Rafa to go

Well it seems only a matter of hours or days before rafa benitez ends his reign at Anfield. I use the word reign because that is what it has become. And I for one sincerely hope that whoever the new manager is they are never, ever allowed to manipulate themselves into such a a position of having almost total control over all areas of the club. This cannot be healthy for the club as we are in my opinion about to witness, with the inevitable dismantling of Benitez' enormous backroom staff.

Dealing with the resignation/sacking of Benitez this only makes sense if a new owner has insisted he is removed before they put their own man in place. Why on earth pay compensation to Benitez (£3 Million) is the figure being mentioned, to a manager who has probably already lined up his next contract. Realistically the club should be receiving compensation from this club.

The fact we are not going to get compensation and that we have to pay to get rid of him and that he appears willing to accept such a low figure given the 4 years left on his contract speaks volumes.

Well thanks for Istanbul Rafa and good luck in the future but I for one am not at all saddened by your departure. I believe you were arrogant and continually trying to place the blame for your failings on anyone elses shoulders than your own. You wasted our transfer budget, you mismanaged a talented group of players, you were always too negative in your team selections and style of play. We could have won the league if it hadn't of been for this negativity.

But worst of all and something I cannot forgive is your willingness to bring the private affairs of the club, matters that should have been discussed behind closed doors, into the public domain. And only to serve your own selfish contract negotiations.

And finally you abused and used the loyalty of Liverpool fans to again serve your own selfish interests. Causing disputes and unrest and division amongst the fan base.

But as I have previously said you can fool all of the fans some of the time, some of the fans all of the time ( A vociferous minority in your case) But you can't fool all of the fans all of the time.

The painful truth for Liverpool and their supporters is that the new manager at Anfield, whoever he turns out to be, will find a worse squad at his disposal than that which Benítez inherited from Gerard Houllier in 2004.

And you could even argue that Liverpool are in their worst state since Bill Shankly arrived at the club more than 50 years ago.


After six years under Benítez, it is definitely time for a change at Anfield, and credit must go to managing director Christian Purslow and chairman Martin Broughton for being strong with their decision, but whoever comes in faces a mammoth task, one which will start with a blank sheet of paper and a realisation that it will be a long haul ahead.

You could be looking at three to four years before Liverpool get back to where the club should be.

But although Benítez will cite a variety of reasons – the owners, key players losing form, the financial problems – he is the man who has filled a squad that is littered with bad buys.

Benítez made too many mistakes with too many players. In recent seasons, he hasn’t got any right beyond Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and, possibly, Glen Johnson. They were all big-money buys and players of proven quality.

Benítez has had money to spend, but when he has bought players in the mid-range market of £3-5 million, they just have not been good enough and that is why Liverpool's bench has been so poor in recent months.

Regardless of the ownership issue, which clearly needs resolving as quickly as possible, Liverpool need rebuilding on the pitch, but if I were in charge at Anfield and I had money to give to the manager, would I give it to Benítez?

The answer would be a categorical 'no' because he has spent too much money on average players and we are now seeing the fruits of that because Liverpool are a long way short of competing to finish in the top four, never mind fighting to win the big boys' trophies.

It became clear to me halfway through last season, when Liverpool were out of the title race and the Champions League before Christmas, that the time had come for change.

But the board could not make that change because Rafa had only recently been given a four-year contract that meant he held all the aces. Whoever gave him that contract must have had a screw loose because it was absolutely crazy.

The decision has now been taken and a replacement must be hired sooner rather than later.

"I would imagine that the board will have a good idea who they want to bring in, but I don't have a preference, other than wanting somebody who will buy well and who will take the job on under no illusions about the challenge he faces.

If Liverpool continue to drift away from the Champions League positions, then there is a fear that mediocrity awaits three or four years down the line.

But while I don't foresee the club sliding into a Leeds United-style situation, despite the uncertainty over the ownership and the growing debt, many Liverpool supporters will feel they are already experiencing their own Leeds meltdown.

Leeds and Manchester City both fell all the way to the third tier, but Liverpool have scaled much greater heights than those clubs and, for many fans, languishing in seventh with no prospect of winning the league or European Cup is Liverpool's equivalent of playing in League One.

The ownership problem will not go away until the club is sold and while the owners want much more for their stake than potential buyers are willing to pay, it is difficult to foresee a speedy resolution.

In this day and age, will any prospective buyer not want some return on their investment? Probably not, but all that Liverpool fans can hope for is that whoever buys out Tom Hicks and George Gillett will have the club's interest at heart and that they won't use it as a money tool.

The only light at the end of the tunnel for Liverpool at the moment is that they still have Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.

If the club decides to cash in on those two, it might raise £90million for new players, but what kind of statement would that send out to the supporters and potential new signings?

Unfortunately, if Gerrard and Torres go, there will be no light and a dark tunnel for Liverpool

Now that this cold political animal has gone, Anfield requires a manager who can empathise with players, who understands they are human beings as well as professional footballers. Sometimes players need a boss who asks after their family or tells them "well done’’.

It would be easy to celebrate Benitez’s departure, to recall all of the times when his players required supportive words but were greeted with debates about near-post marking. It would be simple to highlight the wasteful recruitment of average players like Andrea Dossena and Lucas Leiva or ones like Alberto Aquilani unsuited to the pacey, physical nature of the Premier League.


It would also be straightforward to note the impoverished nature of the reserves and over-reliance on two magnificent club stalwarts in Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher inherited by Benítez. Or to point to a Premier League table that doesn’t lie.

This observer has long felt that a great institution like Liverpool Football Club deserved better than this awkward Spaniard. But enough carping. Benitez’s manifold defects don’t need dwelling on.

