Liverpool FC Forum

Reg wrote:Benitez gets tax-free offer from Juventus  -The Independant

Italian giants prepare contract worth £2.6m a year net to tempt the Liverpool manager away from Anfield

Thursday, 28 January 2010
The intrigue surrounding Juventus' interest in Rafael Benitez deepened last night with sources in Italy suggesting that the Turin side have seen the Liverpool manager's contract and have drawn up a new one with a €3m (£2.6m) salary, which they believe might be enough to attract him.

Benitez earns £4.6m gross a year at Liverpool but Juventus believe that the nature of the Italian tax system would enable them to pay him €3m and pay his tax themselves. One of the fears at Juventus is that Benitez would want to bring a sizeable and expensive backroom staff with him, if attracted to the Stadio Olimpico. But the Turin side have been led to believe that only two staff would move with him from Anfield – Benitez's assistant Mauricio Pellegrino and his goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero – and that Benitez would accept an Italian assistant coach in any future regime, an issue of deep significance to the club.

Benitez's agent Manuel Garcia Quilon did not dismiss the Benitez-Juventus link on Monday though he insisted on Tuesday that the Spaniard wanted to stay at Liverpool and with Benitez aware that his future will come under review this summer, there are grounds for viewing the speculation being fuelled in Italy as deliberate machinations to bolster his Anfield position. Juventus incumbent Ciro Ferrera is on the brink of dismissal, though as of last night he was still in situ for the club's Coppa Italia tie with Internazionale.

The Liverpool manager was not willing to discuss the issue after the dismal goalless draw at Wolves on Tuesday night and though the reticence was typical of him, it hardly created the spirit of unity which the club need as they attempt to build from a position of "hurt" – as captain Steven Gerrard described their current predicament yesterday in the light of that result.

Gerrard has said ahead of Saturday's home match with Bolton that Liverpool need maximum points from that fixture and the following weekend's game at home to Everton. "We believe we've turned the corner," Gerrard said. "We've got two home games coming up and if we can take maximum points, we'll be closer to where we want to be. There are a lot of people in the dressing room who are hurt at seeing us lying in seventh and eighth position and you learn a lot from these situations when times are hard."

There was little to draw much encouragement from in the game at Molineux though four clean sheets from five is something and Sotorios Kyrgiakos is a player who has defied his critics in the past two games. Failing to keep clean sheets is "where we were going wrong," Gerrard said. "That's why we found ourselves seventh and eighth in the table because we were conceding too many goals. We weren't getting the results, but we know if we defend well as a base and keep clean sheets we'll win more than we lose."

Dynamo Moscow want to attract Yossi Benayoun from Liverpool and there has been contact with Anfield from the Russians, though the club are not willing to sell one of their most creative players. Benayoun is current out of the side with a rib injury.
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If Rafa has a 4 year contract, isnt this 'tapping up'?

Kerry07 wrote:

Paul C wrote:

LittleHobo wrote:After the wolves game........"we are improving" and "i was pleased with the performance of the players"

fukk sake rafa, 1 shot on target vs one of the worst teams in the league and we are improving?

i wouldnt mind if he was honest, but you never get honesty from him, just lies and delusion.

in RAFA we cant trust, cause of the delusion

*cough* Gerard Houllier *cough* 

Thats it exactly...from Houlli to Rafa, folks we got ourselves another bluffer.

I stopped listening to Rafa years ago..cannot relate to the man at all. Hes eccentric, delusional, he isn't on the same page as the rest of us.. is incapable of conversing normally as he never answers the question asked and goes off in some wacky tangent and repeats rhymed off soundbites. Whether this is because his English is limited or he has poor social skills i aint sure (tho i tend to feel its the latter having read what he was like as a kid as he was poor at interacting with people, even his dad). There are signs of Aspergers syndrome.

Every single player says the same...its a professional relationship with him, it didnt even occur to him to congratulate Nando on his kid after everyone else at the training ground had done, but instead he talked to a bemused Nando about a near post run he had made the previous game. He doesnt quite get people...but hes great at statistics, black and white stuff...."fachts".

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

Boocity wrote:If we are not complaining about tapping up, make you wonder if the owners are passively encouraging it.

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

So there is a comparison...?

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

Big Niall wrote:

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

I think Benitez and Houllier are similar.

At least Evans teams were fun (albeit bad for the heart) to watch. This is coma football.

Sir Roger wrote:

Big Niall wrote:

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

I think Benitez and Houllier are similar.

At least Evans teams were fun (albeit bad for the heart) to watch. This is coma football.

It is boring, frustrating, predictable and ineffective football without fluidity, direction or purpose.
To watch it on the tv is bad enough. To pay to sit and watch it is like torture.
The spurs game was like having a winning lottery ticket
The wolves game was like losing a winning lottery ticket

Emerald Red wrote:

Sir Roger wrote:

Big Niall wrote:

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

I think Benitez and Houllier are similar.

At least Evans teams were fun (albeit bad for the heart) to watch. This is coma football.

