Liverpool sack Benitez

Zebedee said:
Sven's a ****. He's the ultimate in tactical anti-football devoid of even the personal charisma of Mourinho to soften the harsh reality of the hoofball. Think the S*n's just nicking an interview from Swedish press because he ain't no Liverpool supporter if he's been chatting to them - oh wait, he has done exclusives with them. **** of a man.
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Sven has become of a bit of a managerial ***** and he's proven at Mexico that he's no good at international management and it will probably be supported by the Ivory coast at the WC. However I still think he is a great club Manager and was left hard done by at Man City, his record at Lazio was quite brilliant as well, I think he could well be a candidate for the Kop job.
 
If Mascherano was single he'd be the ideal player, just seems to be controlled by his (spoilt & lazy) wife at the moment. Will be a sad day to see him leave and no doubt he will be a star where he ends up.

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Nice article from Balague the other day as well....

Rafa exit not a consequence of player power

Now it has become clear that the club no longer want Rafa Benitez at Anfield, there are a couple of issues that need clearing up...

Rafa decided last week to move the situation forward when he told me – for an article published in The Daily Mirror – that he wanted to stay. He put forward his reasons for lowering expectations and defended his good record at the club. However, the warning was there; that he would stay, “if he`s allowed”. He hasn`t been allowed, and the club feels the situation has stagnated.



Rafa told me he would love to stay but there were many obstacles. I have the impression that he had a clear idea that not everybody at the club backed him and many were happy to leave him out there in the firing line to take the blame for a disappointing and frustrating season – instead of them admitting that the team`s results were the consequence of a club that had the financial resources to enter the race in a family hatchback - but wanted the results of a Ferrari - But Rafa was NOT talking about the players at the club.



So, is player power behind all of this, as many are reporting? I think it is more a case of club power: people within the club hierarchy have decided there is no point in keeping the manager and he is the easy option to take the blame.



The reports of a complete breakdown in his relationship with key players are false. For example, Rafa called Steven Gerrard on the player`s birthday last Sunday and the pair chatted for 20 minutes.



If Gerrard is seriously thinking about a move it is not because of Rafa, but because there have been so many promises unfulfilled by the people running the club and the Liverpool captain may feel that he must go elsewhere in order to compete for titles. For an elite player, like Gerrard, titles define a career and he has given most of his professional life to Liverpool – understandably he is thinking about a move because the club is not moving in the right direction.



Gerrard has four offers from English clubs and there have been conversations with Real Madrid. Mourinho would love to work with either Lampard or Gerrard and if Mourinho convinces the Real Madrid president to fund a move, then an offer will be made for one of them. Gerrard has not conspired against Rafa even though it is quite likely that the long relationship between them had become professional. I have said before that, in my opinion, the intensive methods of Rafa, means that his squads need to be recycled regularly - every 2-3 years - for their full potential to be realised.



But reports of the distance between Rafa and his players have been grossly exaggerated – granted, he is not their best friend either, but that was not the ultimate reason for his departure. When Ryan Babel suffered an injury scare last week that threatened his place in the Dutch World Cup squad, Rafa was on the phone to him immediately to give him support.



It is true that certain players who do not feature regularly for the first team are not all entirely happy – but that is normal under any manager at any club – and it requires a huge leap of imagination to say that unhappiness brings conspiracies against the manager. The impression I am getting from key players is that they hate the idea of people thinking it was a player power versus Benitez – rather a frustration at a 7th placed finish and 4 years without a trophy and the growing sense that unless there are changes – at all levels – little will change.



My own view is that, in hindsight, if Benitez had focused all of his resources on winning the Premier League instead of trying to challenge for the cup competitions as well, maybe his story at Liverpool would have been different: delivering a league title at Anfield given the circumstances and resources of the club at the moment would have given him a huge amount of credit with the club, fans and media.



However, as he admitted to me in his last interview as Liverpool manager, during his six years at Liverpool, Manchester have United averaged 83 points a season, Chelsea 77.8 and Arsenal 77 - and in two of those seasons Liverpool have broken their all time record points tally - 82 points in 2006 and 86 in 2009. Yet even that appears to have not been enough.



So what`s next?

Reaching a severance agreement will not be easy. Rafa will remain in holiday in Sardinia while the lawyers do the talking - and the £3 million being offered might not be enough…



Benitez` best option was Juventus: he did consider it, but was never entirely convinced because he felt there was a chance to stay and finish the job at Anfield. Inter Milan is the most likely option, but taking on the job of managing a club with an ageing squad that has just won everything is not a challenge many would relish.
 
From what i can put together, Rafa's like marmite to the players, confidence players and those who need an arm around, didn't like him for his impersonal approach like Reira (****), But got the best out of the other type of players, like Mascherano who don't need this.
 
