Rafa likely to resign on Monday?

[vonk]

Thought it was a clever press conference myself. Really admire Rafa the man tbh, took balls to laugh at yourself in this mess. Total respect for the guy even though I don't think he can lead us to the title.

[Paul]

Fair play to him for that. He's under almost intolerable pressure right now and yet he took the piss out of himself whilst under the spotlight. It didn't come off because he clearly doesn't have that sort of relationship with the journalists (and they clearly have their own agenda of pressing him hard about the situation we're in), but well in for trying. Despite all my criticisms of him, I still really like Rafa.

[Guest davelfc]

Rafa clearly is mental. That press conference was just odd. Get rid off him before the club becomes liable for any psychological disorders this job may have brought on Rafa.

 

I'm more worried about your claim to this site to be honest.

[lfclad_4eva]

Rafa will stay, and i am over the moon about it, he will win us the premier league, youll see.

[JohnnyH]

Rafa clearly is mental. That press conference was just odd. Get rid off him before the club becomes liable for any psychological disorders this job may have brought on Rafa.

 

Idiotic comment. He made a little joke while also trying to be meek and apologising to the fans. Reading into this any other way is just looking to stir shite, and God forbid any of our wonderful fans would want to do that against the manager!

[anfieldmods]

after stoke game interview his words were if i decided to stay here.so what does that mean on bbc sport site

[Bogman]

"It was because of the fans", he continued.

 

I think he was talking in past tense, why he didn't leave, he stayed because of the fans, to see it through.

[StevieH]

Rafa Benítez deserves the chance to overachieve with Liverpool again - Telegraph

 

 

Rafa Benítez deserves the chance to overachieve with Liverpool again

 

It is always hard to tell much from Rafael Benitez's manner, so guarded is he in public, but those who see a dead man walking must have felt a burst of schadenfreude when he emerged for his Friday press conference clutching his notes.

 

 

 

By Duncan White

Published: 4:37PM GMT 16 Jan 2010

 

Top manager: Duncan White says Rafa Benitez (above) has already worked miracles at Anfield Photo: EPA

 

 

 

A Nixon-style resignation speech? No, a Clinton-style apology.

 

That simple assumption of responsibility, that simple act of modest contrition, punctured some of the mounting hysteria and bloodlust.

 

This is a man who is not doing his job very well, a man who used to do his job very well indeed less than a year ago. Is it entirely heretical to suggest that Benítez might deserve a chance to put right the mess he has made of this season?

 

This kind of hysteria is ultimately driven by results, but they have been bad for a while. Suddenly we have reached the tipping point.

 

The ex-players are wheeled out to pronounce the death sentence but, when it comes to running a multi-million pound football club, do they have credibility? Ronnie Whelan has not managed for eight years but when he did it was Southend and some clubs in Cyprus and Greece. Jason McAteer? He was sacked as John Barnes' assistant at Tranmere this season. Not exactly judges with gravitas.

 

What about the supporters? There has been fierce loyalty to Benítez at Anfield over the years, especially when he has taken on Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Now a significant portion of the support has turned on Benítez.

 

It is easy to pour empty flattery on to Liverpool fans, but really they are not much different to football fans the country over. More active than many in taking a direct interest in how the club is run on every level, sure, but still prone to shouting one thing at the final whistle and thinking another when reflecting in the pub.

 

The mentality of the pack, the mass, the herd develops its own momentum and, from the outside, it is hard to see Benítez surviving beyond the end of the season. This is a real pity because Benítez – eccentric, political, stubborn and vindictive as he can be – is a man who has been overachieving ever since he arrived at Anfield.

Take this rather imperfect analogy: Benítez as a Formula 1 driver. He comes in and starts driving for a team that has a resonant name, a history full of great deeds, fresh memories of famous victories. The problem is, the car isn't good enough. The owner's not putting the money in, the marketing guys can't get the lucrative sponsorship deals and the engineers are complacent.

 

Still, Benítez drives out of his skin. Race after race, he squeezes every last bit of juice out of this failing car and delivers some famous victories. Then, bang, he loses it. Perhaps it was the persistent technical disasters, that prompted it, but suddenly he is suffused with self doubt: he can't pick the racing line, he breaks too early or too late. He's struggling just to finish, let alone compete.

