Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008

PHB

Was the start of this whole thing not the Rafa saying he was focused on coaching and training?

November 22nd he said that the England job might tempt him and said "I am focusing on coaching and training my team." like ten times.
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=rafa-benitez-stunner-england-job-might-tempt-me%26method=full%26objectid=20147630%26siteid=50061-name_page.html
Posted on this thread at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54484436&postcount=4426

After which, on the Liverpool website, this was posted.

Liverpool co-Chairmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett have today released the following statement.
"We made a significant investment in the playing squad during the summer and desperately want this team to succeed.

"There are some very important games coming up in the next couple of weeks and all of us need to focus on winning those games and getting the best out of the players we already have at the club.

"We will leave any talk of buying or selling players until we come across to Liverpool in December and sit down with the Manager then."

As shown here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54484436&postcount=4433

Chardee MacDennis

RE*AC*TOR wrote: »

I would love to be at Anfield tonight. If there was any doubt as to who's side the supporters are on in this debate, there's won't be come kick off.

you'd be very disappointed if you were at anfield tonight, you wouldn't see much football anyway!!!

RE*AC*TOR

Call_me_al wrote: »

you'd be very disappointed if you were at anfield tonight, you wouldn't see much football anyway!!!

lol - getting ahead of myself - as usual

Chardee MacDennis

PHB wrote: »

Was the start of this whole thing not the Rafa saying he was focused on coaching and training?

November 22nd he said that the England job might tempt him and said "I am focusing on coaching and training my team." like ten times.
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=rafa-benitez-stunner-england-job-might-tempt-me%26method=full%26objectid=20147630%26siteid=50061-name_page.html
Posted on this thread at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54484436&postcount=4426

After which, on the Liverpool website, this was posted.

As shown here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54484436&postcount=4433

Why do they say THE MANAGER why not Rafa, do you think this is being purposely ambiguous or am i reading into it too much!?!

RE*AC*TOR

kida wrote: »

They are businessmen and as with the Glazers at United - Supporters interests will not be that important. Their money is not made by the die-hards who will protest.

I don't think its limited to "die-hards". Surely any business wants to keep it customers happy.

PHB

These customers are not customers in the normal sense. They are football fans, a special type of customer. They are stil gona buy a season ticket next year, even if Rafa is fired. They are still gona buy the new jersey, even if Rafa gets fired. They are in economic terms, inelastic. They are gona purchase the product no matter what really, and the small tiny percentage who won't, can be easily replaced. These customers are irrelevent to any business plan.

mike65

There would be far more to this than pissed off punters. I can think of 7 players who'd be looking for a pronto transfer if Rafa went - Alonso. Reina, Arbeloa, Lucas, Torres, Masch (okay he simply would'nt sign) and er Gerrard. the G-Unit is is entering the peak of his career and has one "big" transfer possibility left. Rafa out and next summer Gerrard follows I reckon.

Then the new manager (who'd be wondering how much control he actualy has) would have a huge rebuilding job on. While Sven has shown you can throw together 7/8 players and get results I would'nt use Man City as a template as its still only November.

It would take time and money and there would be zero guarentee the "new" Liverpool would be any improvment.

Hopefully G&H have enough buisness savvy to understand they stand to loose more than they might gain.

Mike.

leninbenjamin

there are rumours circulating around that Rafa has already been fired...

what the blazes is going on?

emc2

mike65 wrote: »

Nice to see Arsene Wenger speaking out about the current madness.



Mike.

Fair play to Arsene

Jesus Wept

leninbenjamin wrote: »

there are rumours circulating around that Rafa has already been fired...

what the blazes is going on?

That's rumours for you.

Spud83

I love rumours. Come on how many of yas are now searching through the entire net trying to find these rumours.

PHB

mike65 wrote: »

Mike.

I'm not denying there wouldn't be repruccussions. I'm just saying this show of support for Rafa will have little to no effect on the owners. Of course there's no guarantee that a new manager will do better, and he'll probably have to deal with players wanting to leave etc. etc.
However, the owners didn't get to where they are by not taking risks. They got to where they are because they took the risks and it paid off for them. They won't be afraid to fire Rafa if they think a different manager can do better.

Jesus Wept

Maybe they will bring in some manager whose experience is coaching American Football teams, and he will stand on the sideline with huge headphone on and a 'play' list.

mike65

One joker on another forum suggested Steve Nicol would be parachuted in.

Mike.

Spud83

The-Rigger wrote: »

Maybe they will bring in some manager whose experience is coaching American Football teams, and he will stand on the sideline with huge headphone on and a 'play' list.

