Rafa rips into Ferguson

[wavydavy]

Graham Poll's come out in support of his comments stating Rafa's only "articulating what refs have been thinking for years". A very powerful ally IMHO.

[Cormack74]

Does that mean they are investigating the points that Rafa made? Or they are looking to do Rafa for saying them?

I'm guessing the latter knowing the FA

...although this shows they can act quickly if they want to, obviously they don't want to very often!

Not sure, just heard a bit on Sky news (not SSN) whilst flicking through the channels and having some brekkie. They were talking about the FA asking for a transcript of the press conference.

Typical FA pomposity, I can't see why they don't just watch it online like everyone else.

[Leyton388]

**** them all. Rafa is the man!

[JPK]

Yet the Stoke boss clearly feels his side may suffer at the hands of the referee and highlighted how the top teams can influence the officials.

“I heard former referee Graham Poll said he thought the referee Chris Foy wouldn’t send a Manchester United player off because he’s in line to do the Carling Cup final and United might be in the final,” he said before concluding, “That’s crazy. It’s becoming a class society, looking after the people at the top and not worrying about the people below.”

Pulis on refs. That is sick by Foy. Knob Styles handed them 3points at OT against Bolton this year too and Bennett won them the league at Wigan last year with some crazy decisions. Scholes should have been sent off that day and Ferdinand should have got a penalty against them. Genius timing by Rafa and purple nose and his team will be seriously scrutinised now. Bennett is in his final year and wont care though so expect hometown decisions wednesday.

We have to win today and I honestly dont think Rafa would do this unless he was ultra confident of a win today. Takes the attention away from Gerrard, Keane and Torres's return. Very Mourinho like. Rafa is no mug and knows exactly what he is doing.

[fah-q]

Cant wait to see what mumbly old bollocks the drunkard comes out with to respond to this.

[kingfunk]

Paul merson is a class A Dickhead. They should have a column on the sky website for him called;
"From a junkys point of view"

[G]

Benitez is taking on the master at his own game

Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent
Saturday, 10 January 2009
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In April 1988, a 46-year-old Alex Ferguson, not yet knighted and virtually the same age as Jose Mourinho is now, gave his take on how Liverpool benefited from refereeing decisions. "I can understand why clubs come away from Anfield choking on their own vomit and biting their tongues knowing they have been done by the referee," he said. "It would be a miracle to win here. I am not getting at this referee. It is the whole intimidating atmosphere and the monopoly they [Liverpool] have enjoyed here for years that gets to the referees eventually."

More than 20 years on, despite all that Ferguson has said since, that quotation is one of his most memorable. In fact you can still buy T-shirts in Manchester bearing those words. Coming after a 3-3 draw it became the defining take on the perceived bias of referees towards Liverpool at Anfield. It was argued over for months. The point is not whether Ferguson was right or wrong. The point is that people remembered. The point is that referees remembered.

If Rafael Benitez's invective yesterday against United was designed to do anything then it was designed to stick in people's minds, especially the part about United players haranguing referees and getting decisions at Old Trafford. Liverpool fans, spare me the pious emails telling me he is right. This is not about right or wrong – and who on earth could ever judge which team gets the most decisions at home? It is about having a calculated effect on referees in a title run-in that is heating up nicely.

Ferguson is a bully. In fact he's brilliant at it. After the FA Cup third round tie against Southampton, the manager Jan Poortvliet said, as respectfully as possible, that Ferguson stood up once in the whole game and after that every decision went for him. He may well be right, but does anyone seriously expect Ferguson not to use his 23 years of unprecedented success, his fame, his forceful personality to give himself an advantage? There is no manager who would not do the same.

Benitez has taken Ferguson on at his own game and for that he deserves admiration. It is testament to his own understated way of going about things that he had every argument typed out in bullet points on a sheet of paper. Ferguson prefers the molten-eruption, phlegm-flecked, finger-jabbing approach. Benitez delivered in the manner of a geologist giving a lecture on soil erosion.

The desired effect for the Liverpool manager is that every referee in charge of a United game from tomorrow to the end of the season is eager not to be the man fingered for caving into Ferguson. It will be the issue that grips us from now on: is Benitez right? And that is just the way the Liverpool manager wants it. If one referee has a moment of doubt because of what Benitez has said and denies United accordingly then, for Liverpool, it will have been worth it.

Ferguson will have to come back at Benitez, he will have to do so in order to defend his team. He has been here before, to a lesser degree, when Arsène Wenger accused the Neville brothers of targeting Jose Antonio Reyes in the famous 49-game unbeaten run-ending match in October 2004. Never mind the "Battle of the Buffet" that ensued, Ferguson was most concerned to address a public perception that his team were dirty because he realised how damaging that could be.

