Liverpool FC Forum

[Number 9]

I think he was bang on..spoke his mind spoke the truth(i think the majority will agree)

As people have said he was asked about the situation and he called a spade a spade!
IF Gareth Barry had not said he would only leave Villa for a chance at C/L footy then made himself look a liar and a mercenary in the process there would be no problem!

I dont have a problem with our manager speaking his mind when asked,in fact I'd much prefer it than him pussyfooty round the truth in fear of offending anyone.

GazBaz went to city for £££ and £££ only and contradicted himself in the process!!

[mistyred]

All right stop pi'ssing about let's talk about Rafa 


We are gonna win the title, i am gonna get pi'ssed
end off. 

[GYBS]

Cant see the problem with Rafa saying that the money going around is ridiculous at the moment - he even mentioned that we had to spend big to get johnson - he wasnt stating we dont have money just the FACT that players are going for ridiculous fees - He was also stating that a player that wanted to leave one summer for CL football then left for a club that is a close to europe as what Alaska is , bullsh.it t all this world cup year and wanting first team football in his favoured position - he could of got that at villa - a team which is closer to europe than citeh and i bet will finish higher than citeh this season - Barry moved for purely financial reasons only - anyone who thinks it was footballing reasons needs to take head out of the clouds - Rafa has done nothing wrong with this statement (not outburst which will no doubt be reported as) and anyone who tries to turn it into another rafa slagging session needs to also take his head out of the clouds.

[account deleted by request]

If I was being hyper -critical I would say that maybe Rafa should concentrate on LFC matters and not make comments about players we fail to sign or other clubs spending.

He told the truth imo and I can't really see a problem with what he said.

[zarababe]

I understand your point Mick, but for me I think Rafa is just telling the truth. Whether or not thats always wise is another question lol. Barry stated he wanted CL football last season, and while I do understand that guaranteed FIRST TEAM football is a big plus, its not what he was asking for last season. I don't blame anyone going for the money and he must have thought all his birthdays had come at once when he signed for Citeh, but a little more honesty would be nice. Next thing he will be saying is he always wanted to play for Hughes and he supported City as a boy. 

rafa's telling it like it is- lurve his interviews... 

[Igor Zidane]

Not @rsed.

[Greavesie]

I think everything Rafa says these days goes under the microscope far too much lately. Its like when he gives an inerview everyone pays attention while any other manager everyone just takes the words at face value and thats it. Everything Rafa says makes a headline when IMO it really isnt warranted in the slightest. I mean, how many comments have been made of this one by fans of other clubs saying that he should keep his mouth shut and hes having a moan etc when all he's saying is what 99% of footballs fans are saying anyway

Absolutely ludacris it is

[Scottbot]

Not @rsed.

What he said!

[bigmick]

Lunacy? Feck me it was an innocent enough topic starter with numerous references to it not being important, not making a big thing out of it, not having a pop at the manager etc etc. Thinking about it perhaps it does show the lunacy of the mood at the moment the fella's got a point. Deary me

no offense bigmick, but you had to have know that this would be the reaction of you starting a thread like this, with that title.

I can't understand why you can't see that.

Regardless of having a valid point or raising an issue, it's going to been seen as having another pop at the manager.

You may as well not mince words.

Oh I can see that mate, that's why in the four or five posts I made in the thread, including the thread starter I did my best to head off such accusations at the pass.


It's coming to something though that before you start to discuss something about Liverpool football Club on a Liverpool football club forum you really ought not to bother because of the fear of offending people.

I said a few times it's not a big issue, it isn't and it wasn't. If we were in the middle of the season or about to sign some Mexican 15 year old, I wouldn't even have mentioned it. As it was/is though, there is little else going on so I started a new thread, on something which happened, and said quite clearly it wasn't a bash Rafa thread and all that stuff. I said it three or four times, but no matter.

It's a nitpick in the sense that it's only a small issue. Had another manager come out and said something similar about a player we'd just signed though, I'd be up in arms about it telling them to feck off and I'm sure I wouldn't be on my own.

Anyway, apologies to all, my fault. It was lunacy and I should have known better.

[account deleted by request]

Maybe you should have put something in your opening post about not wanting to start a flame war, and that it was just your opinion Mick.

