by bigmick » Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:17 pm
woof woof ! wrote:I've been sitting here and shaking my head for some time now over the sh'ite thats been posted about Rafa. He's certainly driven me nuts with some of his decisions and I understand how those decisions may have driven some to start or help push the "Rafa out" bandwagon. I get the feeling that much (not all) of it stems from the disappointment we all feel at the "dropped points" these last few weeks. Many seem to think that we could've nailed our name onto the title if it wasn't for Rafa's "poor decisions" AND YET no one seems to give him any credit for getting us into that position in the first place.
We're now in a situation where some in here are proposing that if we don't win the prem Rafa should go "cause he's blown it" , and yet at the start of the season many of the same people we're professing that they'd be happy if we just finished a lot closer to the eventual winners, the inference being that most of us thought we were still a season away from being real candidates for the title.
Well after today we're still very much REAL candidates (if not favourites) for the title and hopefully some of us might start to realise that despite his "mistakes" Benitez is the man who has got us there.
Good post this Woof.
For me it's not just the dropped points (though obviously they're bad enough), it's more the way he's gone about the job these last couple of months. It's the first time we've seen him under the spotlight in terms of a title challenge (and as I said earlier he deserves credit for getting us there), and to be honest it hasnt been a pretty sight.
The use of his pet journalist to further his contract negotiations, the ridiculous spinning to try and distance himself from the Keane transfer, the willingness to endanger the success of the team in order to prove some silly point, the ridiculous substitutions, the silly selctions, the rant, the interviews etc etc.
To me he has proven himself a good manager to get us to the point we can challenge (good for me not great, it's taken five years, a shedload of money, the relative disintegration of his rivals and the emergence of the best player in the World from within the ranks to do it), but once we've got there he has blown a gasket, and in all probability our chances of winning the thing.
His conduct over the Keane affair in particular has made me lose faith and respect in him. I give him some credit for getting us to where we are/were, but I also give him some credit for blowing our opportunity.
Last edited by
bigmick on Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".