Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

xposts. Off the top of my head: Malouda, Jovetic, Pato, Walcott, Ramsey, Alves, Simao Sabrosa.

dodged a few bullets there tho

ahaha yeah that vid is like a recording of the last thing d-mac will see as his life slips away

"Keane is one of the other names and OK, we are still working with other names. We were in contact and we will see now."

lolll i forgot how he used 'ok' in midsentence all the time

Bought my ticket for an Audience With Rafa btw. Can't wait!

and who knew he had eyes the colour of lizards

I once walked past Rafa on the way into work. I was so star struck that all I could manage was a smile and a nod of the head. I am a fucking idiot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Audience_with...#List_of_episodes

I imagine something like that plays on the inside of darragh's eyelids for :46 every time he prepares to post on this subject.

Understandable that Rafa was mocked for telling Moratti he needed three or four (was it 4 or 5?) players last December, but I'm not sure he was wrong.

48 	2008 	Jeremy Beadle 	presenter 	ITV 	16 May 2008 	146 	posthumous; hosted by Chris Tarrant[7]

2015 Rafael Benitez posthumous; hosted by Sam Allardyce

One of my favourite Rafa moments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC3HzCVVV14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vtjf4SWr2E

would be cool to face up the simmering resentment boom-bust punch n judy england show by putting in a boss people cannot stand str8 from the get go imo

― r|t|c, Friday, 16 September 2011 01:28 Bookmark

http://www.fustar.info/wp-content/images/mclaren.jpg

Understandable that Rafa was mocked for telling Moratti he needed three or four (was it 4 or 5?) players last December, but I'm not sure he was wrong.

― boxall, Friday, 16 September 2011 01:51 (11 hours ago)

Santon plays for Mourinho and looks like the next Maldini every week, disappears under Rafa and then ends up a Newcastle player.
Coutinho looked like one the best five prospects floating around even getting his first Brazil cap, but Rafa made him play different tactically every week before just dropping him despite looking their most exciting midfielder. He has kinda disappeared since.
Mariga came in the Jan before Rafa and his form under Jose made him look like he was integrating well with the first team to eventually take a place in their starting xi. He got very little love from Rafa, was marginalised and had to go on loan to Sociedad.
Pandev, after coming from Lazio fucking with him, had his best form ever, CL winning form, under Mourinho, only to have 1 or 2 minor injuries and be pushed down the ranks until he ended up going out on loan. He got more games under Leonardo but Rafa fucked with his head, as Rafa often does, enough to make him not worth keeping around.

See, this is the most frustrating thing about Rafa. I can get past the dour tactics, the insane trolling, whatever. He seems to always blame others for his own problems and having the cheek to say 'i never knew i was taking over a shit team, moratti suckz, give me money' when he took over TREBLE WINNERS that had an extremely promising undercurrent of youth pushing players in their prime, well, gtfo.

And this is in no way a new thing. At Liverpool, in 6 years, he signed 99 players! Wenger in his decade and a half at Arsenal has signed about the same amount. And yet the players were always seemingly at fault, they were always a few more signings away because his current ones hadn't worked out properly. No shitting wonder that Pool went to Comolli to stop anyone like Rafa cocking up their transfer policy so spectacularly again any time soon.

yeah right smdh

think yr being a lil harsh

rafa was dreadful at inter but it's the effect on the senior players that seems most pervasive, they seem to have lacked an y motivation since may 2010

coutinho only began playing for inter when rafa took over, same as biabany

he was totally unrafa-like for his short tenure, playing very open football and looking quite exciting

BUT WHY PLAY TACTICS YOU ARENT USED TO IF IT IS GOING TO MAKE THE TEAM LOOK AND PLAY BAD?

No-one hires Rafa and says 'so, tiki-taka then'? No-one replaces a team handbuilt by Mourinho and says 'so, tiki-taka then?' Get the results first, change the system gradually.

Step 1: Hey lads, how about we ditch what made you so successful and have some fun?
Step 2: Ok, so our results lately haven't worked out, so lets continue having fun playing entertaining football.
Step 3: So results aren't going our way, i'm going blame you lot in the press. You obviously don't know what you are doing and i'm gonna go get angry at the chairman.
Step 4: ???????
Step 5: Profit

lol we battered them i remember lol

rafa was dreadful at inter but it's the effect on the senior players that seems most pervasive, they seem to have lacked any motivation since may 2010

― diouf est le papa du foot galsen merde lè haters (nakhchivan), Friday, 16 September 2011 13:26 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yeah if only remedying this sort of thing was part of a manager's basic job description eh

tbf though if we're making the comparison mourinho has permanently ruined his fair share of players too. not as many and never with the consequences as rafa has, but still

on his way to success, rarely as a direct factor in failure

that's what i was suggesting xp!

ppl at the time were saying motivation was most needed after the treble

they wanted a warnock, they got rafa

re-read thread it's awesome

This break's doing him good. He knows he's made mistakes, and he'll put them right. No idea what he'll do next - his family's settled here and he wants to stay England.

xxp nevertheless not a commendable trait of mourinho's

oh right soz nakh! (lol yes thanks for restating it in terms i could understand).

ok i know i should let it lie but... chris you are a psychopath

i dont see any job that would work for rafa. malaga maybe?

chris loves rafa like i hate jol, it's a positive trait imo

Absolutely.

malaga?

Too many resources.

lol

teams in driving distance of casa del rafa = half the epl so long as he doesnt mind managing one of whichever 72 lancashire mill town teams are in the league any given year

blackburn

irrational hate is so much less insane than irrational love though

is there any current or former spurs employee you wouldnt ever hear a bad word said no matter what? (assuming there's even flimsy evidence to the contrary.) can't think of anyone like that for rangers.

Hardly irrational love though? CL football every season, 1 CL, another final, an FA Cup and the club's best PL points total!

chris otm

eh, probably not, but then i'm from the 'ppl are cunts' school in general, tbh. There are ppl you like, ppl you don't, don't know how much of it is rational or even to be taken seriously.

Packie Bonner's great tho, innee?

interior life of rafa could be almost too much to take on tbh

what about nick barmby

even emil cioran would be cheered by his impish smile and honesty of effort

And Benitez believes the constant changes since his departure are down to Moratti wielding too much influence on team matters.

"He [Moratti] makes too many mistakes. After me he has had three coaches [Leonardo, Gasperini and Ranieri], that means the president is making too many errors," Benitez said, according to Sky Sport Italia.

"Inter did not treat me well, they did not recognise my value despite me winning the Italian Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

"This is something that still pains me."

they went for ranieri? how does that guy still get employed?

"Inter did not treat me well, they did not recognise my value despite me winning the two trophies that nobody gives a flying fuck about"

i must admit i've struggled to recognise his value myself at times

according to the daily mail....
Carlo Ancelotti and former Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez are the favourites to take over if Redknapp were to leave and replace Fabio Capello as England manager after the European Championships.

ancelotti would be the strong favourite, though.

Long way off yet, and dunno if the fa would even go for arry.

E'd be right good for ingerland tho.

http://i.imgur.com/1DrtF.jpg

Some good blog posts this month, liked the one on wingbacks.

Still think he might take over at Atléti? The odds must have narrowed.

i thought aragones was favourite

entertainment promised either way

benitez to arsenal ffs

The availability of Rafael Benítez, who won a European Cup with Liverpool in 2005 while he was overseeing a period of transition after Gérard Houllier's tenure, has not helped Villas-Boas. There are suggestions that the Spaniard could replace Villas-Boas initially until the end of the season, charged with securing Champions League qualification, while Chelsea consider their longer-term options.