Rafael Benitez: sell Fernando Torres and I will quit Liverpool

[Kenneth]

So the owners could get 100m for Torres, and Rafa would walk without a payoff. I am sure they're tempted.

[Reece]

So the owners could get 100m for Torres, and Rafa would walk without a payoff. I am sure they're tempted.

And isn't Klinsmann currently out of a job? It's win-win for them really.

[Shaggy]

Also very interesting that in the very same paper there is a piece ripping in to Ferguson

Link? In fact a c&p would be even better

[Rich]

And isn't Klinsmann currently out of a job? It's win-win for them really.

Can someone send Hicks a copy of The Times.

[red g]

He probably wouldn't have been the same player he is now, if Benitez had signed him.

not sure how nuch credit you can give to wenger, he has hardly had him a year. The kid is a prodigy for sure

[red g]

Can't believe we missed out on Aaron Ramsay for £3m!!!!

so did scum, nothing personal Cardiff have close links to Arsenal so no real surprise.

[Chrono]

Link? In fact a c&p would be even better

Actually there are two really...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6919459.ece

Sir Alex Ferguson is finally forced to face facts ten months after Rafael Benitez attack
Tony Evans

One of the stunning moments of last season came in January when Rafael Benítez launched his attack on Sir Alex Ferguson.

Liverpool needed to win away to Stoke City to go top of the Barclays Premier League and before the game Benítez produced a list of things that irritated him about the Manchester United manager’s actions, focusing on the Scot’s complaints about fixtures and his perceived bullying of referees.

It became known as “Rafa’s Rant”, despite the calmness of delivery and considered preparation. Liverpool drew with Stoke and it was widely considered to be a failed attempt to take on Ferguson in mind games.

Fast forward ten months and Ferguson appears to be on the retreat in his battle with referees, and the FA has handed the United manager an unprecedented touchline ban after his post-match complaints about Alan Wiley’s fitness.
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Does Benítez allow himself a wry smile of satisfaction? “No,” he said. “I thought it was the best way to put things across and that people would see something that everybody knew and maybe no one could say. I said it. I was talking about facts.

“Now the situation is different, but you still see things that you could say . . .” He stops, laughs and changes tack. “It’s better to leave it and focus on my team and try to improve our performance. That’s the best way to help my team.”

Like Ferguson, Benítez has strong views on referees. “I’ve supported them,” he said. “It is really difficult to be a referee, so I have to support them.” How? “With technology and by trying not to create too much controversy after games.”

Benítez, of course, was warned by the FA last month for a mild brush with the officials. The Liverpool manager had been asked about Phil Dowd’s performance in the match against Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day of the season.

His response was to take out his glasses and study them, implying the referee could borrow them. It was a rare blemish on Benítez’s record. “We are managers and you cannot guarantee you will not be in a situation where you have to complain,” he said.

What sort of technology would Benítez like to see used? “One thing would be television for disciplinary issues — bad tackles, aggression,” he said. “It would help referees because the players would know they are being watched and be more careful.”

One bugbear is the offside rule, which he believes has become too complex and too open to interpretation. “If we do not change this rule, we will have problems every game,” he said. “Before, if a player was offside, everybody knew. Now it depends on position, interfering with play. You could see this with the goal by Chelsea against Manchester United. You can talk about it for a month and still have different opinions. If they don’t change the rule, it will be a mess.”


HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6919397.ece

Only tougher sanctions meted out to managers like Sir Alex Ferguson will gain Respect
Matt Dickinson Chief Sports Correspondent

I thought Sir Alex Ferguson had got off lightly, but the punishment meted out to Diego Maradona proved it for sure. One denigrates officials time after time and gets a slap on the wrist. The other gets hit with a two-month ban from work. And all Maradona did was suggest his critics were into sodomy.

Crime and punishment in football remains an unfathomable mess of contradictions. An offence can be witnessed by billions on television, and replayed frame by condemning frame, but if the referee did not see it at the time, Fifa reserves the right to say it never happened.

Or, as in the case of Eduardo da Silva, one man’s outrageous dive is another’s taking of evasive action over an advancing goalkeeper.

So the discrepancy over touchline bans should come as no surprise. It is just that, simultaneously, two of the most high-profile figures on planet football are caught up in this haphazard justice system.
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* Neville wants elite pool of referees

* FA hits Ferguson with touchline ban

* Maradona banned two months for outburst

On Sunday, Maradona was suspended by Fifa from all official duties for two months. Argentina could play twice before Christmas but their coach, banned from communicating with his players, will have to scrounge a ticket to watch his own team. The World Cup draw takes place in Cape Town on December 4 but, while 31 managers work feverishly on their plans, Maradona is banished.

The punishment is for a foul-mouthed outburst at journalists; the sort that Ferguson gives all the time, only he is a bit more careful to do it when no cameras are rolling.

