[Neil G]

Originally Posted by real red First of all, if we say he's going in the summer then it assumes the stories of the past few months are true, that the owners have been discussing it since Athens, that he knew he was going to be sacked at the end of the season when he did that press conference in November, that the owners had already approached Klinsmann to take over. In which case I really doubt he'll be here next season. Was Klinsmann offered the job? If so, and he turned it down, who will they offer it to next? Unless they are prepared to wait until the end of the season to approach anyone else, chances are they've already got their second choice signed up. They can't sign anyone up now who's already in a job without it becoming massive news. They can't make an official approach, although they can sound someone out through agents and so on. So if their next choice is still in a job, maybe then there'll be a slight chance of results saving Rafa. That slight chance comes if he's carried through the streets of Liverpool after closing the gap at the top to 4 points, winning the FA Cup and the CL. They might decide not to actually approach their next choice officially after all under those circumstances, because they'd find it hard to justify letting him go. That wouldn't be the case if our next boss has already signed for the summer. If Klinsmann had said yes to the alleged offer, we'd not be able to get out of the deal quite so easily, regardless of Rafa's results. And the owners would just say that they'd already agreed with Klinsmann that he would join, that the deal had been struck in November, and that it was because of Rafa's poor attitude towards his bosses. So all in all, no. Results can't save Rafa. They want him out regardless of results. Back in November it was too early to say for sure how the rest of the season would go. Under the cloud we're in now he's just lost six points in three games. We have a game in hand. We're twelve points from the top. From the point of view of having already made offers to replace him that's not the sign of a decision made on footballing reasons, because those six points and the game in hand could have had us three points off the top. They want him gone, and unless they go, he'll be gone.

That's an interesting take on it, but I don't think you can distinguish between the two scenarios of the new manager currently being in a job and not being in one (if they have one lined up of course). If the "Rafa being carried through the streets" scenario comes to pass then I still think it'll be impossible for G&H to sack him even if they've already promised the job to someone else. They might have to pay the jilted manager compensation if they've signed any kind of agreement with him, but that would be offset by the fact that they wouldn't have to pay compensation to Rafa for sacking him.