rafa n'a JAMAIS demandé plus d'argent pour l'été prochain.
il s'est engagé envers le club,n'a jamais eu envie d'aller à l'inter ni au real.
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REDS AND RAFA COMMITTED TO EACH OTHER
Rick Parry 24 March 2006
Our mutual goals haven't changed and because he was prepared to re-commit himself to this club, we are now taking the opportunity to extend his contract which will hopefully quell all the speculation about a possible return to Spain or a move to Italy.
I would like to make it clear that there were no specific conditions attached to his proposed new arrangement. Some newspapers have suggested that a deal to bring new investment into the club has been concluded and that this somehow inspired Rafa to commit to us.
This is not the case although clearly it remains a very high priority. We are still working as hard as ever down this front, as explained at the Annual General Meeting. Rafa understands this and he knows exactly what we are trying to achieve.
Hopefully all of this will lead to further progress in other areas, but there is nothing around the corner.
It's very gratifying to be able to kill off the speculation linking him with clubs like Real Madrid and Inter Milan. If you think back, the same clubs were in the frame when he first came to Anfield.
He chose Liverpool in the summer of 2004 and he has demonstrated his belief in us again. This says everything about his relationship with the club and the board.
Of course, good managers are always in demand. That is a fact of life.
Real and Inter are special clubs, but then we are also special, something Rafa was quick to acknowledge when he spoke about his passion for Liverpool last week.
In offering him a contract extension, we are not responding to pressure from others. This was all about reaffirming our happiness with him and Rafa demonstrating his commitment to us.
Contrary to stories that have surfaced in the last couple of weeks, Rafa has never sought assurances or made demands for specific amounts of money to further improve the squad. Such reports are completely fanciful.
He is happy with the backing he has had to date. Of course, it was right and proper that we jointly assessed our shared vision and our ambitions. Was the plan right? Did we still share those common goals about winning more silverware? I know that he never doubted our commitment on that score.
Quite simply, this is what Liverpool FC exists for. Rafa has a real understanding about what our club stands for. I know that he was particularly moved by the way the fans responded to him after the Benfica game, despite their disappointment at going out of the Champions League.
The trophy meant everything to them, but the supporters also grasped what it meant to Rafa and they expressed their admiration for his achievements to date. I know that his wife and family really appreciate the special links that exist between club, fans and manager.
I was not surprised that we went out after the announcement about his future and beat Fulham 5-1, followed by that excellent win at Newcastle. Could it be that putting all the speculation to bed has in some way permeated through into the performance? Who knows?
We are just delighted to have a manager who knows what he wants and is determined to help this club move forward. From our side, we want to support his aims in every way we can. We share a mutual respect.
Naturally, I was delighted with the way we picked ourselves up after the disappointment of big defeats against Benfica and Arsenal. We have still got a tremendous amount to play for and we are focused on an improvement in our league position in terms of points achieved and distance from the top.
Away days not ideal
We have just played a Sunday game at Newcastle, followed almost immediately by our trip to Birmingham in the FA Cup. This Sunday-Tuesday scenario was anything but ideal.
I know the programme of FA Cup quarter finals took all of the clubs aback this week. When the fixture schedule was discussed at the start of the season, the big thing in the minds of all of us was the congestion that might occur as we tried to give the England players more time to prepare.
We knew there would be FA Cup quarter finals in midweek, but we were not thinking in terms of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as the options. If we had picked up on that, a lot more concern would have been expressed. At the time, we were more focused on the fact that we were being forced to start the season early with those Champions League qualifiers.
The FA Cup quarter finals seemed a long way off at that point. Having two away games within three days is not something you would want, but we have had to get on with it. Fortunately we were able to deal with the Birmingham test in a big way with that tremendous 7-0 away win. It served to highlight the quality of Rafa's squad right now.
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