Big Sam?

zing

Some more progress...

Anfield chief executive Rick Parry held two hours of talks with Benitez last night and those talks were described as “amicable” by club insiders – but the rift between the manager and Tom Hicks and George Gillett is still to be healed.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=steven-gerrard-8217-s-warning-for-team-mates%26method=full%26objectid=20167431%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

mike65

Anyone got a firm time for the Melwood post training press conference?

Mike.

Hobart

There are no reports of substance that say that Rafa has been told that he can not have any money for the January transfer market. This stems from Rafa's eagerness to progress on certain targets he has identified. Fairly solid reports suggest that Rafa has spoken directly to the agents of two players and has had positive feedback from both in relation to the prospect of their players coming to Anfield in the new year.

From what I heard on traditional news reports/fora/sites etc... this was communicated to both Parry and the owners.

Rafa was told to leave all negotiations to Parry and to concentrate on training the team. This is where his shenanigans of last week's press conference stem from. Again, he was not told that the kitty is empty.

From a business perspective Gillet and Hicks claim that they have invested more in this team than it ever has been in the past. This is pure spin on their part. Current estimates put Liverpool's net spend this summer at around £22M, which is there or there abouts what they would have gotten from the run in the CL final last year.

It has also been said that Rafa inherited a squad with a book value of £60 - £65M, with Gerrard being a major part of that asset list. Today's squad (Bosmans aside) is estimated to be worth £220 - £250M with a net spend on Rafa's part of £60 - £70M. It does not take a genius to work out the difference.

I think that this is a critical time for Rafa, and although reports of his impending demise/sacking are premature, if they fail to qualify for the CL knock out stage, I think he will be sacked.

It will be a huge loss for the club, but the fans with have no say in it. Now if he does manage to qualify for the knock out stages, it will pose one or two questions for the owners. The meeting, mid-December, will be crucial for Rafa.

Spud83

Hobart wrote: »

I think that this is a critical time for Rafa, and although reports of his impending demise/sacking are premature, if they fail to qualify for the CL knock out stage, I think he will be sacked.

It will be a huge loss for the club, but the fans with have no say in it. Now if he does manage to qualify for the knock out stages, it will pose one or two questions for the owners. The meeting, mid-December, will be crucial for Rafa.

I dont think its a simple as CL qualification. Didn't the owners come out at the start of the year and say they wanted to be challenging for the league. So if he is still in a good position in the league (which ya's are so far) he shouldn't be sacked. Come the end of the year if Liverpool haven't put up a fight in the league, add that to a poor CL performance then you have a sacked manager. Only with those two things happening Rafa might be sacked.

zing

Hobart wrote: »

if they fail to qualify for the CL knock out stage, I think he will be sacked.

Which in itself would be fairly ridiculous. We've had our best start in the league for years and have so far lost only two games - both in the CL. Hardly a crisis on the pitch. Yes a few other results haven't gone the way they should but that happens to every team - e.g. who would have expected Bolton to beat Utd at the weekend given the recent form of both teams.

Gillet & Hicks have been running businesses and sports teams long enough to know two things:
* success doesn't come overnight
* you can't win 'em all

This seems to all stem from a lack of communication across the Atlantic - or possibly from Parry's office to Rafa's.. Started shortly after the take over when they hadn't sat down with Rafa and he had no clue what their plans were for on the field. Then there was Athens and now this latest incident

whatawaster

The Times Online Podcast has a piece about these shenanigans. Guillem Ballague, if that's how you spell it, said he thinks its not a matter of if Rafa is sacked it's a matter of when. He seems to know an awful lot about the situation. The owners apparantly just want Rafa to be a coach, but Rafa has become a control freak and wants to take on everything himself. Again he has also said everything in the papers is true.

tibor

whatawaster wrote: »

The Times Online Podcast has a piece about these shenanigans. Guillem Ballague, if that's how you spell it, said he thinks its not a matter of if Rafa is sacked it's a matter of when. He seems to know an awful lot about the situation. The owners apparantly just want Rafa to be a coach, but Rafa has become a control freak and wants to take on everything himself. Again he has also said everything in the papers is true.

He said in his skysports.com column last week that he had heard Mourinho was already in negotiations with a top English club.

zAbbo

Balleague talks too much, if Rafa goes, he can say he was right, if he doesn't he can say that last minute talks averted diasaster etc.

Although he is close to Rafa (apparently)

whatawaster

tibor wrote: »

He said in his skysports.com column last week that he had heard Mourinho was already in negotiations with a top English club.