And, yes, it is true that kids might have been watching at home when, in celebration of Argentina’s fraught qualification for the World Cup finals, Maradona grabbed his crotch.

A couple of girls from Coca-Cola were stood demurely behind the wild-eyed Argentina coach as he delivered his rant in Montevideo, Uruguay. Yes, there may have been shock behind their fixed smiles as he told his critics to “suck it”.

On that basis, I guess it was something Fifa could hardly ignore, but which is worse? Is it a rant from Maradona aimed at journalists who, having called him inept, then have the right to reply as forcefully as they like? A fair fight, in other words, with no real damage done apart from to some delicate sensibilities.

Or is it Ferguson’s incessant denigration of officials to which they have no form of comeback? And for which the Manchester United manager has received a punishment from the FA that must have given him the giggles.

Ferguson’s two-match touchline ban amounts to nothing. He is allowed to give the team talk and to pass tactical instructions to the bench by text, sign language or megaphone if he likes. He can address his players again at half-time and determine all the substitutions.

The only thing he cannot do is chew gum in the dugout and harangue the officials from close range. He can resume normal service after the Barclays Premier League match away to Portsmouth and the Carling Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur.

The FA insists that this is the most draconian measure yet for post-match comments; in this case, Ferguson’s attack on Alan Wiley’s fitness levels, ie, his professional competence. But that does not make the sanction either brave or fitting.

To call for a stronger penalty is to concur with Graham Poll (which is always worrying) as well as the publicity-seeking Alan Leighton, secretary for the referees’ union, Prospect. The referees should do themselves a favour by appointing a spokesperson far less shrill.

But someone has to speak up for the men in the middle given that they are banned from responding themselves. What they would say, if they could, is that the punishment for Ferguson is a pin-prick.

No campaign has been more high-profile in recent years than the FA’s demands for Respect for officialdom, yet who is more voluble than Ferguson in ignoring it?

He is a serial offender, called before the FA five times in six years on top of all the other offences the governing body has preferred not to pursue.

There are those who argue that Ferguson’s greatness as a manager puts him beyond punishment. One, bizarrely, wrote that his “managerial feats have been worth tens of millions of pounds to his rivals, raising the Premier League’s coefficient to permit a fourth side into the Champions League”, which might be true but is hardly the point. Should officialdom bow and scrape in gratitude?

If we are serious about cleaning up our game, about sparing referees from packs of snarling players, if we are serious about Respect then something meaningful has to be levied against managers who throw around terms like unfit, incompetent, craven and useless.

It is, of course, arguable whether touchline bans are an appropriate and enforceable punishment. Certainly not the FA’s version.

Uefa’s more stringent sanction prevents all contact with players on match night. Or at least it should do. Famously, José Mourinho was so determined to circumvent a ban while at Chelsea that he smuggled himself in and out of the Stamford Bridge dressing room by kit-skip under the noses of Uefa officials.

For the second leg against Bayern in Munich, he broadcast his team talk over loudspeakers. Perhaps Maradona will follow Mourinho’s example and hide in an executive box surreptitiously texting his instructions to the bench. Perhaps he will be on the phone to his players before kick-off.

Either way, at least he will know he has been banned. How will Ferguson notice any difference?

[Vermilion]

The journalist that did this interview with Rafa, Tony Evans, just said on Radio that not only were Madrid after Rafa, but earlier this season a big premiership club were courting him also.

He didn't say how he knew this, Tony Evans, it was in response to the talk of Madrid having been turned down 3 times already by Rafa, and how many times he can say no before they decide never to ask again, Evans said that he would ultimately have options in football and that only this season a Premier club had courted Rafa to be their manager.

So, Citeh, or maybe Chelsea before they were sure of getting Ancelotti ?

[Rich]

The journalist that did this interview with Rafa, Tony Evans, just said on Radio that not only were Madrid after Rafa, but earlier this season a big premiership club were courting him also.

He didn't say how he knew this, Tony Evans, it was in response to the talk of Madrid having been turned down 3 times already by Rafa, and how many times he can say no before they decide never to ask again, Evans said that he would ultimately have options in football and that only this season a Premier club had courted Rafa to be their manager.

So, Citeh, or maybe Chelsea before they were sure of getting Ancelotti ?

It'll be City - sure of it.

[The Birdman]

Can't believe we missed out on Aaron Ramsay for £3m!!!!

I know, madness isn't it - add him to the list of transfer targets Parry ****ed up for Rafa

He probably wouldn't have been the same player he is now, if Benitez had signed him.

I'm looking for a smiley or something??? Ramsey was a full international and played 30 odd games in the Championship and appeared in the FA Cup Final, Wenger bought practically the finished article

not sure how nuch credit you can give to wenger, he has hardly had him a year. The kid is a prodigy for sure

See above, Wenger gets no credit, as I saw posted elsewhere the only one to come through the Arsenal system in recent years is Gibbs, all the others were bought at a young age from elsewhere

so did scum, nothing personal Cardiff have close links to Arsenal so no real surprise.

