No risk & a proven winner Rafa Benitez

[Best Believe It]

I was hoping Chelsea would win it because I strongly think that is what would gain our club most.

 

It would be great to see Chelsea fail once again, but in the end that would be more for my personal gain than the clubs gain as I now think this will create a lot more trouble for Spurs when it comes to keeping some of their players and recruiting others, Chelsea would splash the cash no matter what and they would get players, will Spurs?

 

I doubt it and so does every Spurs fan I know, they were looking into the abyss last night because of the consequenses this might have on them.

 

Spot on. As much as I hate Chelsea I always thought this would eventually happen; they've thrown enough money at the issue for it to have done so. I saw last night's game as win-win: Bayern win, then I take the pleasure from seeing Chelsea fail again; Chelsea win and we see the repocussions on Spurs.

 

As Code says, whatever happened last night Chelsea would still spend big and be up there for top four spaces. Spurs were relying on CL football to keep hold of their best players. Bale, Modric and VdV will all agitate for moves now, and they won't be able to recruit top class players as they can't pay the wages.

[Ne Moe Imya]

if he's the best man for the job like everyone says he is, ask yourself, why he hasn't been interviewed? The Yanks aren't stupid.

 

Come, now.

 

Even if he's not the very best man for the job, even his detractors would have to admit he's in the top 5. Since we seem to be interviewing at least that many people, he should clearly be given an interview at the very least, unless the people making the decision have some political/personal vendetta against him.

[Gym Beglin]

I think Modric will get his move, bt I'm not sure Bale and VDV deserve a bigger move, or will receive offers from massive clubs.

Bale is a funny one.

 

Maybe Kyle Walker will get some attention this summer, and also Sandro and Ekotto.

 

Should Redknapp get Sacked even? They qualified for the CL last season, but not this season, whatever the details of it are, thems the facts.

[Code]

What is realistically speaking, it all depends how you sell your ideas I guess.

 

 

My shortlist would include five names.

 

Pep Guardiola, Jogi Low, Jose Mourinho, Bert van Marwijk and Andre Villas-Boas.

[Evil_Ways]

Why wouldn't they go for the best man for the job, why would they go for the easy option, why wouldn't they go for RAFA?

 

Just going on credentials and who's realistically available, who apart from Capello would be better suited than Rafa for the job ?

[sir roger]

Spot on. As much as I hate Chelsea I always thought this would eventually happen; they've thrown enough money at the issue for it to have done so. I saw last night's game as win-win: Bayern win, then I take the pleasure from seeing Chelsea fail again; Chelsea win and we see the repocussions on Spurs.

 

As Code says, whatever happened last night Chelsea would still spend big and be up there for top four spaces. Spurs were relying on CL football to keep hold of their best players. Bale, Modric and VdV will all agitate for moves now, and they won't be able to recruit top class players as they can't pay the wages.

 

I agree, there was also talk recently of England's co-efficient meaning that our 4 places might be cut to 3, and I assume having a winner must help that.

[Gonzo]

What is realistically speaking, it all depends how you sell your ideas I guess.

 

 

My shortlist would include five names.

 

Pep Guardiola, Jogi Low, Jose Mourinho, Bert van Marwijk and Andre Villas-Boas.

 

The restrictions that Liverpool is looking to place on its new manager isn't the way I'd go about selling it to those you've outlined.

[Evil_Ways]

What is realistically speaking, it all depends how you sell your ideas I guess.

 

 

My shortlist would include five names.

 

Pep Guardiola, Jogi Low, Jose Mourinho, Bert van Marwijk and Andre Villas-Boas.

 

Loew's track record is anything but impressive whilist club manager. Short stints at so and so clubs. Won a title in Austria or something like that. Dont think he's proved anything to even be mentioned. That's he's doing well with Germany is no wonder considering their talent pool.

 

Guardiola or Mourinho would obviously be excellent appointments, both would be highly unlikely at this point though.

 

Feel the same about Marwijk as with Loew, what has he actually proven at club level ?

Doing well with Holland is one thing, turning around ourselves and getting us back to where we'd like to think this club belong is a completely different thing.

 

I think Villas-Boas could work though, he's done incredible at Porto, he's young and ambitious, likes to play good football and i think he's tactically astute, even though it didnt show at Chelsea. At a club where the players and the board believes in him and his ideas will most likely turn out much better for him.

[FrenchEyeGlass]

What is realistically speaking, it all depends how you sell your ideas I guess.

