Rafa Exclusive in The Times

[Roy Hobbs]

Of course everything is more difficult because of all the stupid-money being thrown around, nobody can question that. But complaining about it isn't going to change anything. It will only make the players and everyone else belive that Lfc is second tier and we can't compete since we have no money.

 

I would have liked Rafa and everyone else at the club to have an attitude saying something like: "Sure, others have more money, but we are Liverpool football club, we have more class and richer history than anyone else, so we are going to win anyway". Like that Carra-interview a few years back. If you belive it, it's more likely to happen.

 

I think Rafa believes it otherwise he would fuck off to somewhere where it is. He is just trying to temper expectations IMO and he is right to do so. He gives us hope that we can win but if you expect to win, well we will soon be Newcastle if every supporter took that attitude.

 

Make no mistake though, Rafa is planning on winning. I'm not sure even his biggest detractors would dispute that.

[Rafa's Peggy's]

 

Hiddink

Mourinho

King Kenny

Jesualdo Ferreira

Pako Aysteran

 

Hiddink - Good manager, could possibly come in a do a good job. But would he do a better job than Rafa, in the longer term? The only club he's been at with similar pressure to LFC is Real Madrid, and he did exactly fuck all with them. He was onto a winner with Chelsea, because Scolari had already fucked up and Hiddink wouldn't have been blamed had they finished their season with nothing, so the pressure was off.

 

Mourinho - Fuck right off. I'm sorry, but you may as well as spit on the Liver Bird as allow this self obsessed, egotistical media whore to manage our club. He's proved at Chelsea that he will fuck off when the going gets tough, so how would he respond to half the shit that Rafa has to put up with? Mourinho likes to be the main attraction everywhere he goes, and that's not something that should and could happen at Liverpool. Ask yourself this question as well: What would Rafa have done with the type of money that Mourinho had at his disposal at Chelsea? If he would have joined them and not us, he still would have been there now.

 

King Kenny - My favourite person ever, but football has moved on from when he was last involved at the top level and I honestly doubt whether he could come in and win us the league again. It's a lovely thought, but no.

 

Jesualdo Ferreira - Bit of an unknown quantity, because Porto have done nothing in Europe for a few years now. The Portuguese league is nowhere near as strong as the Premiership, so you'd have to assess him on what he has done in Europe, which isn't much to date. Mourinho arrived here having won the Champions League, Benitez the Uefa Cup. Ferreira's pedigree thus far is nowhere near good enough to land him the job as Liverpool manager.

 

Pako Ayesteran - Not gonna dignify that one with a response.

 

I don't think overall there is anybody available who could do a better job than Rafa in the same circumstances, and certainly not any of the 'candidates' above. Why can't we just get behind Benitez, at least until the end of the season, and see how it pans out. Neither Man United or Chelsea are looking super strong, so the season might not yet be as dead as we all think.

[Whelan]

The team is improving and is better than before.

 

You didn't laugh, fine.

 

You don't seem to be young, you don't seem to be naive, your clearly know what you are talking about.

 

You surely must know, you do not judge a team now! You do not judge a manager now!

 

Others might, Chelsea got rid of Ranieri despite what he acheived and they won the league, that doesn't make the treatment right!

 

We are operating in a different environment now, it is a fact, a squad needs building not just a team, imported players are great but they are more likely to move in time. What I see now is the dismantling of Rafa the manager, normally that happens during the honeymoon period for the next manager.

 

If we finish third this year and win the FA cup I will still view the campaign as a dissapointment, as I think we good enough to challenge, for some that might be enough.

 

But, and I have asked this question before. If Alonso did not go how much money would Rafa have been given to improve the team! Those cunts are robbing Peter to pay Paul and all we seem to be doing is blaming Peter for not looking after it properly!

[Antynwa]

You don't seem to be young, you don't seem to be naive, your clearly know what you are talking about.

 

You surely must know, you do not judge a team now! You do not judge a manager now!

 

Others might, Chelsea got rid of Ranieri despite what he acheived and they won the league, that doesn't make the treatment right!

 

We are operating in a different environment now, it is a fact, a squad needs building not just a team, imported players are great but they are more likely to move in time. What I see now is the dismantling of Rafa the manager, normally that happens during the honeymoon period for the next manager.

 

If we finish third this year and win the FA cup I will still view the campaign as a dissapointment, as I think we good enough to challenge, for some that might be enough.

 

But, and I have asked this question before. If Alonso did not go how much money would Rafa have been given to improve the team! Those cunts are robbing Peter to pay Paul and all we seem to be doing is blaming Peter for not looking after it properly!

 

Everyone knows the wrongs our owners have made. Although if Rafa had Ronaldo to play right-wing he'd still play Dirk Kuyt (As someone on here once said).