But Utd hadn't agreed the deal had they? we did then it got ****ed up by Parry and Arsenal came in and blew us out of the water

[red g]

COLOR="red"]But Utd hadn't agreed the deal had they? we did then it got ****ed up by Parry and Arsenal came in and blew us out of the water[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Manchester United have confirmed that they have agreed a fee with Cardiff City for the signing of teenage midfielder Aaron Ramsey.

The 17-year-old had also been a target for both Arsenal and Liverpool, but now just needs to agree personal terms and pass a medical to seal a move to the European and Premier League champions.

Ramsey has already broken into the senior Wales squad after impressing for the Bluebirds, but national team coach John Toshack recently warned that Ramsey needs to be playing regular first-team football to continue his progress.

He said: "If they're going to move to a bigger club or a higher division, it's obviously in our interests that they're sent out on loan.

"It's important that they're playing regularly because, if not, the step up becomes difficult.

"We've had examples here where we've had young lads come in, had moves and it hasn't always been positive from our point of view.

"We've had David Cotterill go to Wigan and not play that much and Chris Gunter, who's been outstanding in the games for us, but moved to Tottenham and hasn't got the amount of football we'd like."



i actually knew scum had agreed a deal, I didnt think we did?????

[red g]

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2008/06/05/liverpool-go-cool-on-aaron-ramsey-100252-21027735/

[Vermilion]

I remember it being reported at the time in a way that implied Ramsey to UTD was a done deal, medical done and everything, then all of a sudden he signed for Arsenal, we were out of it before then i think though.

[red g]

I remember it being reported at the time in a way that implied Ramsey to UTD was a done deal, medical done and everything, then all of a sudden he signed for Arsenal, we were out of it before then i think though.

i seemed to recall something about loaning the player back was the original issue, then Arsenal didnt do that after all.

ex arsenal staff on the cardiff staff always helps

[Shaggy]

Who ever said Fernando Torres would be sold Rafa? Martin Lipton's tea-time read

Published 16:32 17/11/09 By Martin Lipton

Rafa Benitez got his message out all right.

Under no circumstances, insisted the Liverpool boss, would he possibly allow the club to sell Fernando Torres just to raise cash .

No doubt, it was the sort of defiant, determined stance the Liverpool fans will have been delighted to hear.

Except for one nagging doubt.

Who, ever, suggested that Torres WOULD be sold to raise funds?

Not managing director Christian Purslow or the push-me, pull-you owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, as far as I can recall.

Forgive me if I am wrong, is not this the same Rafa Benitez who twice - in 2004 and again 12 months later - was willing to sell Steven Gerrard to Chelsea?

Is it not the same Rafa Benitez who let Michael Owen leave Liverpool to join Real Madrid.

And is it not the very same Rafa Benitez who, this summer, sold Xabi Alonso for £35m so that he could bring in Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson?

If Benitez was attempting to secure his position, it does seem he has gone about it in an odd way, almost as if he might be preparing the ground for what may come in the next few months.

Maybe, just maybe, Benitez has an eye or an ear on what is happening at Real Madrid, where the whispering campaign against coach Manuel Pelligrini is becoming louder with every passing week.

Benitez is not under pressure because of what the pundits, in print or on television, are saying.

He is under pressure because of results. Because of five defeats in just 12 Premier league games, because of four points out of the last 15, because of one point from his last three Champions League matches which have left the Merseysiders on the brink of a humiliating and costly exit from the competition before Christmas.

So far, out of that fierce, tribal loyalty which is almost unique to the Anfield fans, the Spaniard has not really received the sort of flak that managers at other clubs might have anticipated.

Many of those supporters still, rightly, remember the Miracle of Istanbul and the man who oversaw it, the manager who went drinking with them before the game at Leverkusen, the fellow who got the better of that braggart Jose Mourinho time and again.

But at some stage you have to stop living in the past, no matter how glorious it might seem. And start living in the present, to plan for the future.

Benitez can still turn the season around, can still prove the doubters wrong.

A fit Gerrard and Torres, with Aquilani living up to his advanced billing, Javier Mascherano switched back on and Jamie Carragher rediscovering his mojo could even - if Liverpool went on a stunning run - end that long, long wait for the next league title.


Yet Benitez's decision to wage war against an idea that nobody was considering was reminiscent of another, literary Spaniard.

Don Quixote De La Mancha climbed aboard his trusty steed, Rocinante, to tilt at the giants he saw before him.

But they were not giants, they were windmills. And so, it has to be said, is the idea of Torres being flogged off to raise the money needed to keep the club alive.

Unless, of course, Benitez truly knows better. In which case, the men above the Spaniard ought to start fearing for their reputations.

Martin Lipton, you are a total ****ing moron.