Skeggie

The club is struggling at mid-table but the manager still has to carry the expectations of a top four team. Rafa's reputation was completely destroyed by the media in this country. Any potential new manager will need to have balls of steel and will not have Dalglish's understanding of the club or the level of goodwill from supporters. FSG have made a big mistake imo.

Wonder what Paul 'the owners consult me' Tompkins has to say now.

It's just great to see him playing with confidence and the media worm turning after all the bad press he's had.

Totally agree, particularly with regard to Rafa. The bile that he had to suffer from our lovely media would have furnished a good case to take to the European Court of Human Rights. The terrible press he got was instrumental in ending his tenure at the club and ruining his reputation as a manager, which will take years to rebuild if ever. Cotton should have taken steps to protect and advise him from the start but clearly chose to let him sink or swim.

Why cunt? He’s no more a cunt than you are if you have to use that word … and we all know Xabi and him are still mates. They both left us - the only difference between the two being that the club made a business decision to hang Torres out to dry, even though Alonso’s departure was infinitely more damaging. Loved Torres when he was here and don’t understand the depth of the hatred and mockery directed towards him. Superb for us until injury and a crisis of confidence, exacerbated by a terrible World Cup, got the better of him. The chanting was pathetic and exactly what we condemned Newcastle’s fans for. For some reason he seems to have become a lightning rod for all the anger and frustration built up over the Hicks and Gillet years and beyond, although his only ‘crime’ was to leave the club under circumstances that are still to be fully explained. He then made uncharacteristically intemperate comments which were clearly the result of whatever shenanigans had gone on behind the scenes. I remember him saying at the time that he had been made to feel Anfield was no longer his home … make of that what you will. To my mind there are more legitimate targets for anger, including some club 'legends' whose culpability in lowering of morale, the departure of Benitez and the arrival of Hodgson has been largely ignored. No wonder Carragher always raises his game against Torres - self-justification demands it – and we all lap it up.