What first needs stressing is that he leaves Liverpool with fond memories of Istanbul and Cardiff and three world-class signings in Pepe Reina, Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres. What must also be remembered is that he had to live with a flawed, frustrating ownership structure.

If anything, Benítez deserves the club’s gratitude for not dragging the impasse out any longer, for now allowing the divisions to heal. He was beginning to resemble a squatter at Anfield but has accepted the board’s sensible offer of a pay-off and headed off.

Benitez’s done the right thing. A summer stand-off would have further damaged his reputation and Liverpool’s. Some dignity has returned to all parties.

Rather than reflect on the club’s slide under Benítez, Liverpool must look to the future.

Kenny Dalglish, whose title success in 1990 has weighed ever more heavily on each subsequent manager, has been named kingmaker.

Dalglish’s mere presence should help soothe fans aggrieved at Benitez’s exit. When the Kop sings The Fields Of Anfield Road there seems even more emotion poured into the words about King Kenny "and could he play’’.

There has been too much politicking at Anfield this season but fortunately Dalglish has only one agenda: to do what is best for Liverpool.

His office at the Kirkby Academy has two massive photographs of Liverpool fans and his passion for the club remains as strong now as during his gilded playing and management days.

Simply the involvement of such a popular club legend might also encourage Gerrard to resist any thoughts of joining Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid.

Dalglish’s love of banter, witnessed when engaging with the youngest Academy aspirant or established star like Gerrard or Carragher, will bring some warmth back to Anfield.

Although Fabio Capello will not appreciate the distraction, Dalglish needs to contact Gerrard and Carragher at the England camp in Rustenburg to hear their thoughts of who Benitez’s successor should be. Gerrard and Carragher are intelligent individuals who care deeply for Liverpool and have been hurt by the club’s descent into mediocrity. Their voices must now be heard.

The whisper is that Liverpool are looking to appoint an experienced replacement with a good record in Europe, one who is a stable character. Roy Hodgson fits that bill, although whether he would now uproot from his native London after returning home following a nomad’s existence remains another issue.

The Fulham manager is ambitious, though, and his stock is high after the team’s impressive run to the final of the Europa League.

Yet the feeling has always been that Hodgson would not make his next move until Capello vacated the England position. Such a patriot as Hodgson would love to finish his career as manager of his country.

Unless Liverpool look overseas, the other obvious candidate is Martin O’Neill.

Although his Aston Villa side remain a work in progress, and O’Neill is not the type to run from a half-finished job, Liverpool’s famous history and enduring support must be alluring. He has seemed increasingly tense in recent months, partly over the question of how much funding he will get to lift Villa up another level.

Few dispute that O’Neill improves Villa year on year, making good players like James Milner better yet he would be perfect for Liverpool, an antidote to the Benítez era. O’Neill motivates players because of his ebullient character. He challenges, coaxes them, inspires them.

Whether O’Neill could be considered particularly "stable’’ may be an issue that plays on Liverpool minds. He often comes across as the lawyer he once trained to be, engaging in unnecessarily complicated arguments.

He has decent European experience as a manager and exceptional as a player with Nottingham Forest, who vied with the Liverpool of Dalglish.

O’Neill would certainly cut a more demonstrative figure in the dugout than Benítez, who raised eyebrows in the dressing room by rarely celebrating goals or wins.

Yet what is happening at Liverpool is not about replacing one manager with another, it’s about transforming a culture. Benítez changed so much at Anfield and the new man will need to conduct a small revolution.

Thursday was a step in the right direction but Liverpool will continue to endure some painful times before they climb back up again[b]

So who comes in to fill the void left by Rafa?

And believe me it will be a void. We allowed Rafa to fill just about every post within the club with his people, and more often than not these people had no understanding or connection
to Liverpool and it's traditions. In fact you could go further and say that Rafa got rid of anyone who fell into this category during his megolomaniacal period in charge.

So who comes in to replace him?

I can only hope that with King Kenny involved in the process we can now start to dismantle Rafa's damaging reign and take our club back by installing some of the people who know the club, the supporters, the town and our traditions and history.

There are so many talented individuals whose experience should be drawn on, Dalglish, Rush, Molby,Thompson and yes we should be returning to the ways that made and kept us succesful by grooming the likes of Carragher to be our future Manager and have no repeat of the disgusting way in which this lifelong servant of Anfield has been treated in regard to him not even knowing "if" he will receive a new contract . Absolutely appalling treatment of one of our greatest servants.

It may be we need to bring someone in to sit at the head of this group but please, please, please no more political, manipulating, megolomaniacs of the ilk of Rafa.

Just a football man, someone whose entire concentration will be focused on the team and who knows how to ensure our dirty washing is not laundered in the full public view to enhance his own personal position. A motivator, a human being capable of understanding how to get the best out what he has to work with instead of constantly demanding more money.

We don't have more money so we need someone who can get the best out of what we have.

I am not going to enter into the debate as to if the squad is stronger now than the one Houllier left. All I want is a manager who is capable of getting us playing as a team with player playing in their natural roles. Roles where they understand what their part is and how to carry it out. No more players shaking their heads at mystifying substitutions.

So Rafa is confirmed Manager of Inter, what a surprise that is.

I personally do not believe for one moment that he was negotiating with Inter whilst at the same time telling Liverpool fans how committed he was to the Red cause.

Malicious gossip being spread by those with a grudge to bear against him in my opinion.

Still I have to admit it took less than seven days for him to negotiate his new contract and those of the staff he has taken with him. But then again Rafa always was better at negotiating his contracts than he was at actually managing the team.

I can't help seeing similarities between this and Ramos leaving Spurs to take over at Real Madrid.

And we all know how that turned out for both of those teams, Madrid second again and Spurs in the CL. Wouldn't be at all surprised if their was a similar outcome this time.