I wouldn't be so sure that it's liverpool though. Isn't he quite close to Rafa, so if he knew surely Rafa would as well, and as a proud man i'm sure he wouldn't allow himself be undermined in that way.

zing

tibor wrote: »

He said in his skysports.com column last week that he had heard Mourinho was already in negotiations with a top English club.

He's very good at repeating what he reads in that papers but rarely seems to have any real insider knowledge

mike65

Maureen is on gardening leave, he can't manage in prem until next season. So if rafa were sacked you'd have 5 months of the season with a temp. While Thommo did very well after Geds heart problems I would'nt expect to be that fortunate again.

Mike.

HashSlinging

Ahem Dalglish.

raven136

this situation is a joke,Rafa inherited a squad with poor players that had overtaken the dressingroom.He worked on a small budget for two years and had to settle for crouch,kuyt,pennant type players.Yet despite this he won an fa cup,a champions league and reached a second final.
He said this season he needed more money,he got some of it(hicks is lying about his being the most any liverpool manager ever got)and he signed torres who added what he needed.We now lie unbeaten in the league,great defensive record and a good goal difference with two winnable games coming up before the big one against united.
We are at xmas time still in the league race,what we all wanted.We have gruadually played better football,as evidenced by last sat against newcastle,17 passes and one minute of continous forward possesion.If arsenal do that its genuis personified.

Hicks and gillet spent not a penny of their own money and the champions league and player sales brought it approx 50 odd milllion whereupon 23m other than that was given to rafa.Sunderland,new to the premiership were given more of a net spend.They promised not to refinance the package around the club,they since have begun to put wheels in motion towards this.
They genuinely do not understand the transfer market here and rafa possibly could not explain this in private.We as fans have a right to know why Masch and kalhadze of milan both agreed to join us when talking to rafa yet the owners think Parry could do better(a man lets not forget whose delay almost let Steven Gerrard slip through our hands).

This situation is now untenable as i wouldnt trust Parry to buy a pint of milk never mind a new centre half.And this rubbish about rafa wasting money,has nearly all of his signings that not worked out then being sold for a profit?

All of this depresses me because i genuinely think we can win the league this year and now all of this is being risked.The rumors linking xabi with amove back to spain would only increase if Rafa was gone.
Also anyone who thinks Hicks is a great business man when it comes to sport should read about his contract given to A Rod when the Texas rangers had him.They managed to be outwitted by his agent and ended up bidding against themselves and handed out the biggest contract in Baseball history.The man who thinks Javier Mascherano shouldnt be bought for 17m gave Alex Rodriguez 252million dollars for ten years.Then they ended up trading him to the yankees and paying 67million dollars towards it.
check out the rangers fans against hicks website where they accuse him of not putting in money to get real decent players and squad depth.Very angry and worried pool fan

RE*AC*TOR

Nevermind potential replacement head coach / managers for the Liverpool Reds franchise, possibly the bigger story would be the scramble for other clubs to sign Benitez. Bayern Munich have recently expressed an interest, Real Madrid have in the past. Any club with CL ambitions would consider him a prospect.

yom 1

raven136 wrote: »

this situation is a joke,Rafa inherited a squad with poor players that had overtaken the dressingroom.He worked on a small budget for two years and had to settle for crouch,kuyt,pennant type players.Yet despite this he won an fa cup,a champions league and reached a second final.
He said this season he needed more money,he got some of it(hicks is lying about his being the most any liverpool manager ever got)and he signed torres who added what he needed.We now lie unbeaten in the league,great defensive record and a good goal difference with two winnable games coming up before the big one against united.
We are at xmas time still in the league race,what we all wanted.We have gruadually played better football,as evidenced by last sat against newcastle,17 passes and one minute of continous forward possesion.If arsenal do that its genuis personified.

Hicks and gillet spent not a penny of their own money and the champions league and player sales brought it approx 50 odd milllion whereupon 23m other than that was given to rafa.Sunderland,new to the premiership were given more of a net spend.They pronised not to refinance the package around the club,they since have begun to put wheels in motion towards this.
They genuinely do not understand the transfer market here and rafa possibly could not explain this in private.We as fans have a right to know why Masch and kalhadze of milan both agreed to join us when talking to rafa yet the owners think Parry could do better(a man lets not forget whose delay almost let Steven Gerrard slip through our hands).

This situation is now untenable as i wouldnt trust Parry to buy a pint of milk never mind a new centre half.And this rubbish about rafa wasting money,has nearly all of his signings that not worked out then being sold for a profit?

