Benitaur

Theres too many people been playing football manager on the computer. IF Rafa leaves, everyone assumes that any manager could do a decent job, especially with quality players such as Gerrard, Torres, Reina, Mascherano etc etc. Bullshit. See what happened to Aimar, Ayala etc etc after Rafa left. Faded into obscurity. Suddenly everyone will be saying that Torres/Gerrard/Carra aren't as good . Think of Gerrard or Torres playing for us, but their national team form, not their club top form. Still good, but nowhere near as good. As much as I like Kenny, his time has passed. What Rafa brought to the club, and before him Houllier, is a level of professionalism that our club didn't have. All this talk about restoring pride with Kenny will be in for a shock, and will probably be the first ones calling for his head when we lose the first 3 games. Newcastle is an apt comparison IMO I think the best option is if we get a new owner, and Rafa gets to finally spend on an even ground with Chelsea and City. Then we will be able to see what he is worth All the critics point out to all the dross, while failing to notice that those players are the bargain basement ones. How can a manager be called bad in the transfer market, yet have bought arguably the best striker, best keeper and defensive midfielder in the world? We even had the second best controller of the game in Alonso too. One that turned Gerrard into a 20 goal a season player, and Carra into a top class CB Mark my words, if Rafa leaves, these two will "suddenly" be crap too

Top post. Completely agree with everything, except your last sentence, which confuses me

Why don't you look at actual facts. What happened to Valencia after Rafa left? How does a team brimming with such talent not win anything for so many years? Why did Ayala went from the best defender in the world to nothing? (Carra if Rafa leaves) Why did Aimar become from one of the world's best, to a nobody playing in portugal? (Torres and Gerrard potentially) Heck, even a bum like Mista became recognised as a top striker under Rafa When things click together and we are trashing teams 4-0, its the players credit When things aren't working, players being injured, its Rafa's fault. Yep I got it. Many don't like the Spanish waiter Yep, can't wait for another manager, maybe even an British manager, and become a laughing stock in Europe again, fearing the likes of FC Basel. We certainly hate it that Rafa's "defensive" liverpool are feared in Europe as they are masters of the home and away fixtures And yes, we could play a good old fashioned 4-4-2, and end up playing like Aston Villa. Attacking football, but ultimately 0 trophies Then we can be like the bitters, and celebrate whenever we can hold the Mancs to a draw. Yay, Rafa is leaving. Just can't wait

You do know that we have a 0 net spend the last 3 transfer windows right? While City, Spurs and Villa have had more to add to their squad each of these windows? While we do indeed have world class players, a team trying to win trophies should never have free transfers and 2 million players in their first squad

Thats literally EVERY top manager. 1) Cause so much trouble I would be curious which manager would you get that wouldn't want a transfer budget? Rafa has had net spend of 0 the last 3 transfer seasons 2) average players Well, I don't know that many managers that buy fantastic players in the 0-2 million range But given the right budget, Rafa has bought arguably the best striker, goalie and defensive midfielder in the world. He has even turned Gerrard and Carra into world class performers (while under Houllier, Gerrard was only potential) Yeah, most here would say that any manager would have done that. Tell that to all the world class players under Rafa in Valencia. After Rafa left, what have you heard of Aimar, Ayala etc etc? Nothing. Valencia have bought fantasy teams since Rafa left. I reckon nearly their whole first squad would walk into our squad. But without the right manager, they have done considerably worse than us in their league. 3) Play defensively Capello, Mourinho etc etc. ALL defensive coaches. Whats your point? There is no such thing as GOOD offensive managers. Managers like Wenger, and even further back Cruyff are anomalies that need the budget and total control to build a team into their own image. Rafa was never given this chance Managers like Rijkaard were lucky that he stumbled upon a great barca side that just bought Ronaldinho before he got too injured, and Messi who was emerging (not to mention Xavi, Iniesta etc) 4) Won fuck all in 4 years Yep, and whoever comes after will give us more of the same, because Chelsea, the Mancs, City, Spurs and Villa will spend much more this transfer season and the next While we will still be reliant on our few world class players we do have, our hard working average players of around 5-10 mil (Kuyt, Benayoun, etc) and a whole lot of bosmans and reserves who are hopefully good enough