 

 

My shortlist would include five names.

 

Pep Guardiola, Jogi Low, Jose Mourinho, Bert van Marwijk and Andre Villas-Boas.

 

Good list. Here is my list for potential transfer targets.

 

Messi. Garrincha. Falcao. Yaya Toure. John Barnes circa 1990. And Grant Holt.

[TheHowieLama]

My shortlist for a quick glass of wine then a wrestle:

 

Halle Berry, Heidi Klum, Nina Hartley, Beyonce, my wife.

[xerxes]

My shortlist would include five names.

 

Pep Guardiola, Jogi Low, Jose Mourinho, Bert van Marwijk and Andre Villas-Boas.

 

A fine list, Code.

 

Ayre has confirmed that all spending has to be sustainable. That means no cash injection from FSG. That also means that insufficient funds would be available to tempt Guardiola/ Mourinho.

 

Low is a good call.

 

BVM is an excellent call- but i don't think FSG will want another sextagenarian.

 

AVB would be very vulnerable with no support network around him here. He has only managed in Portugal apart from his Chelsea holiday.

 

Who is going to be impressed with modest funds and Ayre in charge? Martinez, Lambert, Laudrup, sadly that is the way this ship is heading, much as it pains me to say it.

 

What price DiMatteo?

[Jairzinho]

Shiv Chanderpaul, Ronnie Corbett, Jay Spearing, Ant, Dec.

[Aldonose]

Kenny Dalglish was appointed Liverpool manager because he represented permanence and he was sacked last week because he couldn't change.

 

Dalglish waited 20 years to return to the club and when he did, he swiftly united it. Yet everything unravelled last season. Liverpool were unlucky too often and even an FA Cup final victory wouldn't have saved Dalglish.

 

Dalglish's persona remained unaltered over those 20 years. He retained the devotion of the supporters but as Liverpool continued to lose, he was unable to project a sense of control.

 

It was not about being media-friendly. Alex Ferguson, after all, is whatever the opposite of media-friendly is. Hate, Christopher Hitchens said, got him out of bed in the morning and the same could be said of Ferguson. He has dominated through this emotion, while Dalglish seemed only to be ruled by suspicion.

 

He may have been right to be suspicious but as Liverpool's season evolved in ways they couldn't have imagined, as the Suarez case created the false but powerful impression that this was a club soft on racism, Dalglish looked wary and powerless. If you're going to take on the world, as Alex Ferguson has always understood, you have to be sure you're going to win.

 

The Suarez case created the peripheral damage even as it struck at the heart, but Liverpool were undone by their league form, even if Dalglish is believed to have felt that victories in the cups would be enough this season.

 

Damien Comolli had already paid for the combination of the two. Comolli struck the deals for Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll but they were players Dalglish wanted. The policy of buying British may have been popular with some and ensured the players ended up in the England squad last week, but that only underlined the principle that form is temporary, crushing mediocrity is permanent.

 

Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, have promised that this summer it will be different. There will be no more Stewart Downings at £20m and they have embarked on an ambitious plan to transform the club, even if the plan so far has only been ridiculed.

 

FSG are right to make an appointment based on their own judgement, rather than be swayed by populist opinion. Any choice they make represents a gamble. FSG have worked out a structure they want to implement and it will only work if they appoint the manager they think is best suited to that role. They can't be swayed by the views of Liverpool fans, in either direction.

 

Once again, there are parallels with Newcastle United, who, despite being led by a man downing a pint in a replica jersey, soared like Superman while Liverpool, so proud of their ascetic sabermetrics credentials, suffered in their Bizarro world.

 

Mike Ashley is very different to John Henry, but things changed for him when he stopped listening to old-fashioned conventional football wisdom and worked in sport as he had in business.

 

Ashley, too, had brought back a messiah, albeit one who had achieved a lot less in management than Dalglish. Later, when he sacked Chris Hughton and appointed Alan Pardew, Ashley had to withstand more abuse from the supporters.

 

FSG spent the first 18 months doubting themselves and their own decisions. They are, informed sources suggest, more comfortable with those who advise them now than those who had influence in the past.

 

English football is a complex world and John Henry and Tom Werner have taken some time to discover that. They may wonder how they blew the Fernando Torres money on Downing and Carroll, but they are confident now that when it comes to player recruitment they can do what they had always wished.

