Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

all teams have bad luck with injuries. its not a good excuse anymore. last season inter had bigger injury problems imo (curse of their left backs, no stankovic, muntari or zanetti for long periods means at least 2 positions weren't covered for most of the season), didn't stop them then.

muntari is waste tbf

ageing squad, hardly strengthened in the summer. chelsea have had bad injuries and their form's been shocking.

defending benitez at inter is stupid

he's done some interesting stuff tactically but in terms of any aspect of management that involves considering players as ppl, he's an unmitigated disaster

ageing squad, barely strengthened in summer, trouble with injuries.

Guess hodgson is doin pretty well so far all told.

defending benitez at inter is stupid... itt. tough crowd

1x champions league (& runner-up), UEFA cup, UEFA super-cup, world club cup (& runner-up), FA cup, italian super cup and 2x la liga and UEFA manager of the year

nuh bad for a high-functioning buffoon

it's extremely impressive for a high functioning buffoon, in fact. we've not disputed that.

defending benitez at inter is stupid... itt. tough crowd

― abbott & coztello (cozen), Wednesday, 22 December 2010 19:14 (52 minutes ago)

yeah cuz every1 else is totes chill about it

i've enjoyed watching inter this year cuz eto'o has been in form again and it's less dull than mourinho's inter, but taking a treble winning squad to this in under sixth months is srsly shit

then came 'four or five players'

his prior successes have no bearing on what a fucking disaster he's been at inter

sorry guys, i think i may have let my hatred of benitez blind me to the fact that he was good at valencia and won a cup with houllier's liverpool. mea maxima culpa innit

lol settle petal. I don't even have a strong view on it. afaic managing, like networking, is voodoo and the guy has won some in his time

so... if I have it right, houllier's getting some of the credit for rafa's champions league win but rafa's not getting any concession for mourinho's /exhaustion/ of his treble winners? ;)

has he actually been sacked btw? guardian still not updated their earlier report

as opposed to all those barca players exhausted after their (much more recent) world cup win but soldiering on anyway?

it's up in the air, which is magnificent imo, just exceptional fuckery xp

Moratti: "This situation is a bit tricky"
Wednesday, 22 December 2010 16:41:05 [rss full] [rss text] Delicious [permanent link]permalink
[FOTO Wednesday, 22 December 2010 16:41:05]

MILAN - Massimo Moratti gave a brief interview to the journalists that were waiting for him outside the Saras offices in the centre of Milan.

Inter.it brings you the full comments of the Nerazzurri president:

Mr president, we were wondering who you were going to lunch with?

"Don't worry. I'm going home."

Therefore we shouldn't expect Benitez's sacking today?

"Nothing should be expected. I swear to you I have not had the means to speak to anyone."

Is it true Inter are working to rescind Benitez's contract?

"No. We are trying to understand some things. This situation is a bit tricky. What happened was quite surprising. It is clear therefore, that we are looking at it from every angle."

So today, Benitez is still the Inter coach?

"As long as he is there..."

machines don't get tired

ok, houllier gets some credit for assembling a squad that benitez could win a cl with, something benitez never managed to build himself.

mourinho doesn't get any blame for leaving a team of pretty inarguable winners, rly

i dont think that's ridic inconsistent or anything

moratti sounds addled

as I said I don't have a strong view. what did he ever do to you? or is it a principle thing

just can't ever imagine hating a manager so seemingly vociferously when he doesn't manage the club I follow but w/e

wikipedia still has him as their head coach so I'm taking that as definitive for the mo

there's a hitchcockian back story about what he did to dmac but we're yet to unearth the full grisly story

it's thought a gruff dutchman may have been involved too

i was a pretty strong supporter when he joined liverpool, actually.

after about two years his nonsense decisions and pretty vituperative shifting of responsibility for them began to grind me down. after that, lfc/rafa supporting mates slowly turned me into the broken spitemonger u see before you.

is it cos he had a lower net spend (cumulative & average) while consistently out-performing spurs in the league throughout his 5 years

/flees thread

did xabi alonso actually leave because rafa alienated him (which is what my mate told me earlier)? I don't recall off-hand

gtfo giving houllier, or indeed anyone, credit for assembling that Liverpool squad

not rly a 'useful metric' when he's left them with a bloated squad full of shite that's amortised terribly, whereas for all his sins comlolli left the spurs squad in fairly fine fettle

did xabi alonso actually leave because rafa alienated him (which is what my mate told me earlier)? I don't recall off-hand

― abbott & coztello (cozen), Wednesday, 22 December 2010 20:39 (1 minute ago)

yes

rafa tried to get barry instead, etc

Extra bonus points for mention of 'Net spend' or comparisons with Arsene Wenger.

― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Friday, July 9, 2010 2:27 PM (5 months ago)

^^^^^^

tbh

martin jol made me hate all underperforming yet sympathised millionaire managers. rafa became the next most appropriate target of my ire once that fat buffoon had awoken it

and i reckon i'm more sympathetic to rafa than most of u heathens

well, one of we heathens certainly

just seems like a happy go lucky guy who has found himself down on his luck

just a chill bro fallen on hard times and £10m compensation a year

do think he is actually & paradoxically not that weird or unpleasant at 'a human level' fwiw

the constant refusal to accept responsibility / willingness to blame everyone else for every little thing was prob what turned me on him. sometimes it may have been justified, but it always seemed to me that he'd hang his own players much quicker than most other managers, and his constant shiteing on about ferguson, wenger, the press, mourinho when rly he was making a lot godawful decisions in a consistently repugnant manner just became laughable.

xp in quieter interviews he's always come across as ok, but i mean even the slightest justification sends him straight into brat mode.

he should have known his limits and not tried psy-ops w/ ferguson and mourinho

way above his level there

nonsense darragh, pretty much every manager does that except Roy and look where it's getting him. Rafa does come across as unlikeable imo, but so what, it's not a popularity contest - except it is, which is something I have a big problem with culturally.

Alienating your own guys, plus the unfathomable decisions and seeming totally unaware of why they piss people off, that's enough surely?

not to rafa's extent, most with more justification tbph.

everything is a popularity contest. lyfe man.

alienating his own guys because of his public blaming of them for his own failings, for the most part. linked.

popularity contest based on doing your job well would be more useful imo than a popularity contest based on being good company for a drink or whatever, but that isn't how football seems to operate in this country

rmde

it's true tho, jacques santini was only appointed cuz levy heard keysy saying santini was 'a great laugh, loves his whores'

enough with the rmde now I think

you say it like 'doing your job well' is undisputed.

popularity is v useful when that's in question, in any job, in a public job in particular.

popularity can be very useful amongst a team of players that you're asking to perform for you twice a week.

popularity among the press isn't necessary, but at the same time i struggle to think of any manager in britain excepting ferguson and arguably wenger that get very far without it. and rafa never built the base those guys had to allow him not to court the press.

popularity amongst opposing fans- true, this doesn't matter a jot. but i'm pretty sure that a complete lack of respect from them (and this is pretty much where benitez was well before the end imo) unsettles your own fans, particularly when the shit starts to hit the fan closer to home. when utd, spurs and arsenal fans are all happier for your manager to stay than half of your own guys are, that's gotta be a question.

it's a retarded argument

how is this country's football notably more nepotistic than say italy, where there are often only one or two foreign managers in serie a

the smug cosiness of the ssn/after dinner speaker circuit oughtn't to be confused with thinking among ppl that actually matter

LIKE US

the baffoon act, the shit team, the inability to take blame, the alienation of his players, the lol 4000 signings that just disappeared... really i hate him because many liverpool fans still refuse to give up the ghost and say he was shit. he was such a fucking failure, it is ok to admit it. he won one big trophy - well done. came below everton that same season fyi and only got there because of a bad lino decision. houillier was SUCH a better fucking manager at Liverpool, won more, and the general scouse opinion is hatred and resentment and they can't stand Woy so fuck 'em and def. fuck Rafa.

only got there because of a bad lino decision

oho, don't get me started on that one - reasonable argument for J Mourinho looking to buoy up his players, stupid argument for anyone else

yeah tbf nothin dodge abt that call.

houllier only has 2 league cups (and something called the nitro cup?) over rafa at liverpool to be fair. I think most people would swap 1 uefa cup + 2 league cups for 1 european cup

had some year in 2001 tho mind