Liverpool FC Forum

[Ben Patrick]

yes 100%


I would just have not employed Roy.

This is the part that i think divides us all most.

Do you think if we hadnt brought in Roy that Rafa should still be here ?
You see the two things are totally seperate decisions.
I am not sure what managers you rate but if we could have tempted one of them instead of Roy would you still want Rafa ahead of this other person as well ?

What i did say ben at the time and you can look back on the threads is this . If we sack rafa there is not a chance in a million years that a world class manager will come anywhere near us with the owners we have . I was right , because it was glareingly obvious. Now if we had employed a hiddink or a mourinho or someone of that calibre we would not be having the flame wars we have now . We would have seen that the board were sacking benitez (as much as we hated it ) for the right reasons. .To get someone better in , to progress to take the next step or whatever . We would be united behind and ambitious manager with top class credentials and even if we were in the position we are in now we still would have backed him and given him time (as we do ).

We could see though that it would be disasterous to sack rafa as no one else wanted the job . Accept a 64year old nobody who thought all his christmas's had come at once . LMA manager of the year and all that . Friggin george burley won that .

right ok, without getting all hot under the collar, it is infact your opinion that nobody else wanted it.
They may have never been asked. The owners and purslow who were obviously not anywhere near qualified enough to make the call chose Roy, he might have been the man they wanted from the start.
Who knows.

But to answer your question, i still would have wanted Rafa to go. Roy will go at some point and we need someone new with fresh ideas etc.
Rafa would have been difficult to get rid of for new owners due to the way the fans are with him, that could have met he stayed another season or two too long.

[Igor Zidane]

It is my opinion ben that noone better than rafa wanted the job  yes .

So if you still are happy that the board made the right decision at the time in sacking rafa you surley have no grounds what so ever to moan about hodgsons appointment or about the job he is doing now.

[Ben Patrick]

It is my opinion ben that noone better than rafa wanted the job  yes .

So if you still are happy that the board made the right decision at the time in sacking rafa you surley have no grounds what so ever to moan about hodgsons appointment or about the job he is doing now.

i am not moaning.

i think we could and should do better, but havent slagged him at all.

[Ben Patrick]

It is my opinion ben that noone better than rafa wanted the job  yes .

So if you still are happy that the board made the right decision at the time in sacking rafa you surley have no grounds what so ever to moan about hodgsons appointment or about the job he is doing now.

Igor you didnt answer my question though.

Would you have advocated keeping Rafa IF we could have attracted someone you feel could do a good job ?

[Igor Zidane]

It is my opinion ben that noone better than rafa wanted the job  yes .

So if you still are happy that the board made the right decision at the time in sacking rafa you surley have no grounds what so ever to moan about hodgsons appointment or about the job he is doing now.

i am not moaning.

i think we could and should do better, but havent slagged him at all.

I know you havent slagged him ben , but you have said that he is not the right man for the job ,agreed. If you trully believe that , how can you say sacking rafa was the right decision ?

[Ben Patrick]

It is my opinion ben that noone better than rafa wanted the job  yes .

So if you still are happy that the board made the right decision at the time in sacking rafa you surley have no grounds what so ever to moan about hodgsons appointment or about the job he is doing now.

i am not moaning.

i think we could and should do better, but havent slagged him at all.

I know you havent slagged him ben , but you have said that he is not the right man for the job ,agreed. If you trully believe that , how can you say sacking rafa was the right decision ?

because neither was he and i truly believe things would have been just as bad.
I had blind hope with Roy, looks like i was wrong.
So do we keep one underperforming manager just incase the next does the same ?
You will say it was obvious Roy would given his record, that's possibly right.
Just to say though he isnt in much of a dissimilar position to where we were last season and you and many others say he is clueless.

[Igor Zidane]

It is my opinion ben that noone better than rafa wanted the job  yes .

So if you still are happy that the board made the right decision at the time in sacking rafa you surley have no grounds what so ever to moan about hodgsons appointment or about the job he is doing now.

i am not moaning.

i think we could and should do better, but havent slagged him at all.

I know you havent slagged him ben , but you have said that he is not the right man for the job ,agreed. If you trully believe that , how can you say sacking rafa was the right decision ?

because neither was he and i truly believe things would have been just as bad.
I had blind hope with Roy, looks like i was wrong.
So do we keep one underperforming manager just incase the next does the same ?
You will say it was obvious Roy would given his record, that's possibly right.
Just to say though he isnt in much of a dissimilar position to where we were last season and you and many others say he is clueless.

One bad season though ben ,one bad season . Hodgsons had about 33 bad season's out of his 35 years as a manager . We all new his track record didn't we .