 

The manager, too, will be appointed in consultation with the new men taking Comolli's role. Txiki Begiristain, the former Barcelona sporting director, is believed to be interested, but he hasn't been approached. Pep Segura, the technical manager at Liverpool's Academy, is also expected to be promoted. These positions will be filled before the new manager is confirmed.

 

Comolli's duties will be split between administrative tasks and the key job of finding players. He failed at that and the same mistakes won't be made this summer.

 

Comolli "interviewed well" when he got the job as director of football and this may underline the problem they face in finding a new manager. Candidates might be discounted if they reveal themselves to be arrogant in the interview process, it was suggested, but arrogance and knowing your own mind are assets in a football manager.

 

On Friday, they were considering talking to Rafael Benitez, having previously ruled him out. He still hadn't been approached by yesterday and there was some reluctance from club sources to suggest he was on the shortlist.

 

If Benitez was appointed they would fear losing control again, but they can't shirk from strong personalities. There is no point employing somebody agreeable, somebody who can fit into a management structure if they can't accommodate the creative brilliance of a man who knows what he wants.

 

Liverpool need to be prepared to be troubled by their manager. After all, there is no more intense and driven manager than Guardiola.

 

In some ways, it would be a self-destructive thankless job for Benitez. He would suffer from the high expectations from the fans who adore him and the bitter enmity from those who don't. Liverpool is not a club which observes moderation.

 

Benitez might be better off at another club where he can remind the world of his excellence as a coach. But he loves Liverpool and, given the nature of his departure two years ago and all that has happened since, he understandably craves a return.

 

He would be no more of a gamble than most of the names mentioned and the gamble comes with the baggage rather than his coaching ability. On that criteria, he is the outstanding candidate, once Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have been dismissed as fanciful.

 

FSG have heard from many sources that he is a difficult man and having had to dismiss two managers in their first 18 months, they would understandably hesitate if they are influenced by those views.

 

Nobody would claim he is easy but there is a long list of players who want to work with him again and when even Benitez's nemesis, Christian Purslow, says he is a strong candidate, FSG are risking further alienation from supporters by refusing to talk to him.

 

If he is suggested by the men advising FSG, Benitez will be approached. There is, however, a reluctance to interview him if he isn't going to get the job. Politically, it is hard to understand how they could refuse to meet him.

 

FSG would need to be convinced he could work within the model they propose and Benitez might be happy with a one-year rolling contract which would leave both sides with an exit strategy.

 

Andre Villas-Boas will be approached this week. AVB's man-management skills make Benitez look like Ron Atkinson. He is no Mr Bojangles and if anything he came out of the Chelsea debacle less tarnished than he should have been.

 

The seductive notion of the mutinous Stamford Bridge dressing room has masked how spectacularly badly he handled the job. There were strong personalities, but beyond the usual suspects it was routine to hear in his final weeks how he had alienated most players in the squad.

 

More importantly, he made a mess of his remit and was fired. Survival is the starting point for a manager and he undermined himself with his sensitivity and inability to bring key players with him. He might have learned from that but it would be a risky appointment for a dressing room that needs managing.

 

Before the FA Cup final, Pepe Reina offered an insight into Fernando Torres' problems which countered the idea that it was only the old hands at Chelsea that struggled with AVB. "It is much easier to get over mistakes when you know you have the confidence of your manager and your team-mates. With Villas-Boas, especially, I don't think Fernando felt that," he said.

 

AVB is somebody who will interview well, in fact he will probably ace an interview, which underlines the risks in their strategy.

 

A manager like Frank de Boer, who has already been approached and expressed an interest, would offer more authority and may fit within the framework. He would also allow Liverpool to make a fresh start. Alan Pardew and Marcelo Bielsa are not in contention. Despite his statement on Friday, Brendan Rodgers has not been discounted yet, while Roberto Martinez is a gamble, but a manager who fits into their model.

 

Liverpool shouldn't shirk from strong personalities. A club built on everyone getting on is doomed. So is a club where nobody gets on.

 

The managing director Ian Ayre has signed a new contract. He found it hard to stand up to Dalglish, it is said, which led to problems in the Suarez-Evra case.

 

FSG expect those they appoint to do the work they were employed to do.

 

"Do people want them to be hands-on like Abramovich, interfering in everything?" a club source asked last week.

 

Even an exceptional case like the Suarez-Evra incident was expected to be handled by Ayre, Comolli and Dalglish. None of them managed it in the most spectacular PR disaster for the club. Ayre remains at the club, rolling out his vision 'going forward'.

