Benitez 'guarantees' top four finish

[Whelan]

yeah I know.

 

I was just clarifying my position. You know, just in case.

 

I doubt you are ever in need to 'clarify' your position Tom!

[Rex Banner]

These sort of promises are usually a sign of impending disaster.

It's like when a CEO says a managers job is safe, it usually isn't.

[Barrington Womble]

to be honest, I don't see a great deal wrong with what the manager has said. continually this season we've beaten ourselves - what game have we lost where you thought with a bit of confidence and smarter team selection/tactics we couldn't have won? Rafa has spent the season crying in the excuses - which in turn gives players the excuse to under perform. for weeks now we've been beating oursleves, often getting beat by sides clearly inferior to us on the day (arsenal on sunday imo till the og). We need to get the players heads right. If Rafa saying he has unquestionable faith in his team to get 4th - how is that a bad thing? Let's forget if 4th is good enough or not (it's clearly not), but we are where we are, there's not 38 games to go and the manager is going nowhere - anything less than 4th is a complete fucking disaster and could see the club spiral out of control. If Rafa is getting desperate enough to start worrying about players confidence, well I don't see it being a bad thing.

 

I don't give a fuck about Rafa maybe thinking he'll be a superstar if he gets us to 4th (like Houllier did in 2004), I just care about our club. We can't be allowed to finish below 4th and if the manager saying he believes he'll do it is a bad thing, that confises the fuck out of me. We have to get 4th - bitching about if that is lowering standards or whatever is just mental where we are not. We're currently midtable, we should be higher and rafa will be judged in May by the targets set in August, not today. Today we need to re-adjust this seasons target, because anything else is just ridiculous.

[Hermes]

How dare a manager predict success for his team!

 

4th is now success?

[Kennys_spell]

Smacks of moving the goalposts

 

Do you think he should still be aiming to win the Prem?

[dirty_sanchez]

4th is now success?

 

From where we are at the moment it is.

[109_ultra]

I think this is Rafa saying "if we don't get fourth i'm walking". Why else make a rod for your own back in this way?

 

Its time people realised that squad isnt good enough to get fourth. Looking to last season serves no purpose. Players improve just like players get worse. Skrtel and Kuyt in particular have gone backwards, whilst Carra, Gerrard, Riera and Masch (until recently) suffered a loss of form they dont look like getting back anytime soon.

[Barrington Womble]

I think this is Rafa saying "if we don't get fourth i'm walking". Why else make a rod for your own back in this way?

 

Its time people realised that squad isnt good enough to get fourth. Looking to last season serves no purpose. Players improve just like players get worse. Skrtel and Kuyt in particular have gone backwards, whilst Carra, Gerrard, Riera and Masch (until recently) suffered a loss of form they dont look like getting back anytime soon.

 

he won't have to walk if he doesn't get 4th, the club won't have the money to pay his wages for the following 4 years of his contract.

[Whelan]

he won't have to walk if he doesn't get 4th, the club won't have the money to pay his wages for the following 4 years of his contract.

 

Hmmm, so he is deliberately trying to finish outside the top four so that he doesn't get sacked, intriguing...

[Barrington Womble]

Hmmm, so he is deliberately trying to finish outside the top four so that he doesn't get sacked, intriguing...

 

where did i say that?

[Whelan]

where did i say that?

 

You never!

 

I was being pissy!

[BexBissel]

he won't have to walk if he doesn't get 4th, the club won't have the money to pay his wages for the following 4 years of his contract.

Stop talking shite. Rafa has gone 'all in'.

[JohnnyH]

I see a few people asking is 4th now success? The answer is no, of course it isn't. But 4th is vital. We can all stop using the word 4th if we want and just say that we must qualify for the Champions League. That is the kicker.

 

There is an entirely different conversation as to whether 3rd is success though. We have been distantly behind the Mancs and Cheslea in our ability to build a top notch squad, so for us to break into that group of 2 is an achievment, whether some like that or not.

 

I do agree that Benitez has now made the rod for his back. He either finishes 4th or he's gone. And even at that, he may still be gone if he finishes fourth.

[goatboy59]

It'll depend what kind of 4th. If it's 2008 4th, no sweat 4th, okay, but if it's 2004 "the others were even worse than us" 4th that might not be enough.

 

Might even be 3rd cos Arsenal aren't exactly firing either.

[Tom R]

Anything less than first place is a fucking failure.

 

The day our club and the management of our club start to once again take that as our philosophy, is the day we might just start finishing first again.

[El Rojo]

Anything less than first place is a fucking failure.

 

The day our club and the management of our club start to once again take that as our philosophy, is the day we might just start finishing first again.

 

The players too. We've been awful in some of the few games we've had full strength teams available this season.

 

Big players letting their heads drop and not leading by example and some calamitous defending.

[Tom R]

of course. but it starts at the top and filters down.

 

Our owners wouldn't give a shit if we finish 4th or 1st. To them the rewards are exactly the same.

[Warwick Hunt]

If we finish 4th I will buy Montse a new watch

[goatboy59]

of course. but it starts at the top and filters down.

 

Our owners wouldn't give a shit if we finish 4th or 1st. To them the rewards are exactly the same.

Which is of course false economy. You only have to see the explosion of interest in United after 93 to see what's possible.

[Tom R]

Which is of course false economy. You only have to see the explosion of interest in United after 93 to see what's possible.

 

Mate, Man United were the richest and self styled “biggest club in the world” loooong before 1993. They were the media darlings even when they hadn’t won a league title for 26 years.

 

i know what you're sayin, but we were Champions of Europe only 4 years ago and we couldn’t even capitalise on that!

 

our owners couldn't give a flying rat shit if we finish 4th or 1st, I'm telling you.

 

Do you think for a second that, even if we won the league, the additional revenue go back in to the team?

 

hahaha! AS IF!

[zigackly]

I think you are being a bit disingenuous Tom. They would love the extra sponsorship revenue they could get by finishing top. But not if they have to pay to get there.

[Tom R]

What extra sponsorship revenue do you think we would get?

[zigackly]

Winning the league would make them more money in sponsorship, you know that as well as I do.

 

I can't tell you which companies or how much, but it would.

[Tom R]

all our sponsorship deals are long term and you're tied in.

 

you can't renegotiate just because you're the champions.

[Tom R]

And you can only have one partner for each thing, so it's not like you'd get additional companies on board either.

 

i think additional sponsorship would be minimal. A few million at best.