It is boring, frustrating, predictable and ineffective football without fluidity, direction or purpose.
To watch it on the tv is bad enough. To pay to sit and watch it is like torture.
The spurs game was like having a winning lottery ticket
The wolves game was like losing a winning lottery ticket

Bit of an odd analogy that, as I didn't think we played that well against Spurs, but did all the important work where it mattered, namely getting shots on target for once and doing a decent job in the middle. The defence was basically more or less the same as it was, which is, YES, a BIG improvement and what's needed to be improved on as it's been our downfall. However, that game against Wolves was shocking. It's been the worst game of football under Rafa by far, but people wanting to compare this style of football and Rafa to Houllier are a little bit misguided, because whereas we're having a really bad spell, and this was Rafa's worst game stylistically, with a bit of a mad team selection and daft sub making, under Houllier, this style of play was almost week-in-week-out for two seasons, so think about what you're saying folks and grow some sense, please.

Sir Roger wrote:

Emerald Red wrote:

Sir Roger wrote:

Big Niall wrote:

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

I think Benitez and Houllier are similar.

At least Evans teams were fun (albeit bad for the heart) to watch. This is coma football.

It is boring, frustrating, predictable and ineffective football without fluidity, direction or purpose.
To watch it on the tv is bad enough. To pay to sit and watch it is like torture.
The spurs game was like having a winning lottery ticket
The wolves game was like losing a winning lottery ticket

Bit of an odd analogy that, as I didn't think we played that well against Spurs, but did all the important work where it mattered, namely getting shots on target for once and doing a decent job in the middle. The defence was basically more or less the same as it was, which is, YES, a BIG improvement and what's needed to be improved on as it's been our downfall. However, that game against Wolves was shocking. It's been the worst game of football under Rafa by far, but people wanting to compare this style of football and Rafa to Houllier are a little bit misguided, because whereas we're having a really bad spell, and this was Rafa's worst game stylistically, with a bit of a mad team selection and daft sub making, under Houllier, this style of play was almost week-in-week-out for two seasons, so think about what you're saying folks and grow some sense, please.

The analogy for the spurs game was not about the quality or standard of the football played. It was simply that we won with a team that was at least unified in its desire to get a result. Thats what made it feel like a lottery win, for me at least.
I think my sense has grown well thanks.
To say: "we're having a really bad spell, and this was Rafa's worst game stylistically, with a bit of a mad team selection and daft sub making" would have us believe this was a one off.
Rafas time as manager has been filled with mad team selections and daft sub making.
Maybe he should grow some sense?

Emerald Red wrote:

Sir Roger wrote:

Emerald Red wrote:

Sir Roger wrote:

Big Niall wrote:

stmichael wrote:It still makes me laugh though when people say it's like watching Houllier all over again. To me, there is no comparison whatsoever with the dross that we played under Souness nor the sh#te that Ged played in his last couple of seasons to what we are playing now, even though we have played "ugly" football recently.

I think Benitez and Houllier are similar.

At least Evans teams were fun (albeit bad for the heart) to watch. This is coma football.

It is boring, frustrating, predictable and ineffective football without fluidity, direction or purpose.
To watch it on the tv is bad enough. To pay to sit and watch it is like torture.
The spurs game was like having a winning lottery ticket
The wolves game was like losing a winning lottery ticket

Bit of an odd analogy that, as I didn't think we played that well against Spurs, but did all the important work where it mattered, namely getting shots on target for once and doing a decent job in the middle. The defence was basically more or less the same as it was, which is, YES, a BIG improvement and what's needed to be improved on as it's been our downfall. However, that game against Wolves was shocking. It's been the worst game of football under Rafa by far, but people wanting to compare this style of football and Rafa to Houllier are a little bit misguided, because whereas we're having a really bad spell, and this was Rafa's worst game stylistically, with a bit of a mad team selection and daft sub making, under Houllier, this style of play was almost week-in-week-out for two seasons, so think about what you're saying folks and grow some sense, please.

The analogy for the spurs game was not about the quality or standard of the football played. It was simply that we won with a team that was at least unified in its desire to get a result. Thats what made it feel like a lottery win, for me at least.
I think my sense has grown well thanks.
To say: "we're having a really bad spell, and this was Rafa's worst game stylistically, with a bit of a mad team selection and daft sub making" would have us believe this was a one off.
Rafas time as manager has been filled with mad team selections and daft sub making.
Maybe he should grow some sense?

Yes, but lately under the circumstances, can it be said he's made mad subs or team selections? Not that I can think of. Most of the time this season, in fairness, his hand has been forced due to injuries. It's the fact that he replaces Aquilani with Gerrard and had two holding mids, and made one sub which was the most baffling thing he's done in a long time. You wouldn't have minded if we were winning 1-0 or something and got the points, but normally when Rafa makes a sub, they usually have a good impact. Against Wolves it was like he was all out of ideas, or that he felt that no sub would have mattered, or that he was just holding for the draw in the end. In either case, it was a poor display by him, and especially the players. If you're going to tell me that the players we had on the field weren't capable of stringing more that 5 passes together, I'd call you a liar.