 

The new man, an FSG source insisted, wouldn't be fired if Liverpool finished fifth or sixth. "They aren't Chelsea," he added.

 

Dalglish is believed to have felt the demands were altered as the season progressed. He was said to be devastated last week, despite the typical public statements backing the club.

 

Liverpool's stature as a great football club stands most profoundly now in its ability to provide psychodrama. Dalglish left Anfield 21 years ago at the peak of his powers but worn down by Hillsborough. He watched people die supporting the club he loved and then felt it was his duty to let the tragedy consume him.

 

He left last week as a potent symbol of what Liverpool once stood for. He is an exiled king now, another tragic figure wandering the heath.

 

FSG took possession of the club last week. Exorcising the ghosts will be much more difficult

 

Decent read (Dion Fanning). Mentions Frank De Boer, I'd be personally happy with someone like De Boer.

[Brownie]

If De Boer is a candidate and he's interested then I may have to re-assess my AVB stance. FDB is definitely a name that excites me.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Brownie

[Bobby Hundreds]

I'd definitely be happy with De Boer. A little risky maybe but he seems like someone who could be worth taking it on! He's not scared to use youth, infact fsg you have my blessing I expect this to be done before the day is.

[Faustus]

If De Boer is a candidate and he's interested then I may have to re-assess my AVB stance. RDB is definitely a name that excites me.

 

Sorry to be pedantic, mate, but it's Frank isn't it? Or have we been linked with his brother?

[Brownie]

 

Sorry to be pedantic, mate, but it's Frank isn't it? Or have we been linked with his brother?

 

Just edited it now mate, damn twin brothers!

[TheHitman]

Re, de Boer,I read in the Dutch papers when Guardiola left, he said he would not leave to join Barca. Lets not forget he would have been a very strong contender for the job there being a former Barca & Ajax man.

 

He is a very strong manager, who does not take shit from his players a real disciplinarian. Also someone who has brought through lots of youngsters into the first team. I like him and he would certainly be a good choice, but I fear he is far too clever too come here just yet.

 

Code, surprised you like BVM he loves Dirk and it would guarantee Kuyt more time.

[Guest San Don]

Kenny Dalglish was appointed Liverpool manager because he represented permanence and he was sacked last week because he couldn't change.

 

Dalglish waited 20 years to return to the club and when he did, he swiftly united it. Yet everything unravelled last season. Liverpool were unlucky too often and even an FA Cup final victory wouldn't have saved Dalglish.

 

Dalglish's persona remained unaltered over those 20 years. He retained the devotion of the supporters but as Liverpool continued to lose, he was unable to project a sense of control.

 

It was not about being media-friendly. Alex Ferguson, after all, is whatever the opposite of media-friendly is. Hate, Christopher Hitchens said, got him out of bed in the morning and the same could be said of Ferguson. He has dominated through this emotion, while Dalglish seemed only to be ruled by suspicion.

 

He may have been right to be suspicious but as Liverpool's season evolved in ways they couldn't have imagined, as the Suarez case created the false but powerful impression that this was a club soft on racism, Dalglish looked wary and powerless. If you're going to take on the world, as Alex Ferguson has always understood, you have to be sure you're going to win.

 

The Suarez case created the peripheral damage even as it struck at the heart, but Liverpool were undone by their league form, even if Dalglish is believed to have felt that victories in the cups would be enough this season.

 

Damien Comolli had already paid for the combination of the two. Comolli struck the deals for Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll but they were players Dalglish wanted. The policy of buying British may have been popular with some and ensured the players ended up in the England squad last week, but that only underlined the principle that form is temporary, crushing mediocrity is permanent.

 

Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, have promised that this summer it will be different. There will be no more Stewart Downings at £20m and they have embarked on an ambitious plan to transform the club, even if the plan so far has only been ridiculed.

 

FSG are right to make an appointment based on their own judgement, rather than be swayed by populist opinion. Any choice they make represents a gamble. FSG have worked out a structure they want to implement and it will only work if they appoint the manager they think is best suited to that role. They can't be swayed by the views of Liverpool fans, in either direction.

 

Once again, there are parallels with Newcastle United, who, despite being led by a man downing a pint in a replica jersey, soared like Superman while Liverpool, so proud of their ascetic sabermetrics credentials, suffered in their Bizarro world.