Jack Fulham said:
Sven has become of a bit of a managerial ***** and he's proven at Mexico that he's no good at international management and it will probably be supported by the Ivory coast at the WC. However I still think he is a great club Manager and was left hard done by at Man City, his record at Lazio was quite brilliant as well, I think he could well be a candidate for the Kop job.
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He spent £400 million at Lazio and the debt nearly took them out of existance. Did a decent job with Benfica early in his career but it wasn't pretty football by any imagination - Sven's an acolyte of the 'drill defensively, counter-attack by direct ball' style of football that Houllier practised. Ferguson had it right when Sven discovered he was a Manchester United supporter since birth shortly after Ferguson said he was retiring. Can't pull the quote out at the moment, but maybe some of the Manchester United fans would remember it...

Anyways, he's an odious old lech whose not won a trophy in ten years and hasn't been touched by any club of any note since his near disastrous spell at Man City. ;)
 
Come on lee. i aint got the brain power to read all that.

Anyway on mascherano, ****** woman, a bet she doesnt whine at the 90 odd k a week he brings home for her to spend,

Just like vidics ******* wife.
 
Ride The Walrus said:
From what i can put together, Rafa's like marmite to the players, confidence players and those who need an arm around, didn't like him for his impersonal approach like Reira (****), But got the best out of the other type of players, like Mascherano who don't need this.
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The word with Riera is that his head expanded when he got his Spanish call-up and he started on a big ego trip. Then he slapped Pacheco in training and was hammered for it internally. That's when he started bleating to the press.

There's only one player who seems to think that an arm around his shoulder is needed - Henry Winter ghostwrote his autobiography - so it's possible that he's the source of the stories. Not helped of course by Rafa wanting to sell Alonso after two bad seasons, only for the Barry deal to get bolloxed by Parry, Alonso turned in the season of his career after that kick up the **** but the damage was done with his relationship with Rafa and he wanted out.

This kind of stuff is part and parcel of the game. It's surface excuses for whatever reasons the board have for removing him.
 
Zebedee said:
The word with Riera is that his head expanded when he got his Spanish call-up and he started on a big ego trip. Then he slapped Pacheco in training and was hammered for it internally. That's when he started bleating to the press.

There's only one player who seems to think that an arm around his shoulder is needed - Henry Winter ghostwrote his autobiography - so it's possible that he's the source of the stories. Not helped of course by Rafa wanting to sell Alonso after two bad seasons, only for the Barry deal to get bolloxed by Parry, Alonso turned in the season of his career after that kick up the **** but the damage was done with his relationship with Rafa and he wanted out.

This kind of stuff is part and parcel of the game. It's surface excuses for whatever reasons the board have for removing him.
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Aye, heard about that, didn't Pacheco not pass to him, so Riera slapped him. Rather have Pacheco anyways :wub::wub::wub:
 
Ride The Walrus said:
Aye, heard about that, didn't Pacheco not pass to him, so Riera slapped him. Rather have Pacheco anyways :wub::wub::wub:
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Aye. Riera wasn't happy about training with the reserves and it kind of spilled out it would seem... Idiot of a man. He'd got to the brink of getting to the World Cup with one of the best teams in Spain after having been a journeyman pro for most of his career and then he goes and stops working. Can't understand that.
 
Zebedee said:
Aye. Riera wasn't happy about training with the reserves and it kind of spilled out it would seem... Idiot of a man. He'd got to the brink of getting to the World Cup with one of the best teams in Spain after having been a journeyman pro for most of his career and then he goes and stops working. Can't understand that.
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Good riddance, he can't cross, pass shoot off the floor, and he's a selfish get
 
If he goes who will be the next liverpool manager?

Another Spanish,Manuel Pellegrini?
 
Zebedee said:
He was meant to be gone this January, but gone quiet on that front hasn't it?
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I thought Sparta Moscow has a loan agreement arranged, but Reira pulled out of it, saying he didnt like the climate or something.

hellroker said:
If he goes who will be the next liverpool manager?

Another Spanish,Manuel Pellegrini?
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he has gone mate
 
Scott* said:
I thought Sparta Moscow has a loan agreement arranged, but Reira pulled out of it, saying he didnt like the climate or something.
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Didn't hear that. Knew he was meant to be off to Russian league. Good riddance to him to be honest. Can't be doing with that kind of player. Same when a player doesn't make a transfer request to keep their 'loyalty' bonus but agitates like **** to get moved on. At least have some balls and say 'I want out please' and put in a request, and if they don't want to lose out on the money they should be knuckling down and working hard to get their massively inflated wages in any case.

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Ride The Walrus - aye. Easier to blame the manager though isn't it as the internal stuff is kept out of the media by and large? Heh.

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Random thing this - but was looking at this inflation thing the other night. If football tickets had gone up according solely to inflation, a ticket to get in to see a Premier League game should now cost just £6. Mad stuff. And I'm sounding like an old fart, so I'm off on hols for a week to get wasted and try to forget about football until the World Cup begins.
 
Benitez is reportedly taking charge of Inter Milan sometime next week, it has been hinted.
Sky Sports News
 
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