 

Now what do you do? Fire the driver? The car is still worse than its rivals – worse and getting worse. For one bad season in which he has failed to overachieve again? You need a special combination of ambition and patience to succeed driving in this team – a combination that is rare enough.

 

For a start, Liverpool will not sack Benítez before the end of the season (barring open player revolt or a truly comical series of results). Who next? Jose Mourinho? Guus Hiddink? Great drivers but are they going to risk their reputation getting into this car, with its huge expectation but poor performance?

 

The silver in the trophy cabinet can skew your perspective of a football club. If you are brutally objective about Liverpool, they look like a club equipped for the 20th century not the 21st. Compare them to one of their potential usurpers in the top four, Tottenham Hotspur, who they host at Anfield on Wednesday. It's not a flattering one.

 

Spurs have not won an away game against the big four since they won in the League Cup at Anfield in November 1998 – that's no away win in 65 attempts. Historically, Liverpool are the superior club. But you look at the future and there is only one club pointing in remotely the right direction.

 

Tottenham turned a profit last year. The diggers are in at their new training ground at Bulls Cross in Enfield, which will be one of the very best in the world. Planning permission is in for a new 60,000 stadium – the only significant debt the club will take on will be directly linked to the stadium.

 

If the success of Arsenal's move to the Emirates (the corporate dollar pays: 20 per cent of supporters generate 80 per cent of the earnings) is any guide, Spurs will be able to service that debt with ease.

 

Liverpool's huge interest payments means that their parent company made a £42.6 million loss in the last financial year. The new stadium in Stanley Park was supposed to be finished by 2012 but remains in limbo, waiting for global economic recovery.

Their debt stands at £240 million but without a hike in match day or commercial revenue, or substantial outside investment, they will spend all profits servicing it, rather than playing catch up on the field. To get Liverpool pointing in the right direction, Christian Purslow, the chief executive, has to turn a tanker in a canal.

 

On the pitch, Spurs have a squad full of young hungry internationals with a high market value. Even more importantly, they have some of the most promising academy players in the country: John Bostock, Dean Parrett, Andros Townsend and Ryan Mason should all break into the first team in the next few years.

 

Liverpool have three world class players (Gerrard, Reina, Torres) and a motley crew of the not-quite-first-rate and the definitely-second-rate. The academy has not produced a player deemed fit for Liverpool since Gerrard and seemingly will not any time soon.

 

Benítez has certainly been one of the main architects of this season's eyesore, but he is also responsible for the construction of some of this club's finest recent monuments.

 

Dealing with controversial owners and dwindling revenues, Benítez has proved he can get this club punching above its weight. He deserves another round, a chance to put right the mistakes he has made.

[StevieH]

Affection for Rafael Benitez begins to seep away - Times Online

 

From The Sunday Times

 

January 17, 2010

 

Affection for Rafael Benitez begins to seep away

 

It is difficult to imagine that a point at Stoke signals a genuine restoration of formidability to Liverpool’s fortunes

 

Hugh McIlvanney

 

IN THE context of Liverpool’s appalling season, yesterday’s point at Stoke may ultimately prove about as beneficial as a blood transfusion to a corpse. They will feel at the mercy of a malign destiny after having been denied a glaring first-half penalty at the Britannia stadium, taken the lead in the 57th minute and held it until the last seconds of regular time and then been mortified to find Dirk Kuyt lunging to head the ball against a post with the goal yawning like a cave during the lengthy period allowed for stoppages.

 

But even when weakened by the absence through injury of Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Yossi Benayoun they should have demonstrated a more decisive superiority over opponents whose admirably combative vigour was backed by so little creativity that their attacking options were drastically reduced once the long-throw specialist Rory Delap had to go off hurt with barely a quarter of the match played.

 

Liverpool competed with far more spirit than they have tended to display lately, and they provided most of the controlled passing and inventiveness contained in the 95 minutes of largely dishevelled, frequently aerial action, but their recent traumas infected their defending with an unsurprising nervousness when Stoke mounted hectic late pressure.

 

Suddenly Liverpool were again sadly recognisable as the ill-integrated, unconfident collection of players who have found winning such a struggle throughout a 2009-10 campaign that they have now dropped more Premier League points than they did in the whole of last season, when they were runners-up in the title race. That they have declined so calamitously from the 2008-09 standard, instead of building on what was the best performance achieved in the domestic championship under the management of Rafael Benitez, has raised the questioning of the Spaniard’s right to keep his job from the disgruntled murmuring of previous years to a level of noisy but rational complaint.

