WInd-up? Brendan's a wind-up. Talking about Rafa gives me warm fuzzies. Halcyon days. A 58% win pc with the most dysfunctional club in Europe and he's a failure. Rodgers gets 44% and has his dick sucked by some media muppets and fans as the new Guardiola. As Rafa said to Carra: "Football is a lie." Ah yes, Materazzi. Well, that says it all, then, doesn't it? The ageing big girl's blouse who cried his eyes out when his sugar daddy Mourinho left. I thought everybody knew Rafa is a perfectionist and goes into great detail with the players on oppositions. Bad Rafa, no do-nut. I suppose these picky and fickle tactics are how he out-tactic'd Mourinho on more than one occasion. That was probably before your time, though, or you've forgotten. Do you mean like when he substituted Hammann at half time in Istanbul? It's half the battle at QPR, too. How many titles has Redknapp, every player's BFF, won? Oh yeah, FA Cup at Portsmouth, as he sank them into administration. Nice man management. And Lucas! Don't forget Lucas! Rafa bought Lucas! What a mup...oh, hang on, he got voted Player of the Year, we missed him greatly last season and this season. Erm, scratch that. Yeah, booo, Downing, boooo. 2nd season and starting to produce. You'd think that happened a lot in the league. What about Henderson? Do you want to do that thing fans did to Lucas, where they';d compare him at 22 to Alonso at 28? I mean, Henderson's no Steven Gerrard, is he? Okay, Comolli paid tribute to his Gerrard-like attitude, exactly the sort of attitude Brendan lambasted the young players recently for not having. But still, he's not fooling anybody with this pretense of starting to produce. We've seen it with Lucas and we sussed him out PDQ, didn't we? Hahahaha. You silly twat. Gobbling up cliches like that will make you sick. Hodgson's win % - 41.94% Dalglish's win % - 47.30% (for his last stint in a rebuilding season which featured two finals.) Research is not your enemy. Now, go research the squad Houllier left and the squad Rafa left and tell us which players you'd put into your squad, bearing in mind that Gerrard, Carra and Owen were Evans/Thompson players. Henchoz or Agger? Dudek or Reina? Traore or Johnson? El Hadji Diouf or Kuyt? Diao or Lucas? Biscan or Mascherano? (Quiet, you jokers at the back.) Baros or Torres? And so on. Yes, because that's so easy to do, right? As Scolari proved and Di Matteo was in the process of proving this season, as it all turned to **** when he had to do his own thing. I still think RDM is a good young manager. He's better than Rodgers, that's for sure. But he is a bloke who inherited his short-term success at Chelsea. Inheritence is a funny thing - Steve Clarke shines immediately at WBA while Rodgers gets demands for patience with a better inheritance - and I've never bought into this idea that you can go an entire campaign, especially a Champions' League one with somebody else's squad. If anything, it should be tougher managing another man's players. So, Swarbsy, are you blaming the squad Fergie inherited from himself for slipping into the Europa? What's up with that? How is 2001 in any way related to 2004? FFS, Swarbs, you're better than that. Fergie beefed up his treble-winning side. Big woo. So as above, name these quality Houlier players you'd keep above the ones Rafa brought in with Tom Hicks' vast suitcase of used fivers, all of which Rafa spent on Voronin and Degen to force us into administration. My money's on you choosing Hammann, Hyypia, Smicer and Riise. Old John Henry actually apologised to Rodgers for giving him a squad with Gerrard, Reina, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Lucas and Suarez. What a sorry bunch to have to work with. Not a patch on the 2003/04 squad, eh, Swarbsy? Fergie doesn't handle them, he sells them. Big woo. Fergie hammers the refs to divert any criticism. Big woo. And let's face it, Rafa had more than his share of media muppetry because it was good copy, which is all being revised now. He quoted a Spanish proverb in italy and the English media acted like he'd quoted from the Tom Cruise Big Book of Scientology. Under Tom Hicks he had to. He also seemed to rely on staying in the Champions' League to keep the money coming in. Which he did. But I didn't see a massive trade-in going on at Chelsea in January and at Inter he wasn't given any money, which would appear to negate your contention. Is that an allusion to the so-called rant? As I said before, gobbling cliches isn't good for you. It was the calmest "rant" I've ever seen but the media jumped all over it because it was good copy. Conversely, when Fergie had his tight-lipped (watch the clip) "Beyond the pale" rant on behalf of his lapdog, Allardici, before even Allardici had said anything about a micro-gesture of a hand movement, Utd went on that weekend to be embarrassed in their own back yard 1-4, with our barrel-bellied FB Dossena emptying OT 15 mins from time. Did the media blame Fergie for that humiliation? Did they 'eck as like. But the Mind Games Master got muppeted. It's pointless trying to compare Rafa with Fergie because Fergie's had a settled situation for many years and hasn't had to prove himself over and over at different clubs. Clearly Rafa has something which puts him in the top echelon of managers. If he hadn't kicked Chav butt so often under their beloved Jose they might like him a bit more. it takes a lot for a manager to be loved as Rafa was/is when he's not an established club legend. And the more he's hated by other fans the better it feels.