[LFC2007]

Thats not really he case though is it? Because if you judge one manager better than another because of a few points at this stage of the season we would be changing our mind every single week.
To be fair to Benitez I believe the Italians over-react to table positions too soon, but thats the nature of Serie A

At this stage in the season both sides should be doing better than they are, that surely isn't in doubt. I personally wouldn't have sacked Rafa at this point despite him having so far made a pigs ear of it, but he'd still have had a huge job on his hands to convince me that we'd made a mistake in letting him go. If, for example, he actually did win the treble at Inter, then the argument that we'd made a "monumental" mistake by letting him go would sound fairly credible. That doesn't look at likely (or didn't, depends if he's been sacked) and so I don't see that as a credible argument. Similarly, Roy has a huge job on his hands to convince us all that he's the man to take us forward but because it would take so much convincing, I just can't see that happening.

[Ben Patrick]

One bad season though ben ,one bad season . Hodgsons had about 33 bad season's out of his 35 years as a manager . We all new his track record didn't we .

its not about comparing them, that's what i keep saying mate.
One bad season in your opinion. Others like me will feel that Rafa had done a very good job and when we come 2nd he should have kicked on, kept Alonso and gone all out for the league.
He allowed a massively key player in Xabi to go and gambled on his replacement. Major mistake.
It really doesnt matter what Roys record is.

Simple question.

Since we let Rafa go has he gone back to what he knows and proved us wrong ?
The clear answer is no, he has taken a top side backwards and like Thommos perm asked, what's the difference in his and Roys resources since managing their new clubs ?
Yet its something that Rafa can use as an excuse but Roy is out of his depth ?

[metalhead]

One bad season though ben ,one bad season . Hodgsons had about 33 bad season's out of his 35 years as a manager . We all new his track record didn't we .

I agree with Igor regarding Roy,

but, its not just about 1 season mate, its about 4 years that he didn't deliver any silverware, and he only got us close ONCE. Its also about the decisions he made. I don't want to go with you Igor on arguments about Rafa if it was right or wrong or that, its not going to help in the long term. What we need now is someone new who has new ideas and someone who can have ALL the supporters backing 100%.

Honestly, 95% of fans are with sacking Roy, so the majority speaks. Lets see what happens.

[metalhead]

question to Igor and others, just want a simple answer

Do you believe bringing Rafa back will create unity among fans or create a wider divide that might affect our results? do you think its a good idea to have the fans 50-50 split on this issue?

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

Andy Hunter
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 December 2010 20.26 GMT

Roy Hodgson has dismissed the availability of Rafael Benítez as a threat to his position at Liverpool and does not believe the club would consider rehiring a manager they sacked with a £6m payoff only six months ago.

Benítez's departure from Internazionale last night, yet to be officially confirmed as the two parties discuss his latest severance package, presents another problem for Hodgson as he seeks to win over Liverpool supporters, many of whom remain ardent admirers of the Spaniard. Rumours of an Anfield return for Benítez have been fuelled by the fact he was at home on the Wirral when sacked by the European champions, although that is his family's only permanent place of residence and he made no secret of his intention to continue living on Merseyside when he left Liverpool in June.

Liverpool have new owners and the hierarchy that presided over Benítez's exit – Tom Hicks, George Gillett, Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow – are no longer employed by the club. New England Sports Ventures, the current owners, appointed Damien Comolli as director of football strategy largely in response to the expensive transfer mistakes of recent years and intend to give Hodgson time to correct the club's slide.

Asked if the spectre of Benítez complicated his position, the Liverpool manager said: "You would have to ask the owners about that but it's not extra pressure for me, not at all. It would be surprising [because] if he was the right man for the job then it would have been wiser not to let him go and then bring him back six months later.

"This job will always have lots of people linked with it. When you occupy one of the top jobs in the country, it would be very strange if other people were not linked with your job. I'm sure there are people who are very envious of my position and would very much like to take my place



No Roy ....if you were doing well then indeed I fully expect people to be envious ...... but your dying on your @rse fella ..its almost laughable listening to you first pleading for patience ,and now trying to quell the unease at having an  ex managers imposing shadow hovering so close ...................

Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

[parchpea]

Truth is we have endured two poor managers for last few years. Rafa did great initially but last 2 years lost his touch, then with few options amid a messy takeover hired Hodgson, deemed a safe pair of hands, but he has struggled to make any impact. You can argue all day between the two but fact is we need another and NESV need to find one whilst Hodgson holds the fort under fire. Hodgson new the score when he took the job and new owners like to recruit their own people. Ive no stats but the pattern is those in post dont last long following a sale and it will be no different here. Roy will battle on hoping to impress but the axe will fall and then we can all move on from this frantic period and rally behind a new chief at Anfield.

[Igor Zidane]

question to Igor and others, just want a simple answer

Do you believe bringing Rafa back will create unity among fans or create a wider divide that might affect our results? do you think its a good idea to have the fans 50-50 split on this issue?

No and that's why i said in the other thread as much as i'd personally love him back he shouldn't come back . He should take a year off and recharge his batteries.

[metalhead]

question to Igor and others, just want a simple answer

Do you believe bringing Rafa back will create unity among fans or create a wider divide that might affect our results? do you think its a good idea to have the fans 50-50 split on this issue?

No and that's why i said in the other thread as much as i'd personally love him back he shouldn't come back . He should take a year off and recharge his batteries.

cheers mate, much appreciated

agree with you