Liverpool FC Forum

Ciggy wrote:I have too much sentiment for Rafa and feel very loyal to him for giving me some of the best times in my life. Ive been loyal to most Liverpool managers in my time. Proud that the club the board and the fans stuck by them, I didn't want Houllier to get the sack, I was quite fond of him to, but I knew he had to go once he had that open heart surgery he should have stepped down then, his health is more important than the club and we suffered because he put his life on the line for us.

But under the current ownership I am 100% Rafa. If they sacked him god knows who they would appoint, people dreaming of hiddink and Mourhino well they really need to open their eyes because neither manager would work for the current regime that run our club. Rafa is holding our club together along with Lee, Purse-low, Ayres and daglish, the custodians are in America & Canada and dont give a sh!t nor do they get along and thats why the club is so badly run.

I also take into account Rafa and his wife (and his kids are scousers) , who both dearly love the club, the people and the city, then it becomes a bit overwhelming and thats where the sentiment comes in.
These are powerful feelings which are all part of being a Liverpool fan.

However he does get things wrong now and again, should he be sacked now? Well my answer is NO, you dont turn into a bad manager over night, and a good team doesnt either.
Its up to the manager and players now to turn our season around lets see if they have the metal to do so, if they dont well serious questions need to be asked why not.

heimdall wrote:

kazza wrote:Are we in trouble? Not quite but it does not look good. Is the team playing well? NO! Is it Raffa's fault? Partly but mostly no. Is Raffa the right man for the job? yes! Should we stand by the team? Yes. Can we turn the season around? Yes! Shall we throw in the towel? No. Shall we criticise everything the manager does? No. Should we object when others do? My vote is yes.

You always forget to say in your opinion Kazza, those are clearly your opinions, I respect them but fundamentally disagree with them. Why can't we discuss from that position instead of continually doubting how good fans we are and calling each other infantile names? BTW you don't do the name calling but at the same time you do have a lof of difficulty in accepting other peopels views.

Ciggy wrote:I have too much sentiment for Rafa and feel very loyal to him for giving me some of the best times in my life. Ive been loyal to most Liverpool managers in my time. Proud that the club the board and the fans stuck by them, I didn't want Houllier to get the sack, I was quite fond of him to, but I knew he had to go once he had that open heart surgery he should have stepped down then, his health is more important than the club and we suffered because he put his life on the line for us.

But under the current ownership I am 100% Rafa. If they sacked him god knows who they would appoint, people dreaming of hiddink and Mourhino well they really need to open their eyes because neither manager would work for the current regime that run our club. Rafa is holding our club together along with Lee, Purse-low, Ayres and daglish, the custodians are in America & Canada and dont give a sh!t nor do they get along and thats why the club is so badly run.

I also take into account Rafa and his wife (and his kids are scousers) , who both dearly love the club, the people and the city, then it becomes a bit overwhelming and thats where the sentiment comes in.
These are powerful feelings which are all part of being a Liverpool fan.

However he does get things wrong now and again, should he be sacked now? Well my answer is NO, you dont turn into a bad manager over night, and a good team doesnt either.
Its up to the manager and players now to turn our season around lets see if they have the metal to do so, if they dont well serious questions need to be asked why not.

kazza wrote:

heimdall wrote:

kazza wrote:Are we in trouble? Not quite but it does not look good. Is the team playing well? NO! Is it Raffa's fault? Partly but mostly no. Is Raffa the right man for the job? yes! Should we stand by the team? Yes. Can we turn the season around? Yes! Shall we throw in the towel? No. Shall we criticise everything the manager does? No. Should we object when others do? My vote is yes.

You always forget to say in your opinion Kazza, those are clearly your opinions, I respect them but fundamentally disagree with them. Why can't we discuss from that position instead of continually doubting how good fans we are and calling each other infantile names? BTW you don't do the name calling but at the same time you do have a lof of difficulty in accepting other peopels views.

If I post it it is my opinion, surely that is clear.

heimdall wrote:

kazza wrote:

heimdall wrote:

kazza wrote:Are we in trouble? Not quite but it does not look good. Is the team playing well? NO! Is it Raffa's fault? Partly but mostly no. Is Raffa the right man for the job? yes! Should we stand by the team? Yes. Can we turn the season around? Yes! Shall we throw in the towel? No. Shall we criticise everything the manager does? No. Should we object when others do? My vote is yes.

You always forget to say in your opinion Kazza, those are clearly your opinions, I respect them but fundamentally disagree with them. Why can't we discuss from that position instead of continually doubting how good fans we are and calling each other infantile names? BTW you don't do the name calling but at the same time you do have a lof of difficulty in accepting other peopels views.

If I post it it is my opinion, surely that is clear.

Not really, a lot of your posts are more like a sermon, chastising the poor lost fools who do not share your vision and belief.