If you have any sympathy, save it for the referees who find themselves in a no-win situation. No one can actually remember whether that decision to send off Colin Gibson that sparked Ferguson's rant almost 21 years ago was right or not. They do not recall whether Steve McMahon should have been sent off too, which he also believed. They just recall the impression that Liverpool got decisions at home. Which is exactly the same legacy – albeit with referees at Old Trafford – that Benitez wishes to create.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/benitez-is-taking-on-the-master-at-his-own-game-1297514.html

[red g]

lawrenson was obviously derisory about it.
****

[Roboklopp]

Absolute genius that.

Interesting that he's put up with snide comments from Fergiescum for years & has stored up his retort in such a measured, detailed but unemotive way. It is remeniscent of how he eventually responded to Moaninhio, citing Abramobitch as the Chavs most important signing.

As for the Mr Fergicscum- ****ing brilliant. Have to say I never noticed before it was pointed out cos I never think of him as "sir", but it will wind Fergiscum up & is a good retort to when the cunt refererred to our "4" European Cups post-05.

[Roboklopp]

lawrenson was obviously derisory about it.
****

I'd suggest the nuances of the strike are a little beyond the fool.

[bobbyfallon]

have watched it 3 times now - brilliant.

[Exiled_red]

It doesn't matter what anyone says about his comments whether they think he was right or wrong, clever or stupid, the fact people are talking about them means that people will remember and that's what Rafa wanted.

Even those mancs that are saying he's losing the plot are playing into his hands be even discussing it

[Roboklopp]

Macmoneyman says in his satan-ta blog...

When I heard about Rafa’s press conference on Friday, I actually thought it would be worse than what it was. People told me. 'Rafa’s gone mad' and you instantly think ‘Kevin Keegan’. Now he did lose it, but when I looked at it, it certainly wasn’t a rant. Rafa was calm and collected, he had things written down – it was premeditated.

Rafa was different to Keegan and actually people will look at it and go ‘oh yeah actually Fergie was the only man not to get banned by The FA’


To be honest, I just think he was switching attention to the United-Chelsea game. They have obviously got a big game against Chelsea on Sunday. If Liverpool lose against Stoke, the papers will all be about Rafa losing it. But if Liverpool win at Stoke it switches the pressure to United.

If you are a Liverpool fan you think he’s brilliant. If you are a United fan you think he’s lost the plot. If you support anyone else you sit back and laugh.

One thing I have to stress is it won’t affect the Liverpool players one jot. The overriding question to come out of this thing is will the Liverpool players lose their bottle? Personally I think that is a load of nonsense.

When you have played and won European Cup finals, that’s pressure, the Spanish guys have won a European Championship. Playing in The Premier League is not a patch on that.

Let’s not get this wrong, the Stoke game is a hard one. They are not the greatest, if it came down to football Liverpool would win 10 out of 10. But when you play Stoke it is about fight, and about playing ugly to get 3 points. I expect Liverpool to do that.

Liverpool have to make sure they win so the talk about Rafa’s press conference switches to United-Chelsea. It is the teams playing catch up that are under the most pressure. They can’t afford to drop points.

Liverpool have not won the league in a long time. They were top at Christmas and New Year without their top striker. Now they have to go the distance.

[Slinky Skills]

Rafa had this well planned, he took the notes out of his pocket for this one.
Imho this will also give our players a kick in the back side to come out fighting for the team, the fighting mentality rafa is always looking for, I also think a small part of it may have been designed to take some of the heat off gerrard.
He killed a few birds with this stone!
No doubt fergie will come out and say it was a mad rant........ knob.
Just shows why rafa is the best man for liverpool,
He is a legend.

Brilliant by Rafa, what a masterstoke and completely out of the blue too. It's obviously been on his mind for some time.

Hopefully it will bring out the fans fighting too. The fans at home games now really need to get behind the team, more so now than ever before. We've never been in such a good position since the PL started and it's no fluke the position we're in either.

C'mon LFC fans, back them team and sing your arses off from now right till the end of the season and bring home number 19 from them scummy cunts up the M56.

YNWA!!

[Maxiedge]

Rafa suggested today that Mr. Ferguson was "talking too much about Liverpool" and should concentrate on his own team. I think this may have been the catalyst for the press conference on friday.

Has he been? I personally haven't recently seen any quotes about us from the scumbag? Does anyone here think this too? Genuinely interested.