After tonight I mean?
Is that it? Do we sit back and do nothing else?
Someone posted this on YNWA:
Good post on YNWA about this courtesy of Knox Harrington:
The show of support for the manager is going to be f***ing brilliant. You know it, I know it. It's going to knock the socks off anything.
But there's no guarantee that, allied to a win - and it will be a tough game - is going to get the job done. The job being keeping Rafa Benitez at Anfield. The next step in this process, beyond more of the same at Bolton, is to start asking the sort of difficult questions that the owners are currently avoiding as Rafa is the story. And they have to be asked as publically as possible.
Historically, I'm against this carry on. I'm against phone-ins and the like. But in this instance the entire game is now being played out in public. Any individual who believes there wasn't a problem prior to Thursday is, frankly, deluding his or herself. Rafa chose to make this public. He wants this played out in the public domain. Knowing what we know, he isn't allowed to sell and he has been blocked from signing free transfers prior to Thursday.
The only logical reason for that is that there are plans afoot for him not to be Liverpool manager over the short or medium-term. (January/next summer).*
This may or may not be a footballing decision. I veer towards the not, you may think otherwise, but with the support the manager has we deserve to know whether or not it is. There's a series of questions thrown up by this affair which currently aren't being engaged with elsewhere.
- Is the football club well served by two owners who only turn up for big games, while wanting to control major activity of the football club?
- Are they adequately supporting Rafa?
- What, precisely, is Rick Parry's role in this and at the club?
- Have the weaknesses of the American economy undermined the plans of our new owners?
- What touch of brilliance are we going to see from the Hicks/Gillet partnership that marks them out above the DIC option as said to us by Parry at the time of the takeover?
What we have to do after Wednesday is ask these questions. Write to the newspapers, national and local, to the club and start ringing the dreaded phone-ins.
When you speak to the phone-ins, both local and national, stay on the point. Don't get side tracked into discussions of Benitez's record or current form - tomorrow night makes every point about that for you. He is supported by the vast, vast majority of the support. Make the point that we are being woefully underinformed and that there is more going on than Rafa being grouchy in a press conference and from that point build into one of the above questions. Don't over commit into answers, don't over-complicate. Just stick to your point. eg:
Caller: It's coming to something when we can't make a move for a player until they can be bothered to head over for Man U at home.
Spoony: But don't you think the owners have the right to question his record in the transfer market?
Caller: Tonight/Wednesday makes the point the point what the supporters think of that. And don't we, as supporters, have the right to question why they won't back the manager and allow him to make free transfers? Is it that they are that strapped for cash or that they don't back him. How can they not back him when they aren't even here on the ground. Do you think they even watched the game tonight/Wednesday, Spoony?
Spoony: Well....
Call the phone-in host by name. This isn't John Humphries. These are people who like the fact you are being "friendly" with them.
Some people need to take the responsibility to ring Merseyside, others 5Live. If at home I'll hit 5live at 10pm though I do hope to be at the game. It doesn't need to happen tomorrow night but it needs to start happening after tomorrow night.
Get calling and writing and emailing. This is what we do next for Rafa.
*Even if you disagree with this logical reason, the only other reason is incompetence. If you believe that then start asking about that. This cannot be allowed to happen again. We've every right to demand more from the owners.
Is that it? Do we sit back and do nothing else?
Someone posted this on YNWA:
Good post on YNWA about this courtesy of Knox Harrington:
The show of support for the manager is going to be f***ing brilliant. You know it, I know it. It's going to knock the socks off anything.
But there's no guarantee that, allied to a win - and it will be a tough game - is going to get the job done. The job being keeping Rafa Benitez at Anfield. The next step in this process, beyond more of the same at Bolton, is to start asking the sort of difficult questions that the owners are currently avoiding as Rafa is the story. And they have to be asked as publically as possible.
Historically, I'm against this carry on. I'm against phone-ins and the like. But in this instance the entire game is now being played out in public. Any individual who believes there wasn't a problem prior to Thursday is, frankly, deluding his or herself. Rafa chose to make this public. He wants this played out in the public domain. Knowing what we know, he isn't allowed to sell and he has been blocked from signing free transfers prior to Thursday.
The only logical reason for that is that there are plans afoot for him not to be Liverpool manager over the short or medium-term. (January/next summer).*
This may or may not be a footballing decision. I veer towards the not, you may think otherwise, but with the support the manager has we deserve to know whether or not it is. There's a series of questions thrown up by this affair which currently aren't being engaged with elsewhere.
- Is the football club well served by two owners who only turn up for big games, while wanting to control major activity of the football club?
- Are they adequately supporting Rafa?
- What, precisely, is Rick Parry's role in this and at the club?
- Have the weaknesses of the American economy undermined the plans of our new owners?
- What touch of brilliance are we going to see from the Hicks/Gillet partnership that marks them out above the DIC option as said to us by Parry at the time of the takeover?
What we have to do after Wednesday is ask these questions. Write to the newspapers, national and local, to the club and start ringing the dreaded phone-ins.
When you speak to the phone-ins, both local and national, stay on the point. Don't get side tracked into discussions of Benitez's record or current form - tomorrow night makes every point about that for you. He is supported by the vast, vast majority of the support. Make the point that we are being woefully underinformed and that there is more going on than Rafa being grouchy in a press conference and from that point build into one of the above questions. Don't over commit into answers, don't over-complicate. Just stick to your point. eg:
Caller: It's coming to something when we can't make a move for a player until they can be bothered to head over for Man U at home.
Spoony: But don't you think the owners have the right to question his record in the transfer market?
Caller: Tonight/Wednesday makes the point the point what the supporters think of that. And don't we, as supporters, have the right to question why they won't back the manager and allow him to make free transfers? Is it that they are that strapped for cash or that they don't back him. How can they not back him when they aren't even here on the ground. Do you think they even watched the game tonight/Wednesday, Spoony?
Spoony: Well....
Call the phone-in host by name. This isn't John Humphries. These are people who like the fact you are being "friendly" with them.
Some people need to take the responsibility to ring Merseyside, others 5Live. If at home I'll hit 5live at 10pm though I do hope to be at the game. It doesn't need to happen tomorrow night but it needs to start happening after tomorrow night.
Get calling and writing and emailing. This is what we do next for Rafa.
*Even if you disagree with this logical reason, the only other reason is incompetence. If you believe that then start asking about that. This cannot be allowed to happen again. We've every right to demand more from the owners.
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