Liverpool FC

[kinboshi]

1time

[The Baron]

Wouldnt be surprised to see Gerrard to go work with Jose at real.

Torres should stay I reckon now depending on who comes in.

One thing that has always worried me about Rafa is the fact that no player ever seems to get on with him apart from on a professional level.

Agree no manager alive can convince gerrard he'll win the league at Liverpool Coz he won't

[77dave]

Not impressed with the names the bookies have as the favs for next manager

Surely there must be better candidates than this

Cant think of any former players or boot room to be given a shout.

Out of left field id like to see Roy Keane i know i know but i think he would do a job

[sovietsong]

Not impressed with the names the bookies have as the favs for next manager

Surely there must be better candidates than this

Cant think of any former players or boot room to be given a shout.

Out of left field id like to see Roy Keane i know i know but i think he would do a job

he's doing an incred job at ipswich at the moment doubt you'd be able to prize him away.

[kinboshi]

Not impressed with the names the bookies have as the favs for next manager

Surely there must be better candidates than this

Cant think of any former players or boot room to be given a shout.

Out of left field id like to see Roy Keane i know i know but i think he would do a job

no no no and no

[Ironside]

will keegan walk again

[boldie]

Hiddink

Not going to happen. Hiddink has never broken a contract in his life and has just told Inter the same according to Dutch newspapers. He only just started with Turkey so, unless Liverpool want to pay the Turkish FA off, it ain't gonna happen.

[MC]

Sheeeet!

It's a done deal. Awesome decision.

FYP

He needed to go imo

[jizzemm]

plz die hicks and gillette

that is all..

[kinboshi]

Sheeeet!

It's a done deal. Awesome decision.

FYP

He needed to go imo

But without a replacement, and without a new owner, doesn't mean that we're any better off.

[sweet potata!]

Sheeeet!

It's a done deal. Awesome decision.

FYP

He needed to go imo

But without a replacement, and without a new owner, doesn't mean that we're any better off.

We may not be better off but at least the new manager wont be playing 2 defensive Midfielders and i may not be bored to tears like i was for about 90% of Liverpool games last season.

[jizzemm]

We may not be better off but at least the new manager wont be playing 2 defensive Midfielders and i may not be bored to tears like i was for about 90% of Liverpool games last season.

QFT   

[TightEnd]

Guardian today

n time of crisis Tom Hicks and George Gillett cannot be accused of lying low. Liverpool's owners brought the maximum attention on themselves by parting with the manager Rafael Benítez.

There had been plenty of upheaval already, with campaigns mounted by fans to draw attention to the vast indebtedness heaped on a club bearing the cost of its own takeover.

The Americans still chose to ditch Benítez. It is impossible not to think this step is connected to the desire of Hicks and Gillett to offload the club. One theory would be that they are clearing the ground for the next proprietor, who will have a completely fresh start. There are suggestions, too, that the managing director, Christian Purslow, was far from entranced by the prospect of the manager staying.

There should not be undue hand-wringing over Benítez. His devoted backers naturally value a person whose side took the Champions League so spectacularly in 2005 and perhaps played better football in losing the final to Milan two years later. Equally, however, there are detractors who consider that his net spend has been substantial and ought to have led somewhere more exalted than the seventh place Premier League finish achieved last month.


For each person who marvels rightly at the feat of signing Fernando Torres, for a fee that came to be regarded as a bargain, another will talk of wasted money, frittered away on several newcomers who did not look cut out for the expectations. While all managers make slips, the underachievement of Alberto Aquilani has raised questions about Benítez.

The signing from Roma took longer than expected to get over an injury, but did not have the anticipated impact when he was in condition to play. Benítez then dropped Aquilani and the reported £20m outlay seemed to have gone on a person unsuited to the Premier League. The manager might also have been unlucky on occasions.

His counterparts at other clubs were, for instance, keenly interested in Ryan Babel and few would have anticipated the Dutchman's subsequent lack of development. Then again, a counter argument insists that Babel is a central attacker who has gone into decline while stuck on the left. Benítez, it is certain, would disagree and he has a severity that can make him slow to reconsider.

The manager divides opinion and does not appear to have the facility of rewarding men who have served him well with the emotional warmth that human beings crave. Jamie Carragher was amused when Benítez came on to the pitch after the goalless draw in Turin that took Liverpool past Juventus in the 2005 Champions League and turned out not to be bearing compliments. The manager wanted instead to highlight a lapse when the defender had not tracked an opponent.

In the context of success, such conduct is seen as idiosyncratic and even engaging in its fanaticism. While that type of chiding will dishearten footballers on more mundane occasions, it is doubtful if Benítez can adjust his approach to suit specific occasion. He is not the victim of player power, but neither could he have believed that he had unqualified support from senior squad members.

Nobody speaks of a dressing room uprising, but there would have been ramifications if Liverpool looked like mid-table material again next season. It is hard to picture the hitherto loyal Torres agreeing to cut himself off again from the upper reaches of the Premier League and the Champions League action.

Benítez did himself no good during a particularly awkward spell last season when he guaranteed that the club would be among the top four. In retrospect, that pledge can be viewed as an invitation to review matters if it was not fulfilled. The board has taken him up on that option.

The backing of Benítez has been sincere from many quarters, even if it could not be claimed to be universal. It reflected well on the Anfield ambience, too, that the manager received merely the natural complaints. It is Hicks and Gillett who attract real antagonism and that makes sense since the financial troubles have the potential to do damage that goes vastly beyond the disappointment of a poor league campaign.

The two proprietors have now put themselves under even more intense strain. With Benítez gone, it might look as if a prospective owner has had the ground cleared for him. A conspiracy theorist might imagine that his departure is one condition of an imminent takeover.

That, all the same, sounds unduly tidy and there have been no credible whispers of a sale being on the verge of completion. Some scheme surely exists but its nature and timing are obscure. The short-term effect is one of distress and not even the glorious memories of Istanbul will ease it.

[kinboshi]

We may not be better off but at least the new manager wont be playing 2 defensive Midfielders and i may not be bored to tears like i was for about 90% of Liverpool games last season.

QFT   

Last season was bad.  It was a disaster.  But please don't look at it in isolation, otherwise you might as well look at 2005 in isolation and say Rafa was fantastic.  Surely the truth is somewhere between the two.

As for the idea of Liverpool being boring under Rafa, I disagree that it was always the case.  I wouldn't say Istanbul was dull, neither were the games against Olympiakos or Juve in the run up to that final.  Neither was the FA Cup final against West Ham.  Then there were the games from the season before last in the league.  Beating manu twice, including the 4-1 hammering.  As a Liverpool fan, I didn't find those games dull at all.  When we beat Real 4-0 within the same fortnight, I must admit, I quite enjoyed watching Liverpool under Rafa.    Did we play 'sexy' football like Barca or Arsenal produce - maybe not.  But I also think we were quite a bit different to the dull Liverpool perpetuated by the media a lot of the time, and then repeated by people in the pub who watched Liverpool on Sky or only saw the highlights on MOTD.

It wasn't all rosy under Rafa - I'm not wearing rose-tinted glasses.  But it wasn't all terrible either. 

[77dave]

Hansen has said that Rafa has left a worse squad then he inherited from Houlllier

Can someone post a squad from that time i think Rafa has improved the quality and value of the team