Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

England opting for Hodgson over Redknapp has a ring of likelihood to it, especially given the first thing Hodgson would say upon getting the job would be "we have to be honest about the fact we are not one of the best teams in the world" which would be both true and A+++ trolling.

keane/staunton dream team for ingerlad, payback for big jack

Man, the tabloid response to that first Hodgson press conference would be brutal. The FA should just give Harry a life contract if that's the priority.

I think we can easily say that making fun of an unfortunate twitch is yes, the priority

MILAN - (ANSA) "Stay relaxed. I'm not going to speak today, I don't want to create arguments with anyone." These were the only comments spared by the Inter president Massimo Moratti for the journalists waiting outside the Saras offices. (ANSA)

"I have not been sacked. Many people that read the newspapers have called me up to ask me if I had been dismissed.

"It's not true, I am surprised that it has been reported as a done thing.

"I am currently on holiday to rest and then to begin again.

"For months I have heard and read things that are not true."

The Spaniard's rant following Inter's win on Saturday was not welcomed by Moratti but Benitez defended his position and even re-emphasised his desire for financial backing.

"The president (Moratti), with whom I had spoken prior to that press conference, had already left Abu Dhabi, and the only possibility was to publicly say something which was evident," said Benitez.

"I don't want to put the president under pressure, but I had spoken to him in the past about my project.

"My project was to include a series of useful players immediately as well as young players for the future.

"Moratti, with whom I have a correct and respectful relationship, liked it.

"The president has to take a decision regarding the line we want to follow.

"While I am here (at Inter) I will work in the best possible way in order for the team to continue to win.

"But in order to win and to do well it is necessary to bring in reinforcements.

"Injuries have hindered us and I don't want this to happen again.

"The transfer market begins soon and hence, this is the time to speak openly about acquisitions."

you shuff yer maaf you filfy caaah

Apparently his sacking has been confirmed by his daughter posting about it on Facebook. Obviously learnt nothing from the Konchesky family.

hodgson- this is not my mess
mourinho- benitez should thank me for world club cup

The demise of this man makes me smile.

Inter were fucking stupid in the first place, glad they didn't wait too long to sort their mistake.

dunno if paying him 3 yrs ridic wages to leave after 6 months is any kind of victory

that v. relegation and losing yr best players and bankruptcy

even i dont think he'd have gotten them relegated tbf. he'd def have kept them top 15.

well over his full contract obv

oh ya, def

this is like the most slow motion dismissal in history

just fucking get done with it

not his mo, rly

moratti basically said earlier that rafa would have got got long ago, but he's learned to be patient with managers

right attitude, wrong instance

god i feel so impatient

he's just sitting there with a .44, reading the complete works of petrarch to a fatally wounded benitez before administering the coup de grace

KILL KILL KILL

nah u got him all wrong, it's the last rites. this is where benitez absolves himself through ritual mantras before passing on.

kinda like the last year at liverpool what what

hodgson saying this isn't his mess is bullshit though. his tactics have sucked and he's full of shite.

http://www.joe.ie/football/football-news/rafa-benitez-has-been-sacked-confirmed-008166-1

I assume this is not Darragh and is kosher.

Oh wait, Sky Sports have caught up.

Moratti, asked if Rafa Benitez is still the Inter coach: "Yes, he is, at this precise moment"

Liverpool as a Christmas present then?

Has any other club reappointed a manager they sacked that quickly? I have a vague memory of someone recently (2-3 years) changing owners and bringing the same person back in <6 weeks but can't think who it was?

Seriously, why would Liverpool reappoint him?

NESV are already on record as saying he's #1 on their list as manager. If Roy was sacked he'd be theman they were after.

Or, an alternative reading, having told Roy today he's got nothing to spend in January (and reading his press conference this doesn't seem outlandish) they were only waiting on Rafa being available, which he now is.

They really said that? Truly I don't understand football. If it does happen, I hope he pays back the £6m at least.

That would require some honour.

