Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

he's OBVIOUSLY a terrible man manager because when ryan babel had a moan on twitter (twitter ffs), he supported him and got him playing out of his skin for the 2nd half of the season.

he's OBVIOUSLY a terrible man manager because he stuck by lucas when he was getting pelted by the press and the fans and then publically praised the lad for his hard work and effort and for proving people wrong.

he's OBVIOUSLY a terrible man manager because torres, reina and mascherano have thanked him publically for turning them into the world class players they've become.

said it a million times, riera's attitude stank/stunk/stinks. that's not rafa's fault, that's just how albert is. simples.

can't be bothered with this any more. have fun!

Chris: Fucking hell. This is not Carlos (supreme dickhead by all accounts) and Beckham (wanted out, under performing in the eyes of everyone, thought he was bigger than the manager). Benny Noon never spoke out in the press and was treated like shit for what was seen by everyone bar Benitez as good performances.

Babel playing out of skin? You the only person to notice this?

Umm... also didn't Torres head the Gerrard/TORRES/Carragher player movement to get Benitez out and has obviously been mystified by his actions for his career, especially this season?

Also quoting a meerkat is hella lame.

lol was wondering how the benayoun interview would play out.

chris, he is, obviously, a terrible man manager. come on.

Torres and Mascherano were world class players before they went to Liverpool. Think Reina would have made it at most clubs as well, it's not like there was some magical stardust that Rafa sprinkled over them. It's his failure to get the best out of less talented members of the squad that was the problem.

There will be dispute over whether west ham's mascherano and perennial failure at atletico torres were world class before they went to benitez.

the dispute will be incorrect, but it will exist nonetheless.

perennial failure at atletico

How so?

six goals a season etc etc

(not my line, just to be clear- but i've heard it offered along with gerrard's goal rate and mascherano coming from hammers bench as examples that benitez develops players/his man management is up to standard)

82 goals in 214 games? Club captain at 19?

lol rafa develops players.

jeez tom i'm tellin you it's not my ridiculous point, mayne!

You come out with so many it's hard to tell sometimes

weak zing imo

*holds hand up*

Pfft every time a manager's team beats another manager's team they're smarter now? Rafa's always managed his fair share of one-off wins- cup manager imo.

Not exactly what I said, but he is hardly a one-off in CL. Wouldn't surprise me if he won it again with Inter (or got close but still beat Mourinho along the way).

yeah i'd give him a year or two winning things with mourinho's team alright

Earth-shattering LOLs at the gullible press-believing football "fans" on this thread.

Yeah, Rafa's an evil machinating cold-eyed dictator who's not even fit to breathe the same air as the "arm round the shoulder" man management genii of the Premier League like "Big" "Sam", 'Appy 'Arry and Taggart Ferguson.

Chris has played a blinder on here.

Earth-shattering LOLs at the gullible press-believing football "fans" on this thread.

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Sure that's what Mourinho would say, d.

heh well it's true mourinho is a cert to throw a similar type-jab back behind him over the next while. no love lost between those two.

darragh u are such a troll itt i fuckin <3 u

ha seriously i can't help it, i just hate benitez so much. i blame my lfc supporting mates, who have broken my heart on emails this past 4 years.

but it's all love, guys. just a fun debate imo.

Can I say how much I fucking hate this 'if you say something the press also happen to say you must have no opinions of your own' bullshit. How about that they may have actually been correct once in a while?

well yeah i've called that a few times. how bout we all accept we're arguing our own opinions, and not that of the sun on one side or the LFC propaganda office on the other.

Get a life the lot of you :)

ha you read it all and you know you did

didn't at all...posted the above while i was waiting for a file to digitise...as opposed to eg ripping a fingernail off or making faces at my colleague through the blinds of the edit suite.

Has anyone ever thought of Rafa as an international manager? It seems like the major failings he's accused of - bad transfers, poor player development - wouldn't be factors, while his great strengths would be?

The delays/limited time to work on tactics would eliminate maybe his greatest strength though?

i'm sure he'll eventually end up Spain manager but they usually wait to hire someone 70+

"It's a real challenge," said Benitez in a press conference at the Pizza Hut Park in Texas

On the state he left Liverpool in, Benitez said: "We left a good team, a very good team. A lot of people are talking about the legacy but the legacy is fantastic.

"When I left the club, (Javier) Mascherano, (Yossi) Benayoun and (Albert) Riera were there."

what a horrible little snake of a man.

i still love him.

love's like that i suppose

i love that he says that when HE was the one who fucking never played riera/yossi. wtf would have been wrong with yossi on the right and riera on the left. oh i know, TACKLING BACK AND BEING A CARTHORSE are the only qualities that matter to rafa.

srsly why hate benitez, he's less of a shit than most high-level managers, even if he is amusingly intransigent and strange

his inter team are playing better football than mourinho's lot last year, despite losing one of their most entertaining players over the summer

The whining, the blame-shifting lies, the football, the rubbish decisions for no reason, and where mourinho's steez is trolling that makes me lol, rafa's steez makes my teeth grind.

all high level managers are shits, fine- i just have a personal favourite.

hey remember when he generously gave sami hyypia a whole eight minutes at the end of a meaningless home fixture for his final appearance? great guy, good times.

they'd still be in the CL if they kept hyypia

yeah i watched a leverkusen game last year and he could certainly still cut it. dunno about now but in any case that's the kind of guy you keep around the club, or so you would think.

Roy Hodgson said he wanted to bring him back.

he was offered a contract with a coaching role at the end of it but he wouldn't have been guaranteed a game every week. great player.

he's less of a shit than most high-level managers

he's dangled the carrot and i've had a big wet bite. go on then nakh, like who? if people are going to be cunts then being upfront about it should count for something i feel.

Giving you a good honest bollocking >>>>> passive aggression and silent treatment.

zactly

I mean, you KNOW Fergie will be a complete cunt to you if you're not playing well but at the same time how often do you hear players whingeing about having to play for him? Same with Mourinho.

i would agree except it'd make me a massive hypocrite. give 'em a hell they can barely notice Raf!

josé mourinho is a complete cunt, remember his comments re ronaldo circa 2007 about his lack of class and education (like....almost all footballers from poor backrgrounds ie 90% of them)

ferguson by all accounts is extremely unpleasant

mancini is similar

advocaat / spalletti are happy to work for zenit who refuse to sign black players

lippi tried to force players to sign for his son's agency

mircea lucescu burns down orphanages

manuel pellegrini denies the armenian genocide, just for the lulz

for all his 'issues' benitez is supposed to be fairly humble/affable at a personal level