Alonso was 30 mil upfront. Rafa wouldn't sell him any other way. Real had to cough up or shut up. Nothing to imply there, its all over the news at the time. Aquilani cost 5 mil upfront. The rest are in appearances, based on success and maybe even salary. Fact, we had only about 20 mil to spend, and it didn't matter how much we sold I can't comment about Ibrahimovic, but anything other than a straight exchange of Eto'o for Ibrahimovic is crazy IMO. Eto'o is one of the best strikers in the world.

Could it be that *gasp* flair players cost money and are temperamental? All your grafters bar Mascherano are 10 mil under players. All over are flair players. Most of the players that you complain about are 5 mil or below, and are expected to be part of the first team. Saying he does not like flair players is like saying I don't like a Bugatti Veyron sitting in my garage. The main difference with Rafa and Guardiola is that Guardiola inherited Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Alves, Henry and Henry to name a few. Rafa kept the only ones that were worth keeping ie Gerrard, Carra and Hyypia When Guardiola wanted to, he easily traded Eto'o AND pay 40 mil euros to get Ibrahimovic Rafa had to sell Alonso (30 mil) and Arbeloa (6 mil) for Johnson (10 mil) and Aquilani (5 mil upfront, the rest in installments). Thats a 21 mil profit and expected to strengthen the squad.

Not like Rafa has ever used flair players before, like Aimar. Nor has he ever tried to get flair players of the sort, like Silva/Mata etc /sarcasm The only reason we managed to get Aquilani is that he's cheap (5mil upfront and the rest in installments and on success) Otherwise

I think thats the long term plan. Thats why Rafa wanted to control the academy Ultimately, this should be the long term goal, producing our own stars. Thats why we hired those Barca coaches, didn't we? Hoping for a billionaire to come and splurge a couple of hundred million with absolutely no hope of seeing any returns is not a practical solution.

Right man for the job? We've had Hiddink, Sven, Scolari and now Ancellotti and Mancini in the league. NONE of them will win the league without billionaire bucks. Even past winners like Wenger and King Kenny (if he ever returns for us) will never win the league without a billionaire budget. Simply put, without a realistic budget to win anything, Rafa will be the LAST manager of that calibre we will see in our ranks. We simply can't keep going like this, competing for players the level Spurs and even the bitters are after. The only world class players who come to us are the ones who are fans and won't go to our rivals (Torres, and now possibly Kjaer and Turan).

He hasn't walked because, like Wenger and Fergie, he wants to build long term, and was promised control of the academy and transfers. Not many top clubs will give you this, and definitely Real Madrid wouldn't I believe Rafa was sold on the idea by the owners to stay on by being able to build from the youth up, like Arsenal and Barcelona does. He has even brought in the scouts and trainers from Barca in hopes of producing such players in the future. The main thing for this to happen is to have our new stadium. Like at Arsenal, the plan logically would be to give a large enough budget to buy players capable of winning trophies, and young enough to play for years to come, while building the stadium. After that, the goal would be to produce world class players from the Academy, while it will probably take a decade give or take to pay for the stadium. Its not conjecture and speculation when its stated in interviews. Its straight from the horse's mouth We got rid of them (I presume you mean Alonso), because we are broke. He stated clearly that he left for the tax breaks and because Real were building something interesting with the crazy spending. I bet everything I own, that if Rafa was given crazy money last season, with us buying Villa, Silva, Mata and whoever else you salivate over, Alonso wouldn't have left (presumably given a bumped up contract too). I think too, that seeing the reality of the situation, there aren't that many billionaires with money to burn. Literally money to burn, because football isn't a money making business if you have to reinvest in players all the time. Its simply unsustainable as a business.

