by redtrader74 » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:27 am
We were awful today and everyone was culpable, players and manager. To have a forward line of Crouch, Voronin, and Kuyt is NEVER going to worry a defence, they are ALL average players, not fit for a top premiership side, infact without Torres i'd say we have the worst set of strikers of all the top 10, and that is Rafas fault. I still think Rafa is a top manager and cannot see an alternative who would have won us what he has, or improved our league form with the money he has had available, and in the time he has been manager. Lets remember we cannot blame him for the 18 year wait for the title. I do however have concerns over his blind spot where Kuyt is concerned, i understand Rafa knows a lot more about football than ALL of us, but i cannot see any reason to play him, he looks as though he has lost all confidence.
To all the usual knee jerk reactions following a poor result, i can only advocate patience. Rafas record speaks for itself, lets imagine a Club gets him in the summer how would their fans feel about Rafa Benitez?? 2 la liga, 1 Uefa cup, 1 CL, 1 Fa cup, another CL final and whatever we might win this year, all in a period of 7 years, they will be popping the champagne corks, other than Mourinho who else compares?
For us to win the league was always going to very difficult, at times i had hoped, thought, believed that we would do it this year, but when realisation sets in, and you look at the rivals you can see we are still well behind, our opposition have massive advatages over us, money and/or mangers with time served and therefore sqaud development, and as we don't really have the money, the only way we can hope to reach the top is to have one of the best managers in the world and allow him time to develop a squad that can compete, and that includes mistakes he will make in the transfers, something that afflicts every manager. A replacement will NOT get us nearer the title, it is now clear the Americans money will be on par with WestHam, Tottenham, Newcastle (at best) and less than Man City, who will that money (or lack of ) attract??
We are on a knife edge right now, we can either have faith in a top class manager who loves the club and is determined to succeed, (and has done in every competition bar one) and who is midway through rebuilding the club and sqaud or we can spiral into the tail chasing of Clubs like Newcastle and Spurs who change manager every time difficulties present themselves. YNWA eh?