 

I want them all to go. If we finish 4th or below I'd want him to go regardless of our owners.

[stmichael]

tony evans is on talksport in a minute

[Christian]

Perhaps we should just give everyone a £50k pay rise and be done with all of this 20 years with no league title nonsense?

 

STEP AWAY FROM THE FUCKING CALCULATOR.

 

We're not an accountancy firm, we're a fucking football club. if you don't win trophies you get fired. The end. No excuses. No "net spend" horse shit. No "value of teh club increased" clap trap. No "selling players for profit" garbage.

 

We exist to win trophies. THAT'S IT!!! We haven't won one for 3 years, and very likely to soon be four.

 

End of fucking story.

 

fee free to tell your kids and grandkikds about what a bloody brilliant profit we made on momo sissoko or how we outfperformed Arsenal that time based on our wage bill. But I'll say we were fucking shit and won fuck all.

 

Now just stop it. You're a joke.

 

Leg! Jazz!

[king7]

I think Rafa believes it otherwise he would fuck off to somewhere where it is. He is just trying to temper expectations IMO and he is right to do so. He gives us hope that we can win but if you expect to win, well we will soon be Newcastle if every supporter took that attitude.

 

Make no mistake though, Rafa is planning on winning. I'm not sure even his biggest detractors would dispute that.

 

Sure, it's important to have a bit realism, but it's a fine balance between tempering expectations and staring to think of oneself as not good enough. i think that having a winning - mentality is about beeing a bit overly confident. And I agree that Rafa is probably planning on winning, I'm just not sure if he belives it anymore.

[Whelan]

Everyone knows the wrongs our owners have made. Although if Rafa had Ronaldo to play right-wing he'd still play Dirk Kuyt (As someone on here once said).

I want them all to go. If we finish 4th or below I'd want him to go regardless of our owners.

 

Bollocks pure and simple! Sorry but if Rafa had Steve Gibson as chairman we would have won two league titles by now! See we can all imagine a scenario then skew it to suit!

 

And consideing your at University now you should be aware you do not make a statment 'I want them all to go' and then offer up your criteria! It suggest you might be prejudiced towards any decision!

[Rafa's Peggy's]

Everyone knows the wrongs our owners have made. Although if Rafa had Ronaldo to play right-wing he'd still play Dirk Kuyt (As someone on here once said).

 

I want them all to go. If we finish 4th or below I'd want him to go regardless of our owners.

 

I've never heard so much shite in all my life. If Rafa had Ronaldo, he'd play him like he plays Gerrard and Torres, because he's a world class player and Rafa knows one of them when he sees one.

 

By the way, I can think of other, more deserving targets for mockery than Dirk Kuyt.

[Tom R]

Chelsea got rid of Ranieri despite what he acheived and they won the league, that doesn't make the treatment right!

 

really?

 

I'd say it absolutely made the treatment perfectly right!

[Randy Marsh]

Everyone knows the wrongs our owners have made. Although if Rafa had Ronaldo to play right-wing he'd still play Dirk Kuyt (As someone on here once said).

 

I want them all to go. If we finish 4th or below I'd want him to go regardless of our owners.

 

That is absolute rubbish Ant.

[Whelan]

really?

 

I'd say it absolutely made the treatment perfectly right!

 

It fucking doesn't! Not one iota, seriously if you value winning that much then fine, I don't!

 

I am not getting into arguments with you, but we are not talking about a manager who finished 4th, his job for those two previous season was excellent and they fucked him off because he was not 'sexy' enough.

 

You think the ends justify the means, but I don't!

 

I know I am in a minority here, but that is part of my dislike for Maureen as well, not for me, sorry!

[Antynwa]

I've never heard so much shite in all my life. If Rafa had Ronaldo' date=' he'd play him like he plays Gerrard and Torres, because he's a world class player and Rafa knows one of them when he sees one.

 

By the way, I can think of other, more deserving targets for mockery than Dirk Kuyt.[/quote']

 

You mean like Robbie Keane...£20 Million Robbie Keane or Babel and Riera?

[Bubble]

 

[YOUTUBE]KLd-rJMoeko[/YOUTUBE]

[Whelan]

You mean like Robbie Keane...£20 Million Robbie Keane or Babel and Riera?

 

What point are you trying to make?

[Tom R]

It fucking doesn't! Not one iota, seriously if you value winning that much then fine, I don't!

 

I would put Benitez and his entire family on the fucking streets if it gave us another league title, and I wouldn't bat even bat an eyelid, lid.

[hamstrung]

Everyone knows the wrongs our owners have made. Although if Rafa had Ronaldo to play right-wing he'd still play Dirk Kuyt

.