As Liverpool have lurched and stumbled their way out of the major cup competitions of England and Europe and into the predicament of scrabbling to sustain fragile belief in their ability to finish as high as fourth in the Premier League (and thus guarantee entry to the Champions League), isolated hints of recovered effectiveness have been swiftly exposed as illusory. Remembering how the 2-0 defeat of Manchester United in October was immediately followed by submissions to Arsenal and Fulham and then a run of three laboured draws, and how the tentative hopes of improved fortunes encouraged by an away victory over persuasively aspiring Aston Villa at the end of December humiliatingly foundered in last week’s expulsion from the FA Cup by Reading at Anfield, it is difficult to imagine we’ll soon be witnessing a genuine restoration of formidability to the club who once ruled British football imperiously.

 

 

 

And it’s even more of a stretch to argue that there is justification for further tolerance of the methods of the man who has steered Liverpool into their present miseries. Benitez’s avoidance of a bleak reckoning already qualifies as one of the more remarkable tales of managerial survival English football has known. Anybody who thinks that assessment is exaggerated should consider what attitudes to Sir Alex Ferguson’s position would be if Manchester United’s past few seasons had resembled those delivered by Benitez — and culminated in a 2009-10 campaign as prematurely bereft of lofty ambitions as is that of Liverpool. Wouldn’t there be grumbling demands, perhaps rising to a clamour, for the great Scot to be pensioned off?

 

Some might say a fairer comparison would be with Arsenal’s comfortable acceptance of four trophyless seasons from Arsène Wenger, perhaps adding that Wenger’s earlier feat of having thrice captured the championship of England’s top division that has eluded Liverpool for two decades shouldn’t count for more than Benitez’s success in the Champions League final of 2005. To me that is a dubious contention and it is, in any case, less relevant than vital differences to be discerned between the work done in this country by the Frenchman and by the Spaniard. Whereas Wenger (with much more modest expenditure than his Merseyside counterpart) has constructed a series of teams on unmistakably coherent principles, Benitez, for all his scientific theorising, has conspicuously failed to do so.

 

Though Arsenal have suffered intermittent losses of potency, often traceable to shortage of physical authority, they have generally been capable of fluently penetrative and sometimes beautiful football liable to trouble the best of opposition. In contrast, Liverpool have shown no convincing evidence of progressing from Benitez’s first season in charge, when glory was thrillingly, if rather freakishly, accomplished in Istanbul. Since that unforgettable night he has guided them to another appearance in the final of Europe’s greatest club tournament but there have been many blemishes to set against those continental triumphs, notably a prolonged addiction to extravagant rotation of individuals in his selections and a penchant for buying ill-advisedly.

 

Players have been recruited in droves and even the prodigious coup that brought Torres to Anfield cannot be seen as outweighing the plethora of inadequates Benitez has acquired. While estimates of his net spend on transfers vary widely, putting it on the far side of £100m is probably safe, and safer still is the conclusion that his dealings have left him lamentably short of value for money. These days the warm affection for him implanted in the Liverpool supporters by his enhancement of their beloved European tradition must be seeping away and the faithful on the Kop are surely having ever-increasing problems in reassuring themselves that all their current woes are attributable to the squabbling and misdeeds of American owners. Perhaps their indulgence of Rafa began to erode when he asserted that his record was impressive enough to be spared anything as banal as judgment according to trophies won.

 

Yet the signs continue to suggest that Rafa’s regime will be harder to terminate than Rasputin. Given that he occasionally behaves with the haughtiness of a Spanish grandee, it is tempting to think of him as some kind of Teflon Don. But names such as Guus Hiddink and Jose Mourinho may soon affect his future.

[Monster Masch]

Jose Mourinho or Guus Hiddink..

 

[old skool tom]

that speach was cringeworthy! hes so fucking desperate its embarassing as fuck!

 

is he completely thick or is someone advising him to make an even bigger tit of himself?

 

S.O.S. also look like complete tits now! they marched for a manager that is completely shite and now theyve got too back him otherwise they will look even bigger gobshites than they already do now!

[smicer07]

Jose Mourinho or Guus Hiddink..

 

 

 

 

Mourinho or Hiddink.... wouldn't want to manage the club with no money at all. And anyway, Rafa needs our support now more than ever, so get behind him instead of posting this shite.