Rafa such a bad manager he's had success almost everywhere he's gone. He's got the balls to take on new challenges, just laughing at thought Fergie going and learning Spanish. Of course, Fergie would have gone to Spain and break Barcalona and Madrid's dominance with Valencia or Athletico but it would have been far too easy Mind you the Italian league is made for him and the brown envelope team He'd get on great with Berlusconi.
Your theory that Fergie somehow bottled it by not managing in a foreign country must have taken some thought to pull together.
he was a success at Valencia and Liverpool but he completely failed at Inter and is failing at Chelsea.
you don't like being accused of being plastic so don't be judging managers after a few games, Fergie would have been sacked decades ago by that logic. He's tactically astute, no doubt, messiah\genius.. don't be leaking emotionally driven statements He won't be coming back, he did well and moved on, I respect the guy and coach even though eh was not my cup of tea media facing personality wise. oh la lige two horse race sh!t league mancs say, and then say Rafa inherited a good team which made it easier ?! He won the CL with Houliers cup team but then he micromanages You mancs seriously contradict yourselves its so fking funny
Ferguson underperforms against European teams enough as it is. Imagine if he had to play them every week.
Great reply You're exceptionally articulate today.. well done NOF is a web bot, no matter what you type it just spits out cheesy lines
Am I supposed to understand your thought fragments?! It's no help if you have most of a conversation with yourself and include me in the last bit. WTF are you on about..
That's just noise! How, prey tell, is a substitution he made in Istanbul years ago relevant to what he's doing right now at Chelsea? Or indeed, bringing Harry Redknapp in into it for **** sake. Just out of interest like.
To be fair there's no reason for Ferguson to move abroad. Its the same with Messi at Barca, why do people expect him to come to the premier league just to prove himself to some ignorant people who thinks he has to do it in more than one club to prove his greatness (usually Man Utd/Real Madrid fans claiming Ronaldo is better). He is at a club he's been at since he's been young playing with players he has grown up with and playing in one of the biggest supported clubs in the world and that will win trophies every season and earning as much money as he would at any other club that has the chance to win things every season.
Cant follow a simple post It was a reply by MFG to a particular comment. Also, Chelsea, yep Fergie did great at his start at United, under far far less pressure to boot ALso Rafa the players and fans know this is till season end and they all know Chelsea are running around trying to get a manager, since before Rafa took the job, great conditions to thrive in. Players and manager alike Leaky bum Chief
If Rafa went to a club where he would be a popular choice and be backed by the fans, and not have a dictator controlling transfers and which striker is to be given preferential treatment, he'd be a success again. If he went back to Valencia for example, he'd have them back up to at least clear 3rd best team, and thats with little money. If he was bank rolled he'd give the big 2 a run for their money.......AGAIN.
Toela, he's not liked at Valencia, despite the success he brought them. He caused mayhem at the club by instigating internal squabbles in an attempt to gain total power.
