Would anyone be surprised if he quit Liverpool?
Football FanCast guest columnist James Marsh would hate to see Rafa leave Liverpool, but wouldn’t be surprised if he quit for Madrid.
As one of my colleague pointed out earlier today that with Manuel Pellegrini under increasing pressure at Real Madrid, then it is obvious that Rafa Benitez’s name will be touted as a potential successor should Florentino Perez bow down to media pressure and make the change. I doubt many would be surprised if he in fact does pull the trigger, almost as much as I wouldn’t be if Rafa decides to call it a day at Anfield if the job was offered.
I have to confess that the way Benitez has been treated by the media, the owners and so called experts and pundits has been nothing short of a disgrace and the sheer ignorance of them astounds me. Why they seem to bring out the stats and how many games have been lost this season, how much money Benitez has spent etc….the one thing that they fail to have pointed out is that is that the football club has actually improved year on year and the fact that he has lifted the FA Cup and Champions League in the last five years. That may not seem much to most people, but you ask whether someone like Arsene Wenger, or Arsenal fans whether they would like to have seen themselves win a couple of trophies after the four years without winning a thing. The very fact we also reached another Champions League final, as well as the Carling Cup seems to go unnoticed as well.
It is the year on year improvement that must be the definitive argument in this and have we gone backwards under Rafa; the answer is no, however it doesn’t stop this negative picture that has been painted and why after every game has seemingly become a Rafa cup final where the Press are just waiting in the wings to shoot him down at every opportunity. You only had to look at the emotion in Rafa’s face after Sunday’s win to know that he is a man being put under extreme pressure.
So could anyone blame him if he turned his back on us if Madrid come calling? Although Martinez claimed he was misquoted, the sentiments of what was said does show that the world and his wife in English football is against Benitez and although Rafa has shown a remarkable amount of thick skin and an incredible amount of class in the way he has stood up to them and never ducked away from any press conference or post match interview, but surely there is only so much a man can take.
I would hate to see Rafa leave as I think he is doing a fantastic job at Liverpool. Results have been indifferent, but we have been on the end of some rotten luck in recent weeks and certainly haven’t deserved to get beaten like we have, however that isn’t reported and instead a picture has been painted of a dead man walking. Rafa doesn’t deserve it, and as much as I hope he’ll spurn any potential advances from Madrid, I wonder if any Liverpool fan would be surprised if he did quit Merseyside, given what he has to take from all angles, on what is seemingly a weekly basis.
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are you having a laugh…Liverpool will not, i repeat will not win the leaugue under this manager.
If you dont believe look at the 2nd half performance today, look at the fioretina
match, sunderland, it is starting to get serious now, unless the actions of this manager are assessed i fear we will not finish in the top four, let alone win anything, and dont use the excuse of blaming the americans, he bought in lucas, voronin, babel, kyriagos(who wasnt good enough for the spl), he took of torres and benayoun today, not the yanks, he continues to play kuyt (he works hard, but what else does he do) and he is resposible for alonso leaving.
Today i have to say enough is enough, give the job to dalglish till the end of the season and then see where we stand.
Today i have to say RAFA OUT
i hope he quits. this manager sucks, and his decision making, his tactical plan, his selection — is pure madness. i know they say latin men can sometimes act a little loco, but this guy is pure bonkers. sack him now. liverpool fans should boo him every time we see him and demand his resignation. or hope that the two losers sack him.
Obviously not Liverpool fans, hey james and des? Now you tell me what team the two EPL managers who have won the Premiership (Wenger, Ferguson) would have fielded today given the injury crisis faced by Liverpool… Benitez is a fantastic manager – but he is also very pragmatic – he has to save the few players who can play for a EUR 20 million match come Tuesday in Lyon. As for me, a boyhood Liverpool fan, I would not change Benitez for anyone.
i think you are a man utd fan voland. you are as big a moron as rafa is. he will never win us a championship. did you just see the fulham game? did you see the reaction of torres, benayoun and kuyt? why take off 3 of the best players on the pitch when you are (a) in a draw, (b) losing, (c) losing even more with a man down?
only a dumb fan like you can state what you stated. if i were you i will go lobotomize myself.
oh, one more thing … all losers stick with other losers. hence, all the losers will back rafa. i think people who have enlightened self learning will understand a losing situation and cut their losses and switch strategies.
i say give kenny dalglish a chance. i watched him in the 70s and loved the guy. he won for us on and off the field. and he wont cost us an arm and a leg. sack benitez and let kenny have a go for the remainder of this season. then again, with losers as managers and so many loser / man utd fans pretending to be liverpool fans sucking up to rafa to deceive, we will never go anywhere, and certainly, there is zero chance any year to win the championship as long as this lunatic is in charge.
so des, your calling Kenny a loser because he is sticking with Rafa he thinks he’s the best man for the job.
True LIVERPOOL fans can see that yes at the minutes things aren’t going well were loosing games but what do you expect with the injuries we have ?? he brought Torres off because he is not fully fit, do you want him to be out for another month or so ??
Many united fans wanted fergie to be sacked at the start of his managerial career there but the board stuck with him and luck were they are !!!
Winning the Prem doesn’t just happen in one season you have to build a squad over many years and thats what rafa is doing. He took a blow loosing Alonso, but hes brought in another quality midfielder who will grow better under rafa.
Any TRUE LIVERPOOL fan will stick by rafa !!!
IN RAFA WE TRUST !!!
no mate, I’m a liverpool fan and live not far from the ground and I definitely want RAFA OUT. Even my mate’s said the same and he would never have a word said against him.
IN RAFA I DON’T TRUST.
get lost, you have now seriously lost the plot.
RAFA has lost the plot. We all got sucked in at the start of the season by the Americans lack of cash. It appears the real root of the problem lies within Rafa’s pigheaded style of managing. He has had many chances to improve the squad over the years but has not. He has bought overated reserve players that do not suit the EPL style. Don’t think that King Kenny would not jump at the possibility of taking over for atleast 6 months. We need a British Manager end of story.
The complete lack of understnding shown by some is amazing. if the ‘Get Rafa out’ critics would think back, the reason why we ar in this shit is because Rafa had his transfer fund pulled on him in summer. When he bougt Aquilani, he bellievd he had another £20 available, which was to go towards getting Silva. Te owners took this to pay off debt. The only reason whay Rafa held onto Voronin was because any small money we got for him wuld also hav isappeared. As it is, rumour has it we have to sell Babel to fund a new contract for Reina. I’d lov to see Babel go, but the money raised should go towards a new player. We are in this sitation because Hicks nd Gillett are not prepared to invest in players.