Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

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

Trying to think of actually successful managers that aren't complete cunts. Guardiola and Ancelotti seem alright. Hiddink maybe, apart from the whole sex tourism thing.

robson, rijkaard, hodgson, aguirre, pellegrini, ranieri, trapattoni maybe (have managed at a high level although 'successful' is arguable)

think wenger is 'unjustly maligned', shares some of benitez' thin-skinned aversion/paranoia but is personally honourable and sincere....too honest in his dishonesty tho

mircea lucescu burns down orphanages

manuel pellegrini denies the armenian genocide, just for the lulz

Hiddink maybe, apart from the whole sex tourism thing.

^^^how do you guys even hear about these sort of things? Like I still am unsure of what the CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT to do with Keegan is let alone everyone elses dark secrets? i.e. i want into the secret underbelly goddamnit!

dunno about hiddink but the two i cited were in jest......

see with football increasingly turning into professional wrestling storylines, i couldn't tell :( just assumed they were actually that evil

yeah i think if lucescu rly did do that, you would have heard

You guys. Would imagine Hiddink keeps quiet about the armenian genocide though tbh

arry redknapp is a d-day denier

he's a nicer person than fergie, who is obviously a mean, rude, classless bastard. but i'd imagine fergie is a "nicer" read as fairer manager. rafa has fucked up some careers.

yeah i think it's not enough to just say 'irl' about this as if that's what we're all gonna make the call on.

"I think that Mr Hodgson, he doesn't understand. Every single press conference is even worse than the last one. He's talking about things that he doesn't know. And some people cannot see a priest on a mountain of sugar."

no idea what this means but it's a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub8NeH_eQ8k

ay! el azucar robado!

Wow that is the best quote. Gonna start using "cannot see a priest on a mountain of sugar" in regular conversation.

This guy is batshit mental, esp. considering I think every press conference of his Liverpool career was kinda worse than the last one form.

is it sort of a "some people wouldn't know a x if it hit them in the face"?

Don't think Rafa made a weekly habit of offending the fans and playing staff in public. Hodgson lied about Rafa banning Kenny from Melwood and implied that Rafa didn't want anything to do with him. Not got a problem with Rafa setting the record straight and telling Roy to button it. In fact I'm fucking delighted.

i'm not over the moon with roy and have serious doubts about him, but looking around forums etc there is quite a vitriolic hatred for him from liverpool fans. it's not going to do us any good....

liverpool fans/fans on forums in acting ott shocker

yes unlike the moderate and civilised debates of other football fans. on arsenal forums it's a furious struggle to decide if wenger is more ornette coleman than pharoah sanders...

"/fans on forums"

Also Wenger is so more Pharoah than Ornette.

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?