial situation, even to causing relegation should get 2 yrs assured. It should be written in the FA bylaws. No manager can ever accomplish what he needs to in the 1 month many expect them to and they are destined for failure if they cannot wait.

I am talking about hodgson, daglish and at the rate rodgers is going, him too; They never got the chance to see what you bought. I know hodgson was not a favourite for you all but you just stated fergies record in his first 6 yrs was dire. In that case he was right on track!

Move on.
I'd be sticking with Rodgers as long as he doesn't get us relegated.

I understood your point, but Fergie doesn't have a board who thought they could buy players above his head, and against his wishes.

Fegie had built success over years before the Glazers came along, so all they had to do was let him continue, and count the cash. They were at least sensible enough to do that, but it wasn't esactly rocket-science.

United's revenues are also well-developed enough to sustain the licensed robbery that is a leveraged buy-out, so it doesn't put Fergie under any pressure. They can give him the money he needs, and there's plenty enough left over for the fans to buy the club on their behalf.

The problem you might have is when Fergie retires. Only then, when they have footballling decisions to make, and to be judged by, will you find out to what extent they are muppets.

Parry bought Robbie Keane, and Purslow bought Joe Cole (after Rafa had left, but the argument about it took place when Rafa was still there). I'm pretty sure Fergie would resign, in those circumstances, and maybe Rafa should have done that, but he held on because he and his family genuinely love living on Merseyside, and if he could have any job he wanted right now, I'm pretty sure he'd choose LFC again.

Paitence does indeed come from fans, because it puts the board under pressure, but the only manager Liverpool fans lost patience with (in sufficient numbers) was Hodgson. But when Hodgson was sacked, Liverpool were 4 points from the relegation zone, after half a season, and half the players wanted to leave (including players like Reina and Agger, who've otherwise been pretty loyal).

Regardless of whether Hodgson was a victim of the mess the club was in (which he certainly was), It would have been risky NOT to sack him.

Fergie had a board who backed him against the wishes of the fans (or at the very least, a sizeable and very vocal minority). Benitez had a board who undermined him against the wishes of the fans (the demos at Anfield were in Rafa's favour), so the exact opposite.

If that had happened to Fergie in his fiirst 6 years, before he had league titles to strengthen his position, he would simply not have stuck around. Nothing to do with "choosing your battles", he'd have told them to shove it. The two situations are not comparable, in that sense.

A Rafa article....

Seriously ??

Kemlyn