Some misty eyed recollections of the Benitez era here...... He did really well in the CL which seemed to be where he was at his best, as tactically he was very astute. But it ended with him leaving you in a right mess, the yanks somehow seem to now take the brunt of the blame for that but it's not an accurate reflection of the reality. He lost the plot towards the end of his tenure, made some crap signings and left you in 7th.
rafa got 2 european cup finals, a 2nd place in the league and an fa cup win, Brendan has a lot to live up to in his next 3 seasons then doesn't he, as all he has managed so far is 2nd place.
The yanks and the signings came hand in hand, they restricted the money and the signings he wanted had to be left and the cheaper options bought.
Without a doubt he had a good record and for some to knock it is silly, yes he had his bad points but to come close to a league win and a 2nd CL trophy in that period has to be taken into account. If we had invested well towards the end of his time it may have been a very different story.
i did that on purpose as you all know fergies first 5 yrs was ****e, what happened after that well only one manager can probably better that, Sir Bob point being fergie was damn close to being sacked as he was ****e to start with, how the feck do we know what would have happened with rafa if he had time? his first 5yrs record is not be sniffed at as its quite impressive by any ones standards.
What like the £20m he spunked on Aquilani or the £18m on Keane, come off it mate, he had more resources than most at the time.
Not quite. Fergie finished second in his first full season. He then realised that the team had over achieved and was actually rotten to the core so tore it apart and started from scratch. It took a few years to establish a position of supremacy, partly because a lot of work needed to be done and partly because Liverpool and Arsenal were the dominant forces in English football at the time. Would he have been given the same opportunity and time to rebuild a club in today's football world? Unlikely. Which is another reason why comparing the five year periods isn't really practical.
Yes there was money and more than most as you say but there were restrictions in place and he was told that some of his targets would not be bought, he has said this himself. Yes maybe be should have used what was available better but at that point he wanted to keep pace at the top and a considerable amount was needed.
but its ok to compare rafa to when we had Chelsea (money!!) arsenal and utd to contend with for honors then as well as **** of owners? also pretty sure everton was a force back in the late 80's wasn't just arsenal.
This lists all his signings by season although it is an old article. Loving 2007 but 2008 and 2009 is terrible. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-players-signed-Liverpool-managers-reign.html
The discussion about Rafa's Liverpool exit and the factors surrounding it, dem yanks etc etc has been done to death really and peoples views are well entrenched The current debate is about whether he'd be a good appointment in 2015. For me he'd be a safe pair of hands, but would fail to ignite anyone with his brand of football. He'd probably do a decent job, and he's undoubtedly a better manager than your current one imo. It'll be interesting if they decide to shoot Brent whether Rafa would get a look in and if there'd be widespread support amongst Reds for his return
wasn't it something like a 50/50 on those who wanted him back to those who didn't the first time round, important part is though it looked like the club wasn't interested, so i cant see things are any dif now. you would prob get split votes on any ex manager returning to a club. some remember the good, some remember the s**te.
I doubt John Henry can be bothered with the aggravation and in fighting that Benitez seems to thrive on.
For me, the first and key determining factor for success is the funds/money available to the team for reinforcements and then second the manager himself. It has always been about the quality of the players.And unless you are a genius manager who can spot potential years in advance and buy cheap, most quality players will cost more than less able ones. Of course you do have to have a manager with a minimum amount of competency and knowledge but you could have a brillant one but if there is no money you can forget about success. I think it is getting more like Formula 1. The key determinant seems to be the car itself then the driver. Vettel was brillant but without the best car he couldn't do it. All we need to have is a decent competent manager who can use the funds available appropriately, buying the right players for the right positions. Do I believe that Pellegrini is one of the best managers available? No. Do I believe he has some of the very best and costliest players? yes. All we need is a decent competent manager (short of recruting some sort of genius). Is that too much to ask?
That five years is better than any five year period Fergie had at Man Utd (in terms of Europe of course)
Don't compare Rafa's budget with the pocket money Everton had. It is now becoming more clear just how much the cowboys restrained his team development and his previous owners had little/no cash to spend. So he did make some bad buys but then so did Ferguson (and for a lot more) during the same period.
well of course we would, if we had won it though dif question entirely, i would rather say 6 times champions of europe than 21 league titles personally, others will be dif obviously.