Plus they've also said their priority is building on the reserve and youth teams. As is aid on the takeover saga thread

Players bought for the reserves/youth team under Benitez:

Antonio Barragan, Godwin Antwi, Bezian Idrizaj, Jack Hobbs, Miki Roque, Paul Anderson, Ryan Crowther, David Martin, Martin Hansen, Astrit Ajdarevic, Alex Cooper, Jordy Brouwer, Fransisco Duran, Ronald Huth, Andras Simon, Dean Bouzanis, Krisztian Nemeth, Ryan Babel, Daniel Pacheco, Sebastian Leto, Gary Stevens, Mikel San Jose, Daniel Sanchez Ayala, Garard Bruna, David Amoo, Damien Plessis, Emiliano Insua, Charles Itandje, Lauri Darra Valle, Vincent Weijl, Vitor Flora, Diego Cavalieri, Nikola Saric, Emmanuel Mendy, David N'Gog, Peter Gulacsi, Zsolt Poloskei, Christopher Buchtmann, Victor Plasson, Chris Mavinga and (arguably) Danny Wilson.

he's clearly got an eye for the young boys so seems tailor made for the job.

sorry, "I said"

and what an eye it is too

bet damien commoli just spends his days wandering round melwood wondering how on earth he could possibly add to this argosy of talent

damien commolli who nesv are "on record" as just hiring for the long-term and and under whom benitez would refuse to operate btw

if i was jwh i'd just wait til the end of the season and get owen coyle in tbh

or maybe that villas-boas if he's really for realsies

And since the last post I've made...

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01790/rafa_1790651b.jpg

£50,000 in compensation.

spanish lack of succession

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1429/photopd.jpg

It's strange how a manager with a proven track record and multiple trophy wins, such as Benitez is portrayed as an incompetent buffoon., whilst a bloke with a single FA cup win in 25 years of management,such as Redknapp is portrayed as a genius.

No one thinks of Redknapp as a genius.

cant believe redknapp didnt win league at bournemouth tbh.

Benitez makes tactical/managerial/pr decisions that most fans would consider stupid/questionable. Enough of these decisions prove sufficiently memorably counterproductive that a manager like redknapp, that makes fairly obvious decisions, seems the picture of common sense by comparison.

Simple enough concept, imo. Rafa overthinking everything neither makes him a genius nor a better manager than redknapp. And rafa being a cunt (publicly, publicly) harms his effectiveness far more than his vaunted tactical ability gains him.

The middle bit's about right. The odd thing for me is that tactically Rafa's outstanding, but put him in a scenario beyond the intricacies of winning a particular football match - man management, strategy, allocating resources - and it goes to shit as often as not. He'd be the ideal number two, or to have a director of football handling the high-level stuff, but it appears that he'd never countenance either of those things.

i'm not actually convinced of the tactically outstanding part, tbph, but it's accepted wisdom at this stage.

Thing is for tactics to really work they have to fit the players you've got and their mentality, otherwise it's just abstract theorising.

i suppose when you take out pr, man management and transfers, if you accept that he's professional-management level at all then you logically have to tick 'tactical genius'

benitez p much inspired the thread i started about the modern managerial skillset.

Ismel prob right on 'coach' being rafa's position. Under commolli (lol) he might be half decent.

"Tactical genius" = mostly assigning your best players to their preferred positions and assigning somebody to kick the shit out of the opposition's creative outlet.

second part redundant when that actually is mascherano's best position tbf

I think the greater part of tactical knowledge is being able to respond to developments in a game in progress and adjust what the team is doing accordingly. Stubborn managers frequently struggle in this respect and infuriate the fans with bizarrely timed substitutions and failure to adjust to glaring on-pitch failings.

what i'll give rafa, for his whole time at liverpool, that was in any way above what you'd expect from anyone in his position;

Dour negativity worked brilliantly in europe

Torres, reina, alonso and mascherano all worked out

Had the perfect publicly contrarian personality to get fanatical scouse support

Making them tough to beat and realising that carragher couldnt get censured in any way in the league was good enough for second in a terrible league that one time.

Stop denigrating Liverpool 2009, they were great (long sequence of uninterested draws in Jan/Feb apart). By all means attack the other five years if you must.

the thread i started about the modern managerial skillset

Did I miss this or am I just forgetting? Would quite like to see it broken down - Redknapp would score highly on man management I feel, and possibly strategy, but not so much on tactics. And he doesn't appear to see allocation of resources as part of his job at all.