 

And Catch is the one talking bollocks...

[Tom R]

And Catch is the one talking bollocks...

 

Nah. Both of them are.

[Christian]

So as Liverpool FC Manager, your job is now to temper expectation? My expectations are particularly tempered when I watch Dossena and Babel line up for us for a combined fee of £18 million.

Stop with the excuses Rafa and the pointless "the squad is worth more" and start winning football matches.

He has brought some talent to the club for sure, and when they are all fit I'm sure results will improve, but this Times article is cringeworthy.

[Antynwa]

What point are you trying to make?

 

I'm trying to point out that there is fuck all certainty that IF Rafa got £100 Million to spend that he would spend it wisely.

 

He's already made his fair share of cock ups and for every Torres or Reina, there is a Degen, Babel or Voronin.

 

£27 Million pound we wasted on Keane and Dossena, thats without including Riera. Personally, if we are going to give a manager money I'd much rather give it to someone who apparently only needs money to win the league, and thats Mourinho.

[Whelan]

I would put Benitez and his entire family on the fucking streets if it gave us another league title, and I wouldn't bat even bat an eyelid, lid.

 

I believe you.

 

I will be writing a strongly worded letter to the Guardian!

[zigackly]

The problem Benitez is facing is that we were absolutely fucking shit at the start of this season before any injury crisis, and because of the injury crisis he is unable to correct this, since the depth of our squad is like a kiddies paddling pool in the sahara desert after a particularly hot day.

 

This is where people bleat about money, because at the end of the day he's trying to build a squad on a smaller budget than the teams he is expected to overtake. He's been slaughtered in the past for focussing on squad depth to the detriment of the first team; now the first team are injured, he's getting slaughtered for squad depth.

 

It's like having a short quilt on a cold night: pull it up to cover your neck and your feet will get cold, pull it down to cover your feet and you expose your neck. Quite literally in Rafa's case.

 

However, all that said, goatboy still has it 100% right. The only way out of it is to start winning games.

 

Somehow.

[Red Nick]

If he was as good at managing his team as he was at PR we would already be champions

 

Houllier in Disguise but a better team

[hamstrung]

I'm trying to point out that there is fuck all certainty that IF Rafa got £100 Million to spend that he would spend it wisely.

 

He's already made his fair share of cock ups and for every Torres or Reina, there is a Degen, Babel or Voronin.

 

£27 Million pound we wasted on Keane and Dossena, thats without including Riera. Personally, if we are going to give a manager money I'd much rather give it to someone who apparently only needs money to win the league, and thats Mourinho.

 

That has nothing to do with your original "point" that he'd play Kuyt over Ronaldo. Which is what you started on and were being asked about.

 

Are you lost?

[Randy Marsh]

It seems this article has really hit some raw nerves.

 

Part of the spin is the way that anything put forward as a defence is seen as an excuse - or as spin.

 

This season's been awful - but if the witch hunt carries on without people putting down the pitch-forks long enough to see which bits would have applied regardless of who sits in our manager's office then we'll have many more awful seasons to come. And it won't matter who's sitting in the manager's office.

 

Injuries. Rafa can't have that one. It's an excuse. Obviously the fake doctors that we hired previously have left and know less than the real ones we've got.

 

Obviously this is a bit of dodgy ground for the critics because they can't say selling Xabi Alonso is a major factor in how this season's gone and then say it shouldn't matter that Torres and Gerrard have been missing or well under 100% fit for most of it.

 

Finances. If the figures done in The Times are true, we've had a transfer budget of minus two million over the past two seasons. If what has been said about having to sell three or four players in January is true we'll be moving further into that direction.

 

It's not like we made big money on one player and we didn't really need it all to buy replacements. How the hell is any manager supposed to challenge for the title - something that requires improvement - if he's not getting any money at all? Never mind "not enough" - he's getting less than zero! Is that an excuse?

 

You can't blame the injuries on anyone. You can look at whether anything can be changed and see if you can cut them down at all, you can make requests to the national sides to go easy on your players if they've been carrying knocks or whatever, but all you can really do about injuries is fill your squad with better players. Find another Torres, but one who'll sit on the bench. And a Gerrard. And so on.

 

As for finances, it's amazing how many people are ignoring what this report is saying about spending.

 

Fuckin great post mate.

 

People dismiss all the above factors as just "excuses", when infact they are valid reasons and the real root causes of the problems. That's not saying Rafa hasn't made mistakes, far from it. But his margin for error here is zero. If things are not perfect, as they so nearly where last year, then we suffer. People look to his previous spending in the past years, but how anyone cannot see the massive improvement in that time is beyond me. We are lightyears ahead of 2004 now.