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In six months, the Benitez era will seem like a golden age - Sport, Frontpage - Independent.ie You can say what you want. But Ferguson took the mancs to 13th and 11th succesively in his early years. One bad year for Rafa, under ridiculous circumstances, should not have seen the back of him. He was building a dynasty and as you watch Hodgson's liverpool through the cracks of your fingers, reminiscing about Milan, Juve, Real Madrid, Chelsea victories...I hope you finally can admit that you were wrong. Oh and by the way. You can all spout that "Hes gone, get over it" rubbish. He has gone. But who the fuck are we going to replace him with? When people point back to Rafa, they aren't missing Rafa. They're missing the belief that they have a world class manager, who has a long term vision, who understands the city and it's fans, who appreciates the deep rooted history of our club and works night and day to place us back on that pedestal. When you can replace that belief, i'll fucking get over it.

BENITEZ WANTS DOMESTIC GLORY | Football Transfer News, Football News, Fixtures, Results, Match Reports, Stats Rafael Benitez would rather win the Barclays Premier League trophy than another Champions League title. Following a disappointing start to the season which has seen them lose five league games already, many are ruling the Reds out of the title race this term. Nevertheless, Benitez, who brought the Champions League trophy to Anfield in 2005, is desperate to claim the domestic crown. He told The Times: "Anyone who knows me knows that I want to win every trophy, every game. "But if you ask me what I prefer, I will say the Premier League. "If I do not win the title, I'm sure I'd be so disappointed maybe I would have this feeling [of failure]." Many saw last term as a great chance for Liverpool to challenge for the Premier League title, but Benitez saw his plans scuppered when he failed to bring Gareth Barry to Liverpool. And he believes the season would have turned out differently - possibly even with his ultimate goal reached - had Barry moved to Anfield. "You never know," he said. "Football is a funny game. "The plan was for Barry to play on the left and feed the ball to Robbie Keane, who would play up front with Fernando Torres. "This blueprint had to be scrapped. The collateral damage was Keane, who signed from Tottenham Hotspur before the Barry deal had been done. "When we wanted to sign Barry, we were sure we were signing a good player with a very good mentality and the quality to play in the Premier League. The priority was Barry, then Keane."

Gray last night in another attempt to rubbish Rafa. He said that Houllier left Rafa a far stronger group of players than Rafa left Hodgson; Gray's then said that Gerard Houllier would agree with him - no shit Sherlock; this came after five minutes of him and Keyes sucking up to Hodgson; they spoke to him just like you would talk to an aged, slightly senile relative. A new low. As Hodgson is feeling good after his victory last night this would be a humane time to sack him.

Bayer Leverkusen executive Wolfgang Holzhauser has confirmed that Sami Hyypia wanted to re-sign for Liverpool. New Anfield manager Roy Hodgson confessed earlier in August that he had unsuccessfully attempted to prise the veteran centre-back out of the remaining one year of his contract in Germany. Hyypia left Liverpool at the end of the 2008/09 season when former boss Rafa Benitez decided not to offer the ex-Finland defender a new deal after 10 years on Merseyside. But Holzhauser has confirmed that Hyypia was keen to return to England, having worked with summer appointment Hodgson at international level. Open discussion Holzhauser told the Express newspaper: "Sami came to us asking if there would be any chance to return to Liverpool. "We had an open discussion. Sami accepted straight away that we were desperate to keep him here. "He is too important for us and a valuable part of our first-team squad. We could easily imagine keeping Sami at our club for more than the remaining year of his contract. "He may add another season on the pitch and we are also considering adding him to our backroom staff afterwards, if he wants." According to reports, Hodgson wanted to offer Hyypia a four-year contract that would see the 36-year-old play until June 2011 before moving into a role as assistant manager. skysports ------ wish he did come back

Rafa needs to come out today in response to what Hicks has said about substancial funds been available, now we all know that this is bollocks and Hicks is a lying cunt, but everytime they come out with this sort of rubbish it has to be jumped on and there lies highlighted. Rafa Benitez has a duty to the fans to respond to this today IMO, he has to come out and say what he's been told regarding money available, and if as we suspect theres nothing to spend he must say it and highlight Hicks lies, as everytime we can expose there lies it helps the battlle against them, I wonder what Broughton and Purslow has to say about this transfer fund.

can we get a rafa forum to move all these shite threads to?

I was trawling through Irish Kop earlier and saw this Sos - Page 43 - IrishKop.com (last post) Anyone heard anything about Rafa meeting SOS in march??