 

Mike Ashley is very different to John Henry, but things changed for him when he stopped listening to old-fashioned conventional football wisdom and worked in sport as he had in business.

 

Ashley, too, had brought back a messiah, albeit one who had achieved a lot less in management than Dalglish. Later, when he sacked Chris Hughton and appointed Alan Pardew, Ashley had to withstand more abuse from the supporters.

 

FSG spent the first 18 months doubting themselves and their own decisions. They are, informed sources suggest, more comfortable with those who advise them now than those who had influence in the past.

 

English football is a complex world and John Henry and Tom Werner have taken some time to discover that. They may wonder how they blew the Fernando Torres money on Downing and Carroll, but they are confident now that when it comes to player recruitment they can do what they had always wished.

 

The manager, too, will be appointed in consultation with the new men taking Comolli's role. Txiki Begiristain, the former Barcelona sporting director, is believed to be interested, but he hasn't been approached. Pep Segura, the technical manager at Liverpool's Academy, is also expected to be promoted. These positions will be filled before the new manager is confirmed.

 

Comolli's duties will be split between administrative tasks and the key job of finding players. He failed at that and the same mistakes won't be made this summer.

 

Comolli "interviewed well" when he got the job as director of football and this may underline the problem they face in finding a new manager. Candidates might be discounted if they reveal themselves to be arrogant in the interview process, it was suggested, but arrogance and knowing your own mind are assets in a football manager.

 

On Friday, they were considering talking to Rafael Benitez, having previously ruled him out. He still hadn't been approached by yesterday and there was some reluctance from club sources to suggest he was on the shortlist.

 

If Benitez was appointed they would fear losing control again, but they can't shirk from strong personalities. There is no point employing somebody agreeable, somebody who can fit into a management structure if they can't accommodate the creative brilliance of a man who knows what he wants.

 

Liverpool need to be prepared to be troubled by their manager. After all, there is no more intense and driven manager than Guardiola.

 

In some ways, it would be a self-destructive thankless job for Benitez. He would suffer from the high expectations from the fans who adore him and the bitter enmity from those who don't. Liverpool is not a club which observes moderation.

 

Benitez might be better off at another club where he can remind the world of his excellence as a coach. But he loves Liverpool and, given the nature of his departure two years ago and all that has happened since, he understandably craves a return.

 

He would be no more of a gamble than most of the names mentioned and the gamble comes with the baggage rather than his coaching ability. On that criteria, he is the outstanding candidate, once Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have been dismissed as fanciful.

 

FSG have heard from many sources that he is a difficult man and having had to dismiss two managers in their first 18 months, they would understandably hesitate if they are influenced by those views.

 

Nobody would claim he is easy but there is a long list of players who want to work with him again and when even Benitez's nemesis, Christian Purslow, says he is a strong candidate, FSG are risking further alienation from supporters by refusing to talk to him.

 

If he is suggested by the men advising FSG, Benitez will be approached. There is, however, a reluctance to interview him if he isn't going to get the job. Politically, it is hard to understand how they could refuse to meet him.

 

FSG would need to be convinced he could work within the model they propose and Benitez might be happy with a one-year rolling contract which would leave both sides with an exit strategy.

 

Andre Villas-Boas will be approached this week. AVB's man-management skills make Benitez look like Ron Atkinson. He is no Mr Bojangles and if anything he came out of the Chelsea debacle less tarnished than he should have been.

 

The seductive notion of the mutinous Stamford Bridge dressing room has masked how spectacularly badly he handled the job. There were strong personalities, but beyond the usual suspects it was routine to hear in his final weeks how he had alienated most players in the squad.

 

More importantly, he made a mess of his remit and was fired. Survival is the starting point for a manager and he undermined himself with his sensitivity and inability to bring key players with him. He might have learned from that but it would be a risky appointment for a dressing room that needs managing.

 

Before the FA Cup final, Pepe Reina offered an insight into Fernando Torres' problems which countered the idea that it was only the old hands at Chelsea that struggled with AVB. "It is much easier to get over mistakes when you know you have the confidence of your manager and your team-mates. With Villas-Boas, especially, I don't think Fernando felt that," he said.

 

AVB is somebody who will interview well, in fact he will probably ace an interview, which underlines the risks in their strategy.

