I was wondering the other day (after our defeat to Gala no less) the one thing that was wrong during Rafa's tenure was the cash flow and the "flops". These 2 things go hand in hand, but it made me think what managerial job doesn't require you to handle a transfer budget? Exactly, I think Benitez should get the England job, with Beckham as his assistant manager. Benitez's qualities lie in his organisation, scouting, rotational policy and tactics. All of those are required with this type of job and I believe he has all the qualities needed to make a brilliant England manager. Beckham is there purely as a man manager, as he's someone the players can relate to and look up to. Sorry for the offtopic thread, but just thought I'd throw that out there.
I think he would be just what England need, just as Jurgen Klinsmann is what USA need. Whether your federation will see that...? IDK
Whilst i agree that Rafa could do the job very well, we all know that the public pressure for the next England manager to be English is too great. It's never going to happen. At least not until the media have desroyed Redknapp.
I agree 100% with Foreckdave. As much as Benitez is (over) qualified for the job, I can't see it happening because the FA seem to be bowing to the media's pressure to hire Harry Redknapp. Who's also made it clear that if that England job comes calling, he won't refuse. Of course theres the whole 'English' thing too. It seems you can basically predict who'll have the England managers job for the next 10 years, or at least candidates. Harry Redknapp, Stuart Pearce, David Beckham, Alan Shearer (?) and anyone else English who's remotely successful (If at all) for either club or country, player or manager.
be honest .....rafa was liverpool manager and the media loved making him out to be a fool i.e. rotation even though fergus rotated more, he'll never get the england job
No thanks, there's tons more managers I'd rather have than Benitez. If we're going to pay them absolutely loads, we could certainly find someone who's been successful. Benitez had partial success at Liverpool and complete failure at Inter.
Two very good posts, those. Can't add much more. The FA have cornered themselves already - they've said the next manager will be English.
It's funny how Benitez' reputation seems to have been destroyed and yet other managers go from job to job. He's been winning trophies for years and years, and yet some still fail to see his merits as a manager. He has his faults of course, but what he did with us in the Champions League, as well as the league side he built (and to some extent dismantled with the Alonso issue), was incredible. I remember the Chelsea game, where just before the game they put a statement from him on Liverpoolfc.tv where he guaranteed we would win... we did. He is so good at setting a team up for a one-off game or a two leg tie, i'd even rate him if he was against this Barca team that destroys all before it, so he'd be great as an International boss. I'd worry about the continued issues he has with authority, but i couldn't think of anyone better to take England to a World Cup, English or not.
Did we not all have a problem with the authorities? If not for Rafa we wouldn't have known anything. And there's still a lot we don't know, yet after all that went on with H&G, Rafa still takes the brunt of it. Do we not all have a problem with the FA's authority? Maybe we need a manager with some balls for a change. Hell, Fergie's got a problem with authority and authority gave him a knighthood. Why did Inter sign Rafa? Because he'd managed a budget and over-achieved with it at LFC. Rafa wanted a coupla players in an injury crisis. They didn't want to spend at all. I'm not sure they told Rafa before he went there, though. So they told him he couldn't sign players. then they got Leonardo in and let him sign four players. And what did Leonardo win? Nothing. Rafa gave them the two titles they wanted: Super Cup and World Club Cup, not great titles but they wanted them. Only one (Egyptian) club has ever repeated a treble but Rafa was expected to do so or be labelled a failure who messed up Mourinho's team, a team that had already hit its peak and needed rejuvenation. Fergie and Guardiola both rejuvenated treble-winning sides. Neither repeated the treble. Some Inter fans didn't want him to go. They liked his brand of football more than Mourinho's. But this is all old ground now. The media love to hate him so there's more chance of Steve McLaren getting the England job again. Rafa doesn't need the poisoned chalice, though it'd be hilarious if he was the manager who won England the World Cup. Biggest media and wum turnaround ever. Oh yeah and he does it with zonal. Ha!
At least he couldn't bankrupt England through spending hundreds of millions on utter ****e but after the state he left Liverpool in and the way he ruined Inter Milan he's not what England need, we're bad enough as it is without that clown.
Or maybe I'm not blind to Benitez's countless terrible signings, his constant excuses, the rubbish squad he left at Liverpool and the way he managed to turn a treble winning and 5 times in a row Serie A Champions Inter Milan side into the 6th best team in Italy in just a few months.
You are clearly blind and unable to count. Two La Ligas in three years without being Real or Barca. That in itself marks him out as a man you're not fit to clean the shoes of. Champions League title in his first Liverpool season, with a squad that wasn't expected to make the semis, never mind win it. Not even Andy Gray is still trotting out that "mediocre squad" garbage after Kenny proved it actually was Hodgson's fault, not the squad's, the squad you muppets maintained we'd be relegated with. In the mid-range market - £2m-£15m - Rafa had to shop in, because we couldn't blow £30m on a sauntering twat like Berbatov, Rafa's success to flop ratio was similar to Fergie's, better than Mourinho's and worse than Wenger's. All that while carrying Hicks & Gillett on his back. Name a side that's followed up a treble with a treble? Nobody was going to be allowed to follow Mourinho. Rafa had the bottle to. Interesting you note Inter were already a title-winning side when Mournho arrived. What you don't note is the opposition had been nobbled by a bribery scandal and were back when Rafa arrived. So why not prove you can count and tell us the average age of the squad Mourinho left? 6th after a few months? Liverpool finished 5th in Rafa's first season, We also won the Champions League title. So 6th in a few months for a new manager isn't actually a bad thing, certainly not as bad as ****ING 19TH!!! Where were Spurs after three months of 'Arry? But oh, Hodgson was at Inter and that proved he was the dog's bollocks! Even Fergie said so. But Inter fans threw lighters and coins at Hodgson. His win % was no better there than when he was at Liverpool. Even Rafa overhauled that with an injury crisis, no signings and still adjusting to a new club with an ageing squad still mooning over their gay love for Jose. Get. A. Clue.
