Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

football forums are like some outer circle of hell

tb

RIP

just in case i'm not online when the inevitable happens

http://imgur.com/yRLsi.jpg

he'll leave football a very rich man. Astounding, tbh.

He'll get them knocked out of everything else but end up appeasing the fans by winning them the World Club Cup, essentially condensing his Liverpool career down into six months.

this week: spurs win group, rafa fucking things up, jol out, devil with dmac's soul

jol quit, but yeah the hens are repatriating in order to chill

Every time this thread is bumped and he hasn't been sacked breaks my heart a little bit more.

Threads needs my favourite banner for completeness:

http://imgur.com/QaPhC.jpg

http://www.footballfancast.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Ferguson-and-Benitez.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2010/12/15/1292453643310/Rafael-Benitez-001.jpg

only a matter of time before he's in a thomas the tank engine movie imo

the fat controlfreak

http://www.iol.co.za:80/polopoly_fs/intermilan-1.1002782!/image/3240558531.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/3240558531.jpg

best manager to win the biggest prize in club football, I think that settles it

fuv. This cun that is all imll

cinider thay updaye frm 9tpub

yay

now he's talking in the third person

not a tez h8r but picking fights with moratti is making him look like a recidivist choad

chill big man, don't pick fights with bigger men

Yes, but he only needs to buy "4 or 5 good players" to make it right. Again.

What's he gone and said now? Blaming it on the guy who's bankrolled five straight scudetti and the Champions League, does that really have the air of a successful strategy?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/gossip_and_transfers/9302348.stm

"There are three possibilities for the club," the former Liverpool boss said in Abu Dhabi. "One, 100% support for the coach and buy four or five players to build a stronger team with competition among the players to be able to carry on winning matches and trophies.

"Two, carry on like this without a project, without planning, and go ahead with one person to blame, for the whole season.

"The third," he added, "is to speak to my agent to reach an agreement if there is not this support. Simple."

I'm sure Ronan or Darragh will have the detail, but wasn't he only 4 or 5 players from winning the title right up until he left Liverpool?

But Inter's president Massimo Moratti told his coach: "It's not the moment to ask for reinforcements."

That'll be a no then.

How is he meant to work there with a chairman like Moratti clearly undermining him and his abilities?

I know, it's unbelievable, isn't it?

when he gets sacked from inter he'll have earned prob about 15 mil this past twelve months for refusing to do his job

treble winners + rafa + £100m transfer fund = might just about scrape a champions league place.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa omg.

this guy is a fucking loony bin.

like i just thought he was a bad manager before but this is shocking.

how the fuck can you take over a treble winning side only minus a balotelli (albeit with an added coutinho) and say there is no plan? HOW DO YOU THINK THEY WON THE FUCKING TREBLE?

This guy IS THE WORST FUCKING MANAGER.

Also, you might think that 'having a plan' would be the manager's job, at least on some level

this is really quite strange, or would be for any other manager. maybe he knows he is going to be fired but wants to make the best case possible, combining moratti's harsh words after the defeat to werder bremen with some supposed withholding of support to make it look like constructive dismissal.

there isn't really any way to cut it that doesn't make 'four or five players' sound ridiculous. certainly inter's squad is fairly old, and the injury to samuel shows that they could use a little cover, but the same applies to just about any team. he does however have coutinho and biabany -- surely preferable to balotelli in benitez eyes, can you imagine those two working together? adding several new players of similar quality would give inter a ridiculously top heavy squad.

still i find it interesting in the context of benitez' control freakery. mourinho is another who would like total control, and he overstepped the mark at chelsea when he thought he could leverage his personality cult among players & supporters against abramovich. but these days he seems basically aware of his own limitations, whereas benitez clearly asks for the impossible.

by contrast his inter team this year have sometimes been playing a chaotic free-flowing football that is quite unlike him. it's almost like he knew he had signed up for a suicide mission in taking over after mourinho's treble, and consequently has a sort of carefree lucidity. it's difficult to see how his career recovers now, but in his yearning TOTALCONTROL of all aspects of the team, individual psychologies entirely neglected and players treated as mere automata, he sat set a high water mark for determinist folly in football.

benitez_howling_at_the_cosmos.ogg

wonder what odds you can get on rafa eventually becoming england manager

12/1

That has to happen, surely? Would be the best thing ever.

thing is that my 'houllier is a better manager' line is being dismantled at villa

roy hodgson wants 5 or 6 new players in january.

yes but he took over a shit team and his first move was to sell his best player because the club was going broke

no no roy hodgson took over a team that had finished second only 18 months before iirc

lol, clutching at straws maybe. point is, reckon it's fair enough to say they need more quality in the event of an injury crisis. maybe not the best timing. i am starting to enjoy some of the fury rafa brings about though.

ah yeah he burns off calories sure

ps were you around for jol?

"injury crisis" inter in their last game:

Julio Cesar, Chivu (Stankovic 54), Maicon, Cordoba, Zanetti, Lucio, Motta (Mariga 87), Cambiasso, Eto'o, Milito (Biabiany 70), Pandev.
Subs Not Used: Castellazzi, Sneijder, Muntari, Materazzi, Alibec, Benedetti, Santon, Nwankwo, Orlandoni.

Hmmmm must be so hard to start 11 internationals incl. eto'o, milito, lucio, cesar and maicon while having sneijder on the bench.

totes feel his pain, wouldn't swap not having cesc, vermaelan and rvp for only having to play your first team.

RIP

just in case i'm not online when the inevitable happens

― calpolaris (nakhchivan), Sunday, 21 November 2010 18:04 (4 weeks ago)

surprised it's taken this long already

moratti must be preparing some really long fuck you speech when he reads him the riot act

rafa confuses me. won la liga twice with valencia, but subsequently seems he's shite?

tactically he is brilliant, he just can't manage for shit

tbf barca were combusting post-rivaldo/luis enrique and lol galacticos too busy being drunk and famous to be great

see i wasn't paying much attention to spain at the time. his signings are a good laugh generally.

he had a p good director of football at valencia iirc

"Benítez e' Fuori!" [Benítez is out] read the front page of this morning's Gazzetta dello Sport. The paper names Zenit St Petersburg manager Luciano Spalletti as favourite to replace Benítez, with former AC Milan manager Leonardo as an alternative.

"There are three possibilities for the club," said Benítez after the game. "One, 100 per cent support for the coach and buy four or five players to build a stronger team with competition among the players to be able to carry on winning matches and trophies.

"Two, carry on like this without a project, without planning, and go ahead with one person to blame, for the whole season. The third is to speak to my agent to reach an agreement if there is not this support. Simple."

Oh wow, just wow. If only he'd inherited a treble-winning squad or something, then he might not be in such a difficult position.

I wish I could remember what game it was, but earlier in the season was the first time I'd seen Coutinho and Inter were something like 4-0 up and rampant (I don't think it was against Spurs but it could've been). Coutinho was fabulous, trying all sorts of audacious things and having great fun, until Rafa came charging out to the edge of the technical area and started directing the lad around. He didn't have a clue what he was supposed to do and eventually ended up static somewhere at left midfield. He kept looking round for guidance, getting none and then shuffling forward or sideways five or six yards as if hoping that would make everything make sense. It was kind of heartbreaking.