Football Focus

[matthew123]

Yup I'd even sacrifice Gerrard to make that happen (but not Torres!)

[ruffers]

Or go for Hodgson.

[Mick Mac]

Sharon_H Wrote:

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> Hopefully not Martin O'Neill. No idea who though.

>

> Should have stuck with Rafa, he deserved one more

> season.

I think he is justified favourite Sharon. As a Celtic fan I think he is a very attacking manager and one that Liverpool fans will enjoy. He plays with width and directness. Don't understand why all Liverpool fans would not want him ahead of the cautious football of last few year. Your trips to Anfield will be much more exciting with MON in charge. Watch and enjoy.

He is very keen to get the job, I think.

Get the money on now shazza...

Profit

Martin O Neill 4.26 ?50.00 ?163.00

[Annasfield]

'bout now Wrote:

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> The perfect fit for Liverpool is almost

> unthinkable.

>

>

> Arsene Wenger, there I said it and if I was in the

> Liverpool boardroom I'd throw 10 Million at that.

And where would you hope to find that money? There isn't even ?5m for players and I imagine that will come from sale of Mascherano and a few others.

[Annasfield]

Mick - are you related to Martin O'Neill or do you just have some huge man crush on him. You always go on about him.

I don't know a single Liverpool fan who would want him at Anfield

[Mick Mac]

"Mick - are you related to Martin O'Neill or do you just have some huge man crush on him. You always go on about him.

I don't know a single Liverpool fan who would want him at Anfield"

I have always watched his career with interest as he is from the same town as my Dad. He is also still best buddies with my cousin from their school days.

I agree I don't know many Liverpool fans that want him - but I don't understand that.

I used to like Liverpool, but could not enjoy watching them under rafa. I think a more direct manager would do Liverpool good.

But I guess if Liverpool fans do not want him then it probably won't happen.

Interesting that Alan Hansen today said that rafa has left Liverpool in the worst state its been in since before Shankly arrived. Thats even after considering funding and injuries. I know you don't agree with that Anna, but he was not supported by everyone, it seems.

[Annasfield]

I find it pretty disgusting how many ex reds have stabbed Rafa in the back. NOT the Liverpool way!!!

Another thing that saddens me, no matter what your opinion is of Rafa, is how none these ex reds have mentioned how healthy the club was before Hicks and Gilett took over compared to where we are now.

[matthew123]

I think with Martin O'Neill there is a perception over his brand of football which for many Reds they'd associate with the darker days of Gerard Houllier.

Hodgson is a definate no-no in my book. Too soft and has already failed at Inter Milan.

Yes a new Manager is always a risk - but if you don't buy a ticket...

[Jah Lush]

If any Liverpool fans watched Aston Villa at all last season they'd run a mile at the thought of Martin O'Neill taking over at Liverpool. Dull, cautious boring football. Bit like Rafa really. I think your best bet is someone with plenty of experience, Hodgson immediately springs to mind as he is flavour of the month but even better would be Gus Hiddink.

[silverfox]

It amazes me that names like Hodgson, O'Neill, Rednapp and Mark Hughes are even being mentioned. Not one of them has any real pedigree.

Okay, Liverpool is in a bit of a mess at the moment, but as Phil Thompson said in a recent article, we've got 100 million fans world-wide and we need to keep our star players and sell tickets. Names like Hiddink, Scolari, Pellegrini should be tripping off the tongue.

Problem is can we afford them and would they want to come given the uncertainty at the moment?

[Annasfield]

In a word silverfox - NO!

That's another reason why the sacking of Rafael Benitez is likely to be one the biggest mistakes that the club has ever made.

[silverfox]

I liked Benitez personally, but unfortunately the Premier League table doesn't lie. Benitez had lost it. It was right to ditch him. The club is bigger than one individual

[Mick Mac]

Jah Lush Wrote:

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> If any Liverpool fans watched Aston Villa at all

> last season they'd run a mile at the thought of

> Martin O'Neill taking over at Liverpool. Dull,

> cautious boring football. Bit like Rafa really.

Hmmm - not sure about that Jah. I think MON and Rafa's footballing styles could hardly be more different.

[Jah Lush]

There I have to disagree with you Mac. Obviously, you haven't been to see Aston Villa since your beloved Martin O'Neill took over. You've only seen what's on the telly have you not?. I watched an incredibly dull nil-nil at White Hart Lane this year where Villa parked the proverbial bus in front of the Spurs goal.

[kpc]

Or their tendency to play an early (ahem - long) ball for Agbonlahor and/or Carew, rendering Young/Downing presence as a threat superfluous for large parts of the game. Now playing narrower since departure of Barry, when they preferred five across the park, with Young/Milner out wide.

Some dubious signings in Harewood, Heskey, Sidwell, and Beye and his man management has isolated Reo-Coker.

[Sharon_H]

Rafa was entitled to have another season, I don't believe he was sold because he had a poor season.

[Jah Lush]

It wasn't just that he had a poor season. I think player power added to it too. They wanted him out or they were gone. Mind you some of them may well be gone if the owners don't pull their finger out and get someone in PDQ.

[silverfox]

Nobody is entitled to another season. You earn your position by winning trophies. Liverpool haven't won anything since 2006. The facts speak for themselves.

[Sharon_H]

Well I as far as I'm concerned he deserved another season.

[silverfox]

Lots of people agree with you Sharon_H, but I'm not sure what good it would have done for both him and Liverpool. The relationship between him and the club hierarchy had broken down.

