Rafael Benitez: Football’s forgotten man

[Lario]

Wasn't it good to be challenging though?!

[Captain]

Wasn't it good to be challenging though?!

 

It was the golden era. Hopefully it will return in the not so distant future.

 

Until then we're stuck in mid-table.

[BringbackBiscan]

I personally feel the golden era was when Kenny and co were lifting league titles. Not a few isolated good results and celebrating coming 2nd.

[Captain]

I personally feel the golden era was when Kenny and co were lifting league titles. Not a few isolated good results and celebrating coming 2nd.

 

A few isolated good results? Fucking hell.

[Code]

It was the golden era. Hopefully it will return in the not so distant future.

 

Until then we're stuck in mid-table.

 

Golden era?

 

Two cups in 6 years?

 

Hahaha.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

 

It was the golden era. Hopefully it will return in the not so distant future.

 

Until then we're stuck in mid-table.

 

The Golden era? Are you having a laugh?

 

The Golden era had been and gone well before Roy Evans took over, never mind Rafa,

[Captain]

The Golden era? Are you having a laugh?

 

The Golden era had been and gone well before Roy Evans took over, never mind Rafa,

 

I thought it went without saying, but I obviously meant compared to the shite we're suffering these days.

[George Costanza]

Yeah I'm in agreement too. I think players have too much power in the game these days and I think that shows with the Tevez and Mascherano affairs for differing reasons.

 

not to mention that lot at Chelsea.

 

To try & cover a few answers to recent posts. Henry & Werner might know nothing about football so they need to employ people below them with the necessary skills & experience.

 

Any player regardless of who there are who undermines the manager should be sold asap. I could not give a shit if it was Gerrard or Suarez either. The manager simply has to have total control of 1st team matters, as soon as his authority is questioned even in the slightest then that's it.

 

totally off topic but I think the club should ban all autobiographies of players while they are employed by the club.

 

As for Rafa. his time had come. The team was stale & going backwards. His judgement was becoming more & more clouded. In his last season he was over weight, looking unhealthy & his continuing political battles with the owners was doing more harm than good. I thank him for the European Cup & FA Cup, wish him well in future endeavours but do not want him back. I was never really a huge fan of his & likewise Houllier but tactically both were miles ahead of our other recent managers.

[Coro]

 

Until then we're stuck in mid-table.

 

Yeah, it happens to clubs who have flirted with administration under the worst owners imaginable. Managers are sacked and good players leave.

 

Our form hasn't been good enough since January but we've won our first trophy in 6 years and have a very good chance of winning another.

 

You'll be too busy worrying about transfer fees and us being 'stuck in mid-table' to even bother celebrating.

[Dicko]

I personally feel the golden era was when Kenny and co were lifting league titles. Not a few isolated good results and celebrating coming 2nd.

 

So we've reduced winning the European Cup to an isolated good result now have we?

 

What chance has Benitez got with the rest of the country when our own support is as revisionist & ungrateful as this.

[BCM]

So we've reduced winning the European Cup to an isolated good result now have we?

 

What chance has Benitez got with the rest of the country when our own support is as revisionist & ungrateful as this.

 

I agree, lets see how long it takes us to get to a final again, nevermind two.

[xerxes]

Henry & Werner might know nothing about football so they need to employ people below them with the necessary skills & experience.

The problem at the moment is that expertise is not there. Comolli is considerably Dalglish's junior in terms of football, the club, the city and winning trophies experience as both manager and player, he may also choose to cover his arse when it comes to the transfer dealings. Ayre is a lightweight in terms of football experience, as his bungling of the Suarez affair demonstrated, FSG are paying the price of going for the cheap easy inexperienced option.

 

Any player regardless of who there are who undermines the manager should be sold asap. I could not give a shit if it was Gerrard or Suarez either. The manager simply has to have total control of 1st team matters, as soon as his authority is questioned even in the slightest then that's it.

