There is a report in the Times this morning of us approaching Rafael Benitez as to his availaibily to return to England and manage Chelsea? If this is true--and I cant imagine The Times makes up stories like this--this goes 100% against the assurances AVB has been given by RA! I am convinced AVB will turn this thing round and even if we go trophyless this season we must soldier on with him? I'm having weird thoughts about the possibility of Rafa in the meantime!
Would fit in nicely with the "getting the best out of Torres" conundrum...I still wouldn't want it to be honest!
Never was a fan of Rafa as I thought he was mostly very poor in the transfer market and really lost the plot at Liverpool in his last couple of years there. He also managed to make a treble winning side at Inter go backwards very quickly. Could you rule it out though? If and big if we were going to get rid of AVB, you could bring in Rafa on a temp deal until the summer and see how he gets on. Plus points: - A good tactician and reasonable man manager Knows how to get the best out of Torres Is available Knows the P.L Bloody good C.L record (albeit we wont be in it much longer) I'm not for it as I say but there are worse options, especially on a temp basis.
Thinking about it, Rafa wouldn't be the worst choice, but I've never seen him as a brilliant man manager either and he is one who makes ****e signings (except for the odd few). I'd only take Mourinho over AVB at the moment.
100% agree Drogs. I don't think we should change AVB just for the sake of it but if Jose was available in the summer we should go for him. He should never have been sacked but the flip side is that he has now achieved great things at other clubs in different countries. If we hadn't of sacked him I'm sure he would have left to fulfill these ambitions anyway. Having fallen out of love quickly with the italians and now seemingly the spanish, the time looks perfect for him to come back and turn us around. We know he still loves the club, players and the english league and it would be horrible to see him at a rival. It was bad enough in those Inter C.L games.
I think you spent so long falling back on banter, misinformation, and cliches about Rafa that you're now incapable of objectively looking at his quality and success. Fine by me I'd rather you didn't get him. Anyone else you can get will be worse.
So how did he get on with the C.L winning side at Inter then? Or in his final season at Liverpool? Good manager no doubt and achieved great things with Valencia and Liverpool but that was 5 years plus ago now. Jose is the better all round manager and would be a better option for starters.
Jose isn't an won't be available. I doubt he'd risk coming back to be honest. And if you objectively looked at what happened at Liverpool at the end and Inter you'd not pick fault with Rafa over it. In fairness to you though, after Rafa left Inter they stormed up the table and became great again. This season too <erm>
This We should've given Carlo another chance and if he failed to succeed once more AND Jose became available in the summer then we should've given him the old spanish archer! Rafa did wonderful things with Liverpool until the end of his tenure where he was utter **** which showed when he went to Inter.
I agree Jose may not risk coming back but the timing could work in our favour. If he wants to leave Real the obvious destination is the P.L. City, United, Liverpool and Arsenal don't look like changing managers anytime soon. Regardless of Arsenal's problems, Wenger is a legend there, likewise with Dalglish (who will probably win a trophy at the weekend to boot). That leaves us and Spurs assuming Harry goes to England. Obviously I am biased but I don't think Spurs have the money or the status to attract Jose even though they are doing better than us this year. Jose demands massive wages which Spurs don't pay and they don't spend the money on players that Jose would demand. Coming back to us would be the ultimate ego massage for Jose, the rich Russian having to swallow his pride and admit he was wrong to sack him. Further Jose loves the club and the players, it's not out of the question.
I agree that would probably be his first choice but we could be talking another 2,3 4 years before that comes up. What's he going to do in the meantime? He hated Italy and has won everything there anyway, if he wins in Spain I'm sure he'll want to move again. I guess only other realistic option would be say Bayern if that job came up but I can't see it.
Mancini has brought them on though in the last year. Regardless of whether they win the title he has improved them and I'm sure he'll be given at least another year.