  In the words of Mick "you are strange" 

heimdall wrote:Now this is the kind of post which winds ME up a bit, no offense Ciggy.

andy_g wrote:there is only one real mistake that rafa benitez has made this year, and that is the gamble on aquilani. the first 3 or 4 months of the season are absolutely crucial in terms of getting a foothold in the league and making it through the group stage os the champions league. taking the gamble on the fact that a limited midfield of lucas and mascherano would be all that we have available during that period has backfired big time.

granted, he had no way of knowing that out two most influential players would miss too many games, while other important members of the squad would also be unavailable or forget how to play football. but as we've said time and time again it was up to him to build a squad capable of dealing with that.

i'm not in a panic just yet but i am seriously concerned. i'm fairly sure that once we regularly get a team on the pitch which includes torres, gerrard, aquilani, agger, aurelio and riera we will begin look like a good team again and we'll begin racking up the points. i just hope we haven't given ourselves too much to do already.

Ciggy wrote:

heimdall wrote:Now this is the kind of post which winds ME up a bit, no offense Ciggy.

Why should it wind you up? Its my opinion and I am entitled to it am I not? That is how I feel if you disagree then thats your perogitive, no need to get your knickers in a twist about it.

kazza wrote:

andy_g wrote:there is only one real mistake that rafa benitez has made this year, and that is the gamble on aquilani. the first 3 or 4 months of the season are absolutely crucial in terms of getting a foothold in the league and making it through the group stage os the champions league. taking the gamble on the fact that a limited midfield of lucas and mascherano would be all that we have available during that period has backfired big time.

granted, he had no way of knowing that out two most influential players would miss too many games, while other important members of the squad would also be unavailable or forget how to play football. but as we've said time and time again it was up to him to build a squad capable of dealing with that.

i'm not in a panic just yet but i am seriously concerned. i'm fairly sure that once we regularly get a team on the pitch which includes torres, gerrard, aquilani, agger, aurelio and riera we will begin look like a good team again and we'll begin racking up the points. i just hope we haven't given ourselves too much to do already.

"I bought a player for five years not five weeks" still makes sense to me. If next year we win the prem and then go on to dominate Europe for the next four years, buying Aquilani will be regarded as a master stroke. Besides, Alonso left at the end of the window and had Rafa not bought Aquilani the money would have disappeared by Jan. Still Aquilani looks good (what we have seen anyway).

I still like our strongest team.

It makes sense to sign a player long term if you don't immediately need him, like for example Nani and Andersen at Manure, but we did need a top qaulity replacement midfielder, therefore is doesn't make sense and is a complete folly by Rafa.

BTW We have not seen anywhere near enough of Aquilani to make any kind of sensible judgement on him, he may still turn out to be , I don't personally think so but we just don't know yet.

heimdall wrote:It doesn't wind me up becuase I disagree with it, it winds me up becuase it is full of inconsistenices and half truths. Please explain to me the bit about the club being badly run despite Purslow, Rafa etc being top guys in your opinion becuase I genuinly don't understand that.

NANNY RED wrote:I never take much notice of Souness top be honest, but a lot of what he said does strike a chord,. Yes i agree that us winning in 2005 may possible have came to  early with Rafa but i dont agree with him 100 per cent on him living off his european cup win, by him still being manager, In the five years hes been here he has took us to two Euro finals , one semi an a quarter, final. if hed just won that in 2005 an done c.rap in every other year then yes you could say he was living off 2005 but imo thats not the case,

Nail on head for me Nan.

I think he sadi something like "Its unthinkable that Liverpool don't qualify for the knockout stages". Well before Rafa came to this club it was unthinkable that we would regularly be qualifying for the damn thing, let alone reaching two finals and a semi final in the space of three years.

But us Liverpool fans were used to the sucess that Souness brought as manager aren't we?

Ciggy wrote:

NANNY RED wrote:Did anyone get on the Souness interview last night after the game, Ive been trying to find it , Anyway basicaly he was saying forget about the Liverpool of here an now, he was  worried about the long term future. Good good few words from Souness tbh which makes a change,

I heard him he said the Yanks have to go and sell up now they cannot take the club forward.

Souness has talked sense the last few times I've seen him on Sky Sports (on CL nights), I think it's cos he's grown his muzzy back 

Nice to see an ex red talking sense rather than Redknapp and Lawrenson being anti Liverpool 

stmichael wrote:

NANNY RED wrote:I never take much notice of Souness top be honest, but a lot of what he said does strike a chord,. Yes i agree that us winning in 2005 may possible have came to  early with Rafa but i dont agree with him 100 per cent on him living off his european cup win, by him still being manager, In the five years hes been here he has took us to two Euro finals , one semi an a quarter, final. if hed just won that in 2005 an done c.rap in every other year then yes you could say he was living off 2005 but imo thats not the case,

Nail on head for me Nan.

I think he sadi something like "Its unthinkable that Liverpool don't qualify for the knockout stages". Well before Rafa came to this club it was unthinkable that we would regularly be qualifying for the damn thing, let alone reaching two finals and a semi final in the space of three years.

But us Liverpool fans were used to the sucess that Souness brought as manager aren't we?

heimdall wrote:is it just becuase of the owners becuase I just refuse to believe that, otherwise how the hell did we snag Rafa in the first place?

You might want to learn something about the club from before may 05.