Rafa Benitez Leaves Liverpool

[Rix007]

I picked this team out of the squad Rafa has left us

Reina
Johnson
Agger
Skrtel or Kyrgiakos
Carragher
Gerrard
Mashcerano
Rodriguez
Kuyt or Babel
Torres

It's a team made up from players that are good enough to be chosen for their countries in the World Cup.

Add Benayoun, Aquilani,and even Lucas, all potential internationals

It may need tuning up a bit (left back, striker etc) but what a legacy to inherit.

It may be a task to hold on to some of them but Rafa has done well with little financial support and I salute him.

My thoughts exactly...The new manager with new ideas and a more attack minded approach will get the best out of these players. Obviously 2/3 more additions and I think we got a pretty darn good team to challenge for the title. "At the end of a storm, There's a golden sky."

If we can keep this side together, I'm very optimistic we can turn things around. When you down, the only way is up and we will rule the roost again.

[Rix007]

When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

[little dave hedgehog]

My thoughts exactly...The new manager with new ideas and a more attack minded approach will get the best out of these players. Obviously 2/3 more additions and I think we got a pretty darn good team to challenge for the title. "At the end of a storm, There's a golden sky."

If we can keep this side together, I'm very optimistic we can turn things around. When you down, the only way is up and we will rule the roost again.

i was just looking at your signature, and we really need at least one middle finger smiley that looks genuinely pissed off. one for your friends, and another one for people you actually hate.

[Vermilion]

Yeah, don't worry, it will all be fine

Can we stop with the 'it'll all be fine' ****...it won't all be fine till the owners have been kicked out on their arse, saying things like oh it'll all be fine is just more evidence of the apathy that's led us to where we are now, yeah just sit back...it'll be fine.

So dissappointed in this club just now, we've just got rid of a manager who's been wanted by some of the biggest clubs in europe, watch who we replace him with.

I'm now living in the faint hope that we could maybe appoint Hiddink, because if not... we will NOT be moving forward any time soon, we'll be sat here next season bemoaning how lfc has now totally accepted mediocrity as the norm, with a mediocre manager and a squad full of mediocre buys because that's all we can afford, the short term turmoil is far from over anyway, Rafa leaving is only the beginning.

This imo is the reality, and it won't... 'be fine', not by a long way.

[Rix007]

i was just looking at your signature, and we really need at least one middle finger smiley that looks genuinely pissed off. one for your friends, and another one for people you actually hate.

LOL, definitely need one of those..

[Pablo]

They got rid of him at the first plausible opportunity to do so. The owners had been wanting to do it for a good long while I'm sure.

He was rocking the boat, he stood up to them, he badgered them constantly to invest, he even spoke about it publicly. I think he upset just about everyone high up at our club in order to stand up for what is right for Liverpool football club.

I bet the owners were relieved he had one bad season and some of the fans turned on him, as they knew they could get rid of him without too much fuss. It's just not Liverpool and I'm still fuming about it

[Neil Young]

I spent much of last season critising Rafa. I didn't agree with the substitutions, I didn't agree with the formation and two defensive midfielders, I didn't like our displays against the leagues cannonfodder and most of all I didn't like losing. As the evil Chelsea and Man Utd marched on, with the pretenders Arsenal hanging on to their coat tails, we dropped further and further back and I wished that the league would end at Christmas, for all it meant to us.

On the 15th April I sat watching the Hillsborough coverage and the football instantly became insignificant, being a fan of this great club is something special. We've been through so many highs and extreme lows that we have a bond that very few other teams have. Unfortunately, it tends to be trajedy that brings this togetherness, but all the same we have something very special. That day Rafa sung YNWA with the fans in his slightly broken english, he looked a little awkward singing it but he did it. He looked in pain throughout the ceremony, he is one of us of that there is no doubt.

I look back on his time with us with sadness and happyness, I think of him sitting crossed-legged to not obstruct the view of the fans, I think of him drinking in the pub with fellow reds in some irish bar in Cologne and I think about Istanbul. When I look back to my moaning last season, I realise that it was in the same way that I moan about my wife. I will moan about her in one way or another until the day I die, but would I change her? No, never. Whilst that may be a long time in football, I believe that at the very least, our man deserved another season. 1 bad season and he's been kicked out, 1 bad season...it beggars belief. 2 Champions league finals, and FA Cup and second the season before last. In 6 years he's achieved more than most will in a lifetime with less financial backing and we've sent him packing. Its madness and sadness rolled into one.

I'm finding it hard to look in the mirror at the moment, I cannot help but think that my complaints last season and those of many otherss may have assisted with his departure and there will be a little emptyness here unless he one day returns to finish his work and walks on by his own accord, job completed. He may return one day, this is a possibility, no?

Good luck Rafa.

Excellent post.

Re. the bit I've highlighted: I have to say I was mindful of this all the way through. I doubt it made much difference so I don't think people should feel bad about it but there is a lesson in it - one you are clearly only too well aware of now.

As for your comparing moaning about Rafa with moaning about your wife then that's the thing for me people like me, who were usually on the other side of the argument, to remember if and when things get heated again in future.

[Roboklopp]

They got rid of him at the first plausible opportunity to do so. The owners had been wanting to do it for a good long while I'm sure.

He was rocking the boat, he stood up to them, he badgered them constantly to invest, he even spoke about it publicly. I think he upset just about everyone high up at our club in order to stand up for what is right for Liverpool football club.

I bet the owners were relieved he had one bad season and some of the fans turned on him, as they knew they could get rid of him without too much fuss. It's just not Liverpool and I'm still fuming about it

Aye Pablo. Aye.

[cannotmakeit]

They got rid of him at the first plausible opportunity to do so. The owners had been wanting to do it for a good long while I'm sure.

He was rocking the boat, he stood up to them, he badgered them constantly to invest, he even spoke about it publicly. I think he upset just about everyone high up at our club in order to stand up for what is right for Liverpool football club.

I bet the owners were relieved he had one bad season and some of the fans turned on him, as they knew they could get rid of him without too much fuss. It's just not Liverpool and I'm still fuming about it

well said, next manager will be a nooding dog and it will takes us years to get back into the top 4 again, even with thos 2 scum gone, it will take a while before we get back in there.

[DannyMan2006]

well said, next manager will be a nooding dog and it will takes us years to get back into the top 4 again, even with thos 2 scum gone, it will take a while before we get back in there.

That my friend is impossible to say. If we get billionaires in we could very well be title challengers the immidiate season after. Reason being that Liverpool will always attract the best players, especially a Liverpool that looked like it was going to be contender at the highest level.

[Guest]

That my friend is impossible to say. If we get billionaires in we could very well be title challengers the immidiate season after. Reason being that Liverpool will always attract the best players, especially a Liverpool that looked like it was going to be contender at the highest level.

Past tense.

[Finnish_Red]

Souness view


“He was there six years and made a net spend of around £140m but only signed two players who I would regard as truly world class – Fernando Torres and Jose Reina."

So there you have it, Rafa clearly had megabucks to spend! What a pillock

[Leyton388]

Thats rich coming from that tool! The manager that sold beardsley and bought saunders as a replacement!!! Replaced class with **** and