Yep. We've had 2 atrocious transfer seasons where Rafa was ordered to have a net profit which he cannot use to buy players. Rafa has admitted this himself several times As for Gerrard in the middle. His goal tally reflects that doesn't it? Well done! He was better at the right, or behind the striker, where he has a free role IMO. BTW, strikers we sold in the past that you mention now play for clubs richer than us in the transfer market too. Lets not forget that, shall we?

As usual, the anti-Rafa brigade with their usual rubbish. If Rafa were given a bigger budget, I sure WOULD trust him to spend it. His whole history with us, he HASN'T gone after the big names, unlike what the "fans" want. When we got Rafa originally, everyone was hoping we would get half his Valencia with him. Instead he has been buying the unknowns or "potentials". And we ended up currently with arguably: 1) The best striker in the world 2) The best goalkeeper in the world 3) The best defensive midfielder in the world He also turned Carra into one of the best defenders around, and Gerrard into a 20 goal a season player, in positions he supposedly doesn't like playing, on the right and as a striker If he were to follow Jamie Redknapp or some other idiot who believes Gerrard's place is in the middle, and nowhere else, he would be a 10 goal a season player max, and Lampard wouldn't even have competition in the national team. We also had the pleasure of having one of the best passers in the world, and the current heartbeat of the Real team. Lil Luis too was a pleasure to have, and brought so many good memories for me. Even the much maligned Kuyt is the most prolific "winger" in any of the top leagues besides Messi, Ronaldo (he's a striker these days), Ribery and Robben. No doubt they are the very top wingers in the world, but Kuyt is the next best goalwise. As for our "turgid" style of play. We were the second highest scoring team in the league two seasons ago, and the highest last season. Arguably, that makes us the best 2 most entertaining teams in the league the last 2 seasons, doesn't it? In fact, we were scoring at the same rate the beginning of this season as compared with our free scoring rate end of last season. Its just that we couldn't buy a clean sheet that killed us in Europe. We have the worst budget of the top 4. In fact we have had to make money from sales and buy cheaper alternatives and yet are expected to win. As it is even the bitters have been spending on more expensive players than us the last couple of transfer seasons. BTW before he is brought up, Aquilani only cost us 5 mil this season. 20 mil includes add ons etc and is paid over several seasons. So we sold Alonso for straight up 30 mil cash, and Arbeloa for 6(?) million. We bought Aquilani for 5 mil, Johnson for 10 mil (7 mil contra for Crouch) and 2 mil for Krygiokos. Thats a 19 mil profit, not including sales of Voronin and Dossena.

Messi. Already the greatest player currently playing and will only get better. If he is to win a World Cup, he would equal Zidane in achievements, as I believe in this Barca team, they will win many things for many years to come. Bar being tragically injury prone, Messi may even surpass Maradona

Fact is, since 2005, of all the managers still in the league, Rafa is the second best manager in terms of achievement behind Fergie Other big names that have come and gone like Scolari, Hiddink, Sven etc didn't achieve anything. Neither will Mancini. Maybe Ancellotti will stop fergie's 19th. Maybe not. Wenger definitely won't win the league while Fergie is around, and City and Chelsea have more money. Mourinho ends up being hated by his team's own fans. Look at Chelsea. Look at Inter. They hate him there now. We will hate him here too if he doesn't win us the league on the first try Hiddink did show good football when he was with Chelsea. But there is no guarantee he would have won the league with Chelsea even if he was there from the start of the season. Besides, I have my doubts about managers who "need permission" from Abramovich to join us as manager. I believe there are journeymen managers, and builder managers. Mourinho and Hiddink are journeyman. They don't build teams for the long term. Fergie, Rafa, Wenger are builders. You can see this clearly in the direction they take in their youth etc. Personally I would prefer to see the completion of Rafa's project rather than change tracks halfway just because of a bad season. Realistically, we are far behind in terms of our stadium and finances. So while I do want us to win the league, it might be beyond us right now. We just have to stay competitive, be in the Champions league, until our stadium is done. Rafa has gone 3 transfer seasons having to make a net profit on transfers. This realistically means 3 transfer seasons of weakening our team while still expected to win trophies. And this in a league where you have to spend big bucks just to stay where you are. Its no wonder City and Spurs are pushing us close Maybe by the time Fergie retires we will be ready to pounce if our stadium and finances are able to support building a winning team

