I'm still with Rafa, are you?

[Hermes]

If managers were sacked for being stubborn, Ferguson would have been on the dole for the last 10 years at least.

 

There's nothing wrong with being stubborn about things that are right. Rafa was stubborn about things that were wrong and most people could see they were wrong for a long time before he realised it. That's the difference.

[Paul]

I'm with Rafa. I reserve the right to review this statement periodically and/or when circumstances dictate. I also reserve the right to praise him/have a go at him when circumstances warrant it.

 

Given where we are in the season and the state of the club, surely we should all be behind him.

 

Yep.

[Marko121]

i'm with rafa till the end of the season, if we don't win the league, then he has to go, i am getting fed up with the mancs winning the league and getting to champions league finals. would look at rijkaard, mourinho, hiddink, maybe even guardiola!!

 

Do you really think any of them will work with the yanks!!!!

[Kevin D]

Just to be clear, there have been 129 votes and 120 people have voted in favour of the manager. Surely now the laughable jibe that this is an " anti-Rafa forum" has been put to rest?

[Captain]

Surely now the laughable jibe that this is an " anti-Rafa forum" has been put to rest?

I guess that depends on how you define anti-Rafa forum.

[PaulMcC]

Mourinho is apparently the highest paid person in Italian football.

 

£9.6m a year.

 

Not bad for someone who Inter had 2nd choice to Rafa.

[Carradona]

I don't want him sacked right now, but I have lost all faith in him.

[Red Phoenix]

Have been as confused as ever by him recently, but still think he can do something with the team we have.

[Lucky Pierre]

Mourinho is apparently the highest paid person in Italian football.

 

£9.6m a year.

 

Not bad for someone who Inter had 2nd choice to Rafa.

So did Liverpool....

[PaulMcC]

I haven't read that anywhere.

[Kevin D]

I guess that depends on how you define anti-Rafa forum.

 

I would imagine that would be a forum in which the majority are opposed to the manager. This poll has shown overwhelming support for him and, as far as I'm concerned, proved that particular arguement to be thoroughly incorrect.

 

How else would you define it?

[Dirk]

I would imagine that would be a forum in which the majority are opposed to the manager. This poll has shown overwhelming support for him and, as far as I'm concerned, proved that particular arguement to be thoroughly incorrect.

How else would you define it?

 

It depends on how people have answered the question, though. Furthermore, everybody who regularly contributes to the forum would have to answer. If you were to do this properly, you might want to look at the amount each person contributed to the forum in terms of average posts and then develop an adjusted statistic which was proportional to their contribution. A person who contributes 10 posts per day on average and a person who posts 0.5 per day are given equal weighting using this crude method and that's statistically unsound. Even then, that method would be flawed because my daily posting used to be far, far higher but I post far less now compared to what I used to, yet my average is still quite high - just ask Shanklys Ghost.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I gave him the benefit of the doubt pending on summer purchases but they were not what we needed and the league has gone already, I cant see any reason to back him.

 

Then you show a huge amount of naivety and a wilful lack of perspective. Ta for the neg, though. Negged because you've got a problem with Rafa. Have one yourself.

[Captain]

I would imagine that would be a forum in which the majority are opposed to the manager.

I don't have a straight definition. Which is why I try not to use the term. I also think Dirk's comments are spot on.

[hold51]

i'm with rafa till the end of the season, if we don't win the league, then he has to go, i am getting fed up with the mancs winning the league and getting to champions league finals. would look at rijkaard, mourinho, hiddink, maybe even guardiola!!

 

 

good job these forums were not around in shanks day then, yet another shortsighted gloryfan!

 

Dont know quality managers either, Hiddink never happen , he is bankrolled by the chavs tsar, to manage Russia, rijhard not good enough, jose will only work with money we havnt got any, guardiola yeah he will dump the club he loves for us! Had you said Lippi maybe but Rafa is still the best we can get pal!

 

jeez summer buys get real Notts County have more money than us!

[Dirk]

I don't have a straight definition. Which is why I try not to use the term. I also think Dirk's comments are spot on.