All of this depresses me because i genuinely think we can win the league this year and now all of this is being risked.The rumors linking xabi with amove back to spain would only increase if Rafa was gone.
Also anyone who thinks Hicks is a great business man when it comes to sport should read about his contract given to A Rod when the Texas rangers had him.They manager to be outwitted by his agent and ended up bidding against themselves and handed out the biggest contract in Baseball history.The man who thinks Javier Mascherano shouldnt be bought for 17m gave Alex Rodriguez 252million dollars for ten years.Then they ended up trading him to the yankees and paying 67million dollars towards it.
check out the rangers fans against hisks website where they accuse him of not putting in money to get real decent players and squad depth.Very angry and worried pool fan

Bravo Sir

Sums up exactly how I and probably alot of Liverpool fans feel.

Anybody got a direct line to Hicks? I think Raven has a few words for him:p

IrishMike

When is Parry finishing up at Liverpool?
Idiot always seems to go missing when there is a crisis.

tibor

mike65 wrote: »

Maureen is on gardening leave, he can't manage in prem until next season. So if rafa were sacked you'd have 5 months of the season with a temp. While Thommo did very well after Geds heart problems I would'nt expect to be that fortunate again.

" I have heard Jose Mourinho is negotiating already with an English club for next season."

http://www.skysports.com/experts/expert_story/0,19793,12087_2900408,00.html

Jesus Wept

whatawaster wrote: »

The Times Online Podcast has a piece about these shenanigans. Guillem Ballague, if that's how you spell it, said he thinks its not a matter of if Rafa is sacked it's a matter of when. He seems to know an awful lot about the situation. The owners apparantly just want Rafa to be a coach, but Rafa has become a control freak and wants to take on everything himself. Again he has also said everything in the papers is true.

I've been critical of Parry, however with regard to the Gerrard almost leaving incident, I really believe that was a case of Rafa wanting to cash in because he could of done a lot of rebuilding with the £30 Million+ Chelsea were willing to pay.

But none of us can say for sure one way or another.

Hobart

zing wrote: »

Which in itself would be fairly ridiculous. We've had our best start in the league for years and have so far lost only two games - both in the CL. Hardly a crisis on the pitch. Yes a few other results haven't gone the way they should but that happens to every team - e.g. who would have expected Bolton to beat Utd at the weekend given the recent form of both teams.

alanmurphy83 wrote: »

I dont think its a simple as CL qualification. Didn't the owners come out at the start of the year and say they wanted to be challenging for the league.

I'm not saying that it would be a justifiable reason to sack Rafa, in fact it would be far from it. What I am saying is that if Rafa fails to secure CL knock out qualification, I suspect that given his obvious annoyance over the conversation last week, and his perceived "lack of respect" to the owners that they would find reason enough (when the sum of all these events are added up) to justify sacking him.

I'm not saying it's right (in fact I would say quite the opposite) but I suspect that that's what they would do.

flanzer

tibor wrote: »

" I have heard Jose Mourinho is negotiating already with an English club for next season."

http://www.skysports.com/experts/expert_story/0,19793,12087_2900408,00.html

Jebus, is anyone finding skysports site giving trouble in the last number of weeks? It's doing my nut in!

yom 1

flanzer wrote: »

Jebus, is anyone finding skysports site giving trouble in the last number of weeks? It's doing my nut in!

It has gotten gradually worse in the last couple of years that I barely if ever use it anymore. BBC it is for me - Its over the top Engerland, but not nearly as much sensationalism

Kanney

Last night in work, went to the bathroom, when I came out, my work colleague said, did you hear the Liverpool news, something about the manager... He's not big into football so I waited with wet pants for the hourly bulletin and then nothing. Thank God.
Can't get rid of Rafa...
Just saw on the website, Alonso and Agger wont be back for Wed but Yossi might. Agger must've had it bad to be out soooo long. I mean Alonso came back and broke his metatarsal again and is nearly beating him back to fitness.

Tusky

Rafa press conference. The reported makes a good point. IF Liverpool can beat Porto, Marseille & also the next two games in the premier league (Bolton & Reading) we will be in a very very good position. Qualified for next round and competing in premiership...would be very hard to sack a manager who is getting those results & has the full support of players & fans.

Benitez: Before you start asking, for all of the media here, as Liverpool Football Club manager I know what is the most important thing for my club and our supporters. So, I will talk about Porto and not anything else.

Journalist: Are you worried that this game against Porto will be your last?

Benitez: I'm sure that we will win and I'm sure that we will play well. I am always thinking about to win the next game and after that I will think about to win against Bolton.