[ruffers]

To paraphrase the idiot that is Garry Cook I think if you look at the 'trajectory of recent results' next season Liverpool would have failed to qualify for Europe, won nothing whatsoever, and been out of both domestic cups at the earliest opportunity. Any big players who did stay this summer would then be off like a shot. Spurs, Man City, Villa itching to take their place and Liverpool have become a mid table UEFA challenger.

Last three years' League position = 4-2-7

FA Cup round reached 5-4-3

League Cup round Q-4-4

Champs League RU-SF-QF-Group

Chanmpions League being the most clear indication of which way things are going.

No board can sit and see that and not take action.

[Jah Lush]

And there you have it. The facts speak for themselves.

[Annasfield]

Excellent peice from Brian Reade, Journalist, Kop Season ticket holder and Scouser;

Rafa Benitez leaves Liverpool as a legend so could critics please stop rewriting history?

Right to the end the professional pundits failed to understand why so many Liverpudlians stayed loyal to Rafa Benitez.

As 500 fans marched on Anfield after his departure, chanting the Spaniard?s name, heads shook at a footballing sub-species bracketed somewhere between romantic die-hards and mawkish morons.

To the ?expert? eye, these deluded fools had been conned by Benitez?s cunning and blinded to his failings by the glory of Istanbul and the criminal incompetence of the American owners.

Liverpool fans they said, once among the most knowledgeable in the world, had clearly lost touch with the modern reality, and were now a sad throwback to the days when sideburned men kicked orange balls.

Well, I?d argue one of the saddest aspects of modern football is too many pundits, including ex-players, have not paid to watch a game since those orange ball days. And they?ve lost touch with the fan.

I?m not saying Benitez had to stay. The results and the football last year were shocking, he?s been a major player in Anfield?s destructive civil war, and the number of fans disillusioned with his style and methods was growing.

But to paint his six-year reign as an unmitigated disaster, sustained only by the over-sentimentalising of Istanbul, is analysis at its most skewed and cringeful. By 2004 Liverpool had been relegated to the status of European also-rans. Benitez made the club a genuine world force again.

It wasn?t just that 2005 Champions League win (which is shamelessly downplayed as a fluke despite beating Fabio Capello?s Juventus, Jose Mourinho?s Chelsea and Carlo Ancelotti?s AC Milan). Or reaching the 2007 Champions League final and the 2008 semi-final. It wasn?t even UEFA elevating Liverpool to Europe?s top-seeded club due to results under Benitez.

It was beating Real Madrid and Inter Milan at the Bernabeu and San Siro (which the Reds had never before done) and Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Magical victories at the very top of world football, which restored long-overdue respect to Liverpudlian hearts.

Ah say the experts, but he didn?t win the league. True. But he got closer than any Liverpool boss in the past 20 years. A season ago he was a whisker away, taking the highest number of points by a runner-up in a 38-game season and the club?s best points haul since 1988.

And he did so despite having the 5th highest wage bill in the league, the 5th costliest squad, the 5th biggest stadium capacity and a net annual transfer spend of ?15million. Which should have made experts ask why Liverpool were ever considered a nailed-on top four side under Benitez, especially when the boardroom was mired in anarchy.

Ah, they say, but he?d long lost the players and the board. So why have Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Daniel Agger, Dirk Kuyt and Pepe Reina signed new long-term contracts within the past year? Why last August did managing director Christian Purslow do interviews purring over Benitez and how he was integral to the club?s future?

Ah, the experts say, but that was before he let Xabi Alonso go, which everyone could see was a calamity. These would be the same experts who, for the previous couple of seasons, claimed Liverpool were a two-man team. With Alonso (on whom Benitez turned a ?20million profit) never being mentioned as one of those two.

Ah, they say, but Torres apart, he only signed sub-standard dross and ended up with a shockingly-weak squad. Really?

Liverpool are sending 12 players (13 if you count Milan Jovanovic whose Bosman signing is going through) to the World Cup. Or an entire team: Reina, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Babel, Gerrard, Mascherano, Rodriguez, Kuyt, Torres. Subs: Kyrgiakos, Jovanovic.

Eleven Chelsea players flew out to South Africa, the same number as Arsenal, and Manchester United sent eight. Does that look like he?s left Anfield bare of talent?

The truth is Benitez leaves a squad worth many times more than the one he inherited, despite spending less in the past three transfer windows than he?s brought in.

I don?t seek to rewrite history or airbrush Benitez?s failings. I saw last year?s football and it stank. I felt the growing anger among players and fans at his bloody-mindedness and knew something had to give.

Which is why it may be best for all concerned that he walks on. But now he has, let?s do him the honour of getting his legacy right.

Rafa Benitez was many things at Liverpool but unlike every manager since Kenny Dalglish, he was not a failure. Indeed a majority of Liverpudlians will remember him as a legend.

Because like Bill Shankly, on more days and nights than those expert pundits ever care to recall, he made the people happy.

[matthew123]

I thought we would hear from Sven during the World Cup... and this is how Sven has reacted to news that his Ivory Coast skipper and talisman Drogba has broken his arm and might miss World Cup...

Eriksson said: "I have been a Liverpool fan all of my life. I never mentioned it when I was in charge of England because I didn't think it was fair. I was shocked when I discovered Rafa Benitez had left. Would I want to be the manager of Liverpool? It is every manager's dream to manage Liverpool. My father was also a Liverpool supporter and every Saturday we would watch an English match on television. It was the highlight of the week ... They have always been my team and nothing has changed ... Liverpool will always hold a special place in my heart."

[pablogrande]

Quote rodY from Mascherano one of the players many said wanted Rafa out

"Would I follow Benitez? I don't know," he said. "At the moment I really know little about my future. But of course with Benitez at Liverpool I experienced three incredible years: his football is my football."