[bigmick]

Yep I'll have to remember that for next time mate, cheers for the tip

[aCe']

it’s a shame that any sort of post or thread that can be in any of the slightest of ways interpreted as being critical to the manger or the club is scrutinized as such in the boards nowadays... regardless of whether the criticism (if indeed it qualifies) is constructive or not, its a “no no”..
Has nothing to do with the mods mind you, its just the overriding feel about the forum atm... Would be interesting to see how it all pans out if we don’t start next season with the same verve that we ended last season with... To me, now is the time to improve and work on the things we got wrong in the past couple of seasons... some are happy with everything remaining the way it is.. well it hasn’t won us the league so far so we have got to be doing something wrong somewhere... To me, Rafa’s handling of the media has always been an issue... too often, our players are put under absolutely unnecessary pressure from the manager with all the remarks about other clubs, other players, and perhaps more crucially his remarks about our own inside affairs..  His contract talks, other players’ contract talks and how they’re handled, the whole money discussion, the owners issues...etc etc
Just cant see how that helps in any shape or form... Whether he speaks the truth or not is a different issue all together... wouldn’t be happy if he came out and said that Agger likes to take it up the a$$ or that the board are scum for not being able to put 20mill together to buy a player (not that any of this is true), just seems to make more sense if he’d keep such things behind closed doors... no need to pass to the media every thought that crosses his head, whether it be a FACT or not...
This isn’t a dig at Rafa... i know it might seem like one.... but since we’re talking about this issue i really think that its one area in which he could significantly improve... maybe with Kenny back he’ll learn a thing or two...

[crazyhorse]

IMHO Rafas comments were class. And becasue they were probably made for intelligent well thought out reasons.

Rafa has targets out there. We may guess who they are but he has players in mind he wants to bring to the club. The money being paid out in the moment is silly, especially in the current economic climate.

His interview yesterday was on the back page of all the red tops today. It was not designed as a personal slight on Barry or anyone else. He is purely saying that his club will not pay these figures for players that are not committed to coming to our great club and playing their hearts out. His mind is in the perfect place. He seeks only quality, but he wants to keep his principles and the traditions of this club. By doing this he is making the club more atttractive to the "winners" in the game. Do we want to spend £30 mil on a player who is coming for the money, or £10 million for one who truly wants to be here?. He is saying he wants the latter, and that group will grow when they see that the manager wants them, and only them to achieve his vision.

My respect for the man has grown immeasurably.

I sincerely hope the bottle of red i have just consumed has not clouded my judgement!!

[crazyhorse]

I would like to add, that in the nearly 5 years i have been a member of this forum BigMick has been one of the most intelligent and readable posters. I always read his stuff and there is never anything ill thought out or stupid about it. I may not always agree, but he always back up his argument with thought.

If only others followed his example!

[bigmick]

CH that argument that in many ways Rafa's words re Barry were a message to any future "signees" is an interesting one and one I hadn't considered to be honest. I certainly agreed with his line about at this level everyone gets big money anyway which they certainly do, and I can never understand it when players who are on millions of pounds a year will quibble over what must be small change to them.

I know in my working life employers will trumpet a 2% rise like it's gold dust, but once the tax mans been into it it's worth feck all in truth. Xabi mentioned the tax in the UK going up from 40% to 50% but once again in the overall scheme of things I'm surprised it's significant. I did also like the idea which somebody came up with on another thread whereby they said that rather than take it off the footballers in tax, it should be creamed off and spent on the grass roots of the game. Now that's a brilliant idea, but there's no chance on heavens Earth of the government ever going for it. They'd much rather take the money and spend it on a study working out which biscuits stay strongest for longest when you dunk them in your coffee.

The flipside to the money meaning nothing when you are on so much arguement is John Terry's situation at Chelsea. Apparantly on 140K per week in London, Man City were by all accounts prepared to double that  I mean feck me, he's a decent player and all that but fecking hell. Anyways, in his situation, with that big a rise (about 7 million quid a year or something) ove the course of a four year contract he'd be 28 million quid better off if he signed for Citeh. I know I'd probably get called a greedy c... and all that (as he is) but that is an amount of cash which would surely turn anyones head.

Anyway I like the angle of sending out a message to potential signings mate, and there well be something in it. I also like Johnson's thoughts that he thinks Rafa may improve him more than either Hughes or Ancellotti would. I agree with him, I think Rafa is the best defensive coach in the Premiership by a distance (and that's not a dig, I'm talking about the way he shapes his defence, sets up for set pieces etc). Johnson is obviously better going forward than backwards, and hopefully Rafa can do a "Carragher" on him.

I did also like the managers statements on Alonso and masherano, the "they are under contract" parts. I can't help thinking though that ultimately, that one is going to be sorted out by just how determined exactly those two are to move on.

Thanks for the words in the second post as well mate, the fivers in the post (in Nz dollars obviously ).