 

A manager like Frank de Boer, who has already been approached and expressed an interest, would offer more authority and may fit within the framework. He would also allow Liverpool to make a fresh start. Alan Pardew and Marcelo Bielsa are not in contention. Despite his statement on Friday, Brendan Rodgers has not been discounted yet, while Roberto Martinez is a gamble, but a manager who fits into their model.

 

Liverpool shouldn't shirk from strong personalities. A club built on everyone getting on is doomed. So is a club where nobody gets on.

 

The managing director Ian Ayre has signed a new contract. He found it hard to stand up to Dalglish, it is said, which led to problems in the Suarez-Evra case.

 

FSG expect those they appoint to do the work they were employed to do.

 

"Do people want them to be hands-on like Abramovich, interfering in everything?" a club source asked last week.

 

Even an exceptional case like the Suarez-Evra incident was expected to be handled by Ayre, Comolli and Dalglish. None of them managed it in the most spectacular PR disaster for the club. Ayre remains at the club, rolling out his vision 'going forward'.

 

The new man, an FSG source insisted, wouldn't be fired if Liverpool finished fifth or sixth. "They aren't Chelsea," he added.

 

Dalglish is believed to have felt the demands were altered as the season progressed. He was said to be devastated last week, despite the typical public statements backing the club.

 

Liverpool's stature as a great football club stands most profoundly now in its ability to provide psychodrama. Dalglish left Anfield 21 years ago at the peak of his powers but worn down by Hillsborough. He watched people die supporting the club he loved and then felt it was his duty to let the tragedy consume him.

 

He left last week as a potent symbol of what Liverpool once stood for. He is an exiled king now, another tragic figure wandering the heath.

 

FSG took possession of the club last week. Exorcising the ghosts will be much more difficult

 

Decent read (Dion Fanning). Mentions Frank De Boer, I'd be personally happy with someone like De Boer.

 

What a contradictory article. The writer says LFC need a strong manager who knows his mind and not afraid to speak it, Dalglish did just that but that's apparently the cause of his downfall?

 

And he also says FSG now saying the new manager wont be sacked if we finish 5th or 6th? So why exactly was the King jibbed again?

[Gym Beglin]

What is realistically speaking, it all depends how you sell your ideas I guess.

 

 

My shortlist would include five names.

 

Pep Guardiola, Jogi Low, Jose Mourinho, Bert van Marwijk and Andre Villas-Boas.

 

Realistically speaking, Guardiola and Mourinho won't give us the time of day, regardless of how big a club we think we still are.

 

With an intelligent and determined CEO then Low and AvB would be astute appointments, without them though they will fail to get the support they need to oversee painful change to the club.

[Faustus]

I don't really know much about De Boer as a manager with regards to tactics and style but at face value, I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of him coming in. Has silverware on his CV (even if it is only the Dutch league), would instantly command the respect of the players because of his achievements and I imagine Suarez would quite like it as well, having been managed by him previously.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Re, de Boer,I read in the Dutch papers when Guardiola left, he said he would not leave to join Barca. Lets not forget he would have been a very strong contender for the job there being a former Barca & Ajax man.

 

He is a very strong manager, who does not take shit from his players a real disciplinarian. Also someone who has brought through lots of youngsters into the first team. I like him and he would certainly be a good choice, but I fear he is far too clever too come here just yet.

 

Code, surprised you like BVM he loves Dirk and it would guarantee Kuyt more time.

 

Plays 433 too. I honestly think Martinez has the job which I think is a mental decision made by people who have no ambition to win just to tick along.

[BCM]

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Plays 433 too. I honestly think Martinez has the job which I think is a mental decision made by people who have no ambition to win just to tick along.

 

Reading some of the interviews/articles with Ayre, the point was raised that FSG didn't want to appoint a manager first as it'd undermine his position if the DoF (or whatever) comes afterwards.

 

If true, that could indicate that whoever they have in mind for DoF has already agreed in principle and is advising, otherwise how are they coming up with names and interviewing?

 

I just can't see how they can be interviewing any potential manager without having thrashed out this supposed reshuffle of other positions, even in principle, first.

 

If they've got someone in place, and a figure like Txiki rates Martinez, then i'll reluctantly accept it. Otherwise it has all the hallmarks of the blind leading the blind.

[Guest davelfc]

Plays 433 too. I honestly think Martinez has the job which I think is a mental decision made by people who have no ambition to win just to tick along.

 

Well IF that's the case and with cups no longer being considered important I'm going to save a fortune by not ticking auto cup next season. If they don't give a shit, then why should I?