 

Even if you were to make adjustments, getting to the crux of a person's deeply held opinion is a difficult process. Typically, any measure of an attitude would include items which assessed behavioural, affective and cognitive aspects of a person's attitude. The fact that the poll isn't anonymous poses problems too - anonymous polls are far more likely to reflect a person's actual attitude than open ones. All the above poll tells us is that most people are against sacking the manager at the moment; it doesn't give any indication as to the level of support he has - which is probably better reflected as a continuous variable rather than a dichotomous yes/no variable - and it doesn't assess the type of support each poster has for the manager - e.g. whether they support him in certain issue and not others. Not wanting the manager sacked doesn't necessarily equate to steadfast support.

Edited September 7, 2009 by Dirk

[King Emlyn]

Yes, i am, perhaps more so now than ever, for various reasons.

[Dicko]

i'm with rafa till the end of the season, if we don't win the league, then he has to go, i am getting fed up with the mancs winning the league and getting to champions league finals. would look at rijkaard, mourinho, hiddink, maybe even guardiola!!

 

Not one of those names you've mentioned will come. Do you have any other suggestions?

[stringvest]

The only element that can be guaranteed 'steadfast' or 'unequivocal' support is the club itself. Some people cannot or are not willing to distinguish between Rafa and The Club. Some will apply distance between the two entities in order to support their perspective.

 

In my mind, you can only completely align support for the club and the manager (or any player) if:

 

1. You believe the manager or player's motives are exclusively associated with the good of the club. (I don't have full confidence in that belief).

 

2. You believe the manager to be making the correct decisions enough of the time to give you full confidence in his ability. (I don't have full confidence in this belief either).

 

So, unequivocal and unquestioning support from me? No. However, I do support his continuing tenure at the club for the obvious pragmatic reasons, which are:

 

1. he's a good manager and we might not replace him with a better one.

2. we cannot afford the payoff

3. it will inevitably bring further upheaval to the team

4. it will validate some of the pronouncements coming from the owners, who I really dislike.

 

I want, like everyone else on here, what is best for the club. The problem is, there will never be a consensus on what that is, except in extreme circumstances. So support for Benitez might be absolute for some, tactical for others. We ALL* want him to do well while he is in the job though.

 

*except ATK

[Dirk]

When I wrote 'steadfast' I actually thought "Stringvest will pull me up on that." I didn't once imply that Rafa is deserved of steadfast support, I used that word solely because its meaning is roughly opposite to being totally unsupportive; the level of support an individual has or doesn't have lies somewhere between wanting him gone immediately and wanting him here forever. Hence my point about a continuous rather than dichotomous variable.

[Plev]

I gave him the benefit of the doubt pending on summer purchases but they were not what we needed and the league has gone already, I cant see any reason to back him.

 

League gone already? Surrender Monkey.

[stringvest]

When I wrote 'steadfast' I actually thought "Stringvest will pull me up on that." I didn't once imply that Rafa is deserved of steadfast support, I used that word solely because its meaning is roughly opposite to being totally unsupportive; the level of support an individual has or doesn't have lies somewhere between wanting him gone immediately and wanting him here forever. Hence my point about a continuous rather than dichotomous variable.

 

:) Indeed. And I think only a tiny minority of individuals sit at the absolutes in this.

 

I wasn't pulling you up, Dave - you're one of the sensible people on here, and I respect all of your posts. My post was about the number of variables - I kept it down to an minimum, though I was trying to express the fact that there are significant external contributors to the individual's decision. Some of those factors may not be known or understood by all voters. So, in addition to your statistical, behavioural, affective and cognitive points, the simple fact that people will have varying levels of background knowledge or context with which to inform the decision makes it less than scientific.

[Dirk]

:) Indeed. And I think only a tiny minority of individuals sit at the absolutes in this.

 

I wasn't pulling you up, Dave - you're one of the sensible people on here, and I respect all of your posts. My post was about the number of variables - I kept it down to an minimum, though I was trying to express the fact that there are significant external contributors to the individual's decision. Some of those factors may not be known or understood by all voters. So, in addition to your statistical, behavioural, affective and cognitive points, the simple fact that people will have varying levels of background knowledge or context with which to inform the decision makes it less than scientific.

 

Agreed - the concept of psychometrics is flawed, in my opinion.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

League gone already? Surrender Monkey.

 

Fair enough, and believe me I want more than anything to be proven wrong, but it's going to be a fucking tough season one way or another.

[Brownie]

Yes. I'll be with him until May when i'll look at the season and then decide what I think would be best for us.