Whoah, I like the looks of the Anderlecht player Lukaku. 16 years old 6 foot 3, powerful and pacey YouTube - Romelu Lukaku goals

I said his style is more like Hamann than Alonso. I am cannot compare them considering Hamann is past his prime, and Lucas is around 5 years before he hit his. If you want to compare, fine. Hamann at the same age (20) was struggling to get into the Bayern first team squad. Lucas already was the best player in the Brazilian league, captain of the Brasil under 21s. By 23, both players broke into the first team of Liverpool and Bayern respectively after being a bench player. Once Lucas gets more confidence and starts scoring, we will finally see the Lucas that we bought from Gremio. He has ghosted into good scoring positions several times already this season, but has yet to convert. By comparison with his peers of CMs bought by our rivals, I dare say I rate Lucas above Anderson, Denilson or Mikel.

The fact that Hamann was already 26 years old, and already a German National team regular, already played for Bayern and Newcastle at the highest level have anything to do with it? Lucas came as a 19/20 year old, voted the best player in the Brazilian league. Already a Brazilian national team squad player. Under 20 Brazil captain. If allowed to progress, I have no doubt at 26 years old he would be better than Hamann was at the same age. For those saying Hamann is better, Momo was better than Hamann when we allowed him to leave. Lucas is a better player than Momo. Thats my point above. BTW Hamann plays NOTHING like Masch. They may both play as DMs but their style is nothing alike.

The problem is, people are expecting him to be as good as Alonso. No one is. Alonso is orchestrating Real now and IMO is more important than Ronaldo or Kaka there. Lucas = Hamann. His style of tackling is similar, and if both were around today, Lucas would be playing more. Passes better too.

Our scoring rate at the beginning of this season is as good as our rate towards the end of last season. But our defense has been shit for numerous reasons ie new back 4, injuries etc. So "letting them off the leash" has been giving us Arsenal like results. High scoring wins, and crappy loses to set plays and ultra defensive teams. Besides, letting the team off the leash doesn't work as well when Gerrard, Torres, Benayoun and Kuyt are not on top form. ALL our matches in Europe in the group stages, we would be comfortably through if we didn't concede (or conceded LESS one goal every game). But we conceded late goals in our last 3 important games. So game over. So, contrary to the media opinion and of some of our fans, our problems isn't "Rafa letting the team off the leash". Its Rafa actually doing so. Now that we have gone back to a more defensive style of play, we have been winning. When Torres, Gerrard, Benayoun and Kuyt get to full fitness and form, then we can expect our attacking play to improve

Nope, no Mourinho, no Hiddink They're both too close to Abramovich. We'll never be "allowed" to win over Chelski

Oh come on. He's a decent enough player. Even if we get a world class winger, no harm having him on the bench. I thought this season has thought us that having a paper thin squad won't win us anything unless everyone is miraculously fit and 100% the whole season

Buy them young, sell them at a profit if they don't make it. If they do make it, great I see nothing wrong with this. Good policy

Not only those three. Besides Agger, Skrtel and Johnson seem to be wearing casts on their arms alot. Are they practicing wristlocks or something? Perhaps throw the whole team into a judo class to learn how to break fall properly?

Which is why I think that Torres should be partnered with the best battering ram there is, Kevin Davies. I know many don't fancy him. But as a shit house battering ram, arial threat etc, there is none better. Let him bang about the defenders, take the hits, while Torres does what he does best