Utter rubbish. He signed 76 players in his time at Liverpool, around 70 of them were flops. He also had a higher net spend than most of his rivals in his time at Liverpool, something you lot continue to deny despite the proof. Inter had walked to the Serie A title 5 years in a row before Benitez took over. After just a few months under Rafa they were 6th place and miles off the top, they were also performing poorly in Champions League having won it the previous season. After Rafa left they immediately started winning again and managed to claw themselves back up to 2nd in Serie A.
Name them. You can't because you're flapping your gums on a subject you're clueless about. Do you count 8-yr olds when you look at Fergie's record? Because that's how the media muppets came up with over 70 players. Of course you'd know that if you'd done any research at all. But you haven't because you're a muppet hoover who sucks up media cliches without question. Walked to titles and that's what Mourinho inherited. So it wasn't Mourinho, then, it was Mancini who made that team. Also nothing to do with the bribery scandal bans taking out the opposition. Fergie did a treble and bought new players. Why? Guardiola got a treble and bought players. Why? Great managers, treble-winning sides, what's the problem? A league is a season long, not a few months. So take a snapshot of any team after a few months, predict where they'll finish, then put your mortgage on your hunch. No, they weren't. They were performing pretty well and scoring a lot of goals, four in one half against Spurs. Bale was great to get it back but people acted like Spurs had won 4-0. A Champions League quarter final is not poor for any side. Real went out on the 2nd round six times in a row. With all the returning injuries and by buying players, just as Rafa said they needed to do but wasn't allowed to. Sheesh, it really is rocket science to you. You have no research, you have no clue and you're a gum-flapper.
I still think Rafa would thrive as England manager. In fact, he'd probably thrive as any manager of a country.
Same old excuses. Fernando Torres - Hit Robbie Keane - Flop Ryan Babel - Did okish Xabi Alonso - Good signing until Rafa stupidly drove him out by going after a weaker player to replace him (i.e. Gareth Barry). Dirk Kuyt - Hit Albert Riera - Flop Andrea Dossena - Flop Peter Crouch - Flop Lucas Leiva - Has done ok Jermaine Pennant - Flop Martin Skrtel - Hit Craig Bellamy - Flop Luis Garcia - Hit Jose Reina - Hit Dan Agger - Hit Mohammed Sissoko - Flop Fernando Morientes - Flop Yossi Benayoun - Flop Diego Cavalieri - Flop Alvaro Arbeloa - Flop Sebastian Leto - Flop Jose Miguel Gonzalez - Flop Gabriel Paletta - Flop Mark Gonzalez - Flop David Ngog - Truly abysmal and total flop Scott Carson - Flop Mikel San Jose - Flop David Martin - Flop Antonio Barragan - Flop Besian Idrizaj - Flop Jack Hobbs - Flop Alex Cooper - Flop Alexander Kacaniklic - Flop Krisztian Nemeth - Flop Andras Simon - Flop Victor Palsson - Flop Gary Mackay Steven - Flop Vitor Flora - Flop Andriy Voronin - Pathetic Flop Nikolay Mihaylov - Flop Emmanuel Mendy - Flop Marvin Pourie - Flop Dani Pacheco - Potential but it remains to be seen if he'll make it at Liverpool Nikola Saric - Flop Lauri Dalla Valle - Flop Gerardo Bruna - Flop Hakan Duyan - Flop Damien Plessis - Flop Peter Gulacsi - Flop Charles Itandje - Flop Philipp Degen - Flop Vincent Lucas - Flop Ryan Crowther - Flop Mihail Alexandrov - Flop Robbie Fowler - Flop Ryan Wilkie - Flop Javier Mascherano - Hit Miki Roque - Flop Nabir El Zhar - Flop Mark Smyth - Flop Jay Smith - Flop Stephen Darby - Flop Craig Lindfield - Flop Adam Hammill - Flop Danny Guthrie - Flop Paul Anderson - Flop Lee Peltier - Flop Fabio Aurelio - Flop Jan Kromkamp - Flop Boudewijn Zenden - Flop Mauricio Pellegrino - Flop Godwin Antwi - Flop Robbie Threlfall - Flop Ryan Flynn - Flop Calum Woods - Flop Paul Willis - Flop Danny O'Donnell - Flop Ramon Calliste - Flop Steve Irwin - Flop Martin Kelly - Flop Ronald Huth - Flop Jordy Brouwer - Flop Francisco Manuel Duran - Flop Emiliano Insua - Flop Ray Putterill - Flop Martin Hansen - Flop Jay Spearing - Potential Dave Roberts - Flop David Mannix - Flop Antonio Nunez - Flop Obviously it's going to be difficult to follow on from a treble winning season but the decline in such a short period of time was shocking. 5 league title wins in a row without breaking sweat and then suddenly sitting in 6th place and miles off the top. Unless of course all of the other Italian teams spent millions and millions strengthening that summer, but they didn't. They got thumped at White Hart Lane against a side with no Champions League experienced and finish second in their group to the same team.
All those in bold are completely wrong. I don't suppose you'd like to attach the value of each of these players? I'd be willing to be most of them were bought for less than 1m.
Sorry, I'll admit that I made an error putting Martin Kelly down as a flop. A lot of those players were bought for under £1m but a flop is a flop.