 

In theory that is great, in practise managers manage with consent, and always have. If the team is winning players will keep their head down, if they are losing it is never their fault and always the manager's.Rafa's autocratic style prospered with the players when they were winning, but unravelled very quickly when they were not.

 

Kenny's kudos with the fans is considerably greater than it is with the players, some of whom were not even born when he last managed here.

[BringbackBiscan]

So we've reduced winning the European Cup to an isolated good result now have we?

 

What chance has Benitez got with the rest of the country when our own support is as revisionist & ungrateful as this.

 

European cup was won in 05, not 09. Calling 2009 some kind of golden era, when fuck all was won, makes us sound like everton.

 

You only have to see the shit talked about Kenny on here to see real revisionism and ungratefulness.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Golden era?

 

Two cups in 6 years?

 

Hahaha.

 

Whilst the suggestion that it was a 'golden era' is laughable, your woeful dismissal of that time is equally embarrassing, in my opinion. Rafa's time here had much more about it than just a couple of cups.

[neopulian]

Whilst the suggestion that it was a 'golden era' is laughable, your woeful dismissal of that time is equally embarrassing, in my opinion. Rafa's time here had much more about it than just a couple of cups.

 

It was the golden era of Premier League period, hitherto.

[Captain]

Mate' date=' do you mean this season or these days as in the last 4 years?[/quote']

 

I was thinking about our current league 'run'. But you can easily take it back to the summer of 2009. We had finished second but the owners decided fuck Rafa over one last time when it came to the transfer budget. By doing that, they imo also managed to fuck up team morale and the following season was a clusterfuck from start to finish.

 

I agree, lets see how long it takes us to get to a final again, nevermind two.

 

Agree. I'm actually worried about us getting back into the CL at all now.

 

It's bad enough being below Everton and Newcastle, but I think we can handle them next season. I'm more worried about finishing above two out of Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.

 

It's an absolutely massive summer for Kenny to sort it out.

[Coro]

There's something rotten at that club, it's something to do with the fans, the pressure and level of expectation combined with constant failure... it kills good players. They just turn shit there.

 

The words of a Mancunian.

 

To the brokenhearted Rafapologists, to the fair weather, dodgy knee brigade, to the want it all now whoppers, please give your heads a wobble.

 

Enjoy football, it's a good thing.

[Gym Beglin]

I'll be cheering Rafa on at whatever club he joins next. Top bloke, ace manager, he deserves more.

This club will crumble in the next 5 years, we can't carry big wages without CL football, and we're a long way off Spurs or even Newcastle, never mind the real top 4 clubs. You do the maths.

 

Quite apt with all this Titanic centenary stuff going on.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

This club will crumble in the next 5 years

 

Don't be a drama queen. 3/4/5 good purchases in the next couple of windows and we'll be back in the European Cup.

[INTORRESTING]

How are we going to get back in the european cup? Only wolves are worse than us at the moment.

 

There is no excuse for this run, we have been playing shit teams and losing at home. I don't think Kenny can get us back into the champions league.

 

Any other manager would have been sacked. I cant see the owners keeping Kenny.

[Phoenix]

Does anyone follow Newcastle or Blackburn?

[TheDrowningMan]

Don't be a drama queen. 3/4/5 good purchases in the next couple of windows and we'll be back in the European Cup.

 

If we remain stuck with our 80s tactics we will not get anywhere near, nor, in all likelihood, is the current manager capable of making such purchases. Pat Sharp would be doing as well as Kenny in the league this season.

[The Dude Abides]

I think we're in very real danger now of falling out of that cosy little spot near the top that we've taken for granted. I don't want Kenny to be the man to take us there. So he should step down at the end of the season.

[ronnie38]

It's just a coincidence that we've been shit after Rafa.

[stringvest]

It's just a coincidence that we've been shit after Rafa.

 

It's a coincidence that we were shit when he was here as well.