How much of a distraction has it been, what's been happening behind the scenes?

No distractions, we are thinking about Porto.

There's been talk of a meeting between you and Rick Parry, have there been steps to clear things up behind the scenes?

You can ask, but you know I will talk about Porto.

Can you confirm the meeting took place?

We will be thinking about Porto and we don't have any problems.
We were talking because we talk a lot, but really we were talking about different things. The most important thing for my club and the supporters is the game.

The supporters are united behind you, aren't they?

The supporters are magnificent always. When we played against
Chelsea in the semi-final, you could hear them, and against Besiktas the other day. Without any doubt, the supporters will be behind the team.

Also behind you as well Rafa, what do you make of the stand they
are making?

If they are behind the team, I will be pleased.

This is a must-win game, isn't it?

Yes, but it's important to know that you must not lose. It's maybe
something that isn't considered, but if you draw, you beat Marseille and Besiktas beat Marseille, maybe you can still qualify. So it's really important to win, but it's also important not to make any mistakes.

If you win tomorrow, beat Marseille and remain unbeaten in the
Premier League, you'll be in good shape, won't you?

Yes, I think that we're in a very good position. We are unbeaten
and in the last game we played really well. You can see a lot of players now playing good games, passing the ball and playing good football. I think it's much better now and we will try to keep the momentum.

Do you see this being a different game to the one in Porto?

Yes, it must be. We started that game badly, but the big difference
here is that we'll have our people behind us. We are playing at Anfield and that means a lot for us and I say again I think the team is playing better, so I think we are in a better position than before.

You've won a lot of trophies in your career by being single-minded and doing what you think is best for the club you've represented. Are you ever willing to compromise on that?

The best will be to win tomorrow, so I will try to compromise and
win tomorrow.

If the owners of Liverpool Football Club were to suggest another
way, are you someone who will be prepared to compromise or will you stick to what you think is best?

I am just thinking about to win tomorrow.

Ahead of kick off the supporters have organised a march
in support of you, what do you make of that?

I will try to repay them by winning the game.

Is it the character of your side that reacts to difficult times?

It is clear, and I've said before, that we've made a mistake and
put ourselves in a difficult position, but it's much better than a couple of weeks ago because if we can do the right things and win, we can think about the next one.

The dressing room seems united behind you, is that how you see
it?

The players are really working hard for this club. The commitment
is fantastic and it will be the same tomorrow.

How far ahead are you able to plan at the moment?

I have my plan ready for winning against Porto.

griffdaddy

Great, the impressions i'm getting are that Rafa would be happy with a draw tomorrow

Thanx 4 The Fish

Odd, the impression I'm getting is that he wants to win but if we don't we are not buried.

mike65

Lets not go there.

Mike.

Tusky

griffdaddy wrote: »

Great, the impressions i'm getting are that Rafa would be happy with a draw tomorrow

He is clearly going out to win it and says so many times during the interview.

Jesus Wept

Always I say we will try to win, no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCUeBICTgL0

Rafa - The Magician!!

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

IrishMike

griffdaddy wrote: »

Great, the impressions i'm getting are that Rafa would be happy with a draw tomorrow

Lol x2.
Should be a pretty straightforward win though.
Liverpool are playing extremely well at the moment with Gerrard and Torres
playing as well as they are Porto should be a good home win
Atmosphere will be electric and that should be pretty daunting to Porto.
Prediction 2-0

mike65

The Rafa magic trick always cheers me up!

Mike.

Jesus Wept

mike65 wrote: »

The Rafa magic trick always cheers me up!

Mike.

lol me too!

This one cheers me up too....


Rafa Benitez on cricket :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1xPJKWjLHQ

Tusky

This video is great as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jw2QyXGgrY&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

The petition www.saverafa.com is at 22,450 signatures and was featured on sky sports news.

The banner that the guys on RAWK are making is going it be amazing! It reads 'As always, we are focusing on supporting our manager' Its in 5 separate sections. The total length is 120 feet!!! It will look great on the kop.

I have a feeling tomorrow will be a special game. I think the show of support will be massive and may rival the J96 at the Arsenal game.

Jesus Wept

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyo33nnfkg

Will he shave?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kLnapFVE-c

Ball Control

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO3UBwzWP1Y

Thanx 4 The Fish

Well have been given a Corporate ticket so am getting rid of the kop ticket, all the better to see the banner, have been under quite a few of those in the past and often haveTWONK or somesuch. Ticket is right on action too.

Dub13

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote: »

Well have been given a Corporate ticket so am getting rid of the kop ticket,

You should be able to move that on IrishKop.