[Torvald Utne]

that speach was cringeworthy! hes so fucking desperate its embarassing as fuck!

 

is he completely thick or is someone advising him to make an even bigger tit of himself?

 

S.O.S. also look like complete tits now! they marched for a manager that is completely shite and now theyve got too back him otherwise they will look even bigger gobshites than they already do now!

 

cock

[Juan Galonso]

that speach was cringeworthy! hes so fucking desperate its embarassing as fuck!

 

is he completely thick or is someone advising him to make an even bigger tit of himself?

 

S.O.S. also look like complete tits now! they marched for a manager that is completely shite and now theyve got too back him otherwise they will look even bigger gobshites than they already do now!

 

Amen.

[Monster Masch]

that speach was cringeworthy! hes so fucking desperate its embarassing as fuck!

 

is he completely thick or is someone advising him to make an even bigger tit of himself?

 

S.O.S. also look like complete tits now! they marched for a manager that is completely shite and now theyve got too back him otherwise they will look even bigger gobshites than they already do now!

 

Pretty spot on.

[Torvald Utne]

I could have listed before reading peoples comments exactly which posters would say it was cringeworthy, you're all so fucking predictable.

 

We get it, you want him out, doesn't mean you have to be automatically against everything he does.

 

Grow the fuck up.

[rebel23]

Rafa Benítez deserves the chance to overachieve with Liverpool again - Telegraph

 

 

On the pitch, Spurs have a squad full of young hungry internationals with a high market value. Even more importantly, they have some of the most promising academy players in the country: John Bostock, Dean Parrett, Andros Townsend and Ryan Mason should all break into the first team in the next few years.

 

Liverpool have three world class players (Gerrard, Reina, Torres) and a motley crew of the not-quite-first-rate and the definitely-second-rate. The academy has not produced a player deemed fit for Liverpool since Gerrard and seemingly will not any time soon.

.

 

this is honestly the most deluded thing ive ever read. the journalist must have missed Kelly's performance in the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, when was the last time Spurs had a youngster shine in the CL?

[Antynwa]

I just want him to leave, fed up of this shit.

[RedKnight]

The fuck have Spurs done recently? Nothing, and until they actually do something then all those London journos and cab drivers who wank themselves silly over them can STFU.

[Timão]

The ironic thing is, I am firmly in the anti-Rafa camp after Wednesday but when I see shite like the articles here, I would actually back him over some of the back-stabbing cunts that cannot wait for him and LFC to fail.

 

We are in the shite, both on and off the pitch, but when we rise again, as we always have, it will be sweet to dig all this out again. We are Liverpool Football Club and don´t you ever fucking forget it.

[JMARKH]

The ironic thing is, I am firmly in the anti-Rafa camp after Wednesday but when I see shite like the articles here, I would actually back him over some of the back-stabbing cunts that cannot wait for him and LFC to fail.

 

We are in the shite, both on and off the pitch, but when we rise again, as we always have, it will be sweet to dig all this out again. We are Liverpool Football Club and don´t you ever fucking forget it.

 

I like that line but Rafa seems to forget it when he employs tactics to try and nick wins at Portsmouth and Stoke, I could stomach defeat a lot more if he was braver but I can't stand the non risk taking tactics he employs.

[Liverpool lad]

I just want him to leave, fed up of this shit.

 

You have never mentioned it, it is obvious the pressure is mounting when fans who were previously undecided want him out

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I like that line but Rafa seems to forget it when he employs tactics to try and nick wins at Portsmouth and Stoke, I could stomach defeat a lot more if he was braver but I can't stand the non risk taking tactics he employs.

 

So, which fit players would you have picked against Stoke?

[JMARKH]

So, which fit players would you have picked against Stoke?

 

I'd have gone for this side

 

reina

 

carragher Kyrgiakos skirtel

Kuyt mascherano aqualani maxi aurelio

 

pacheco

 

babel

 

 

I don't think Lucas and masch should line up together. Against portsmouth he shouldn't have put Benayoun on the bench to make way for Lucas.

[KopOut]

As usual, we're playing a watching and waiting game. Personally, i think it will be business as usual on Monday morning.

 

We dug ourselves in, and we'll dig ourselves out. The loyal players will stay, the mercenaries will leave.

The team and Club will eventually turn it around with or w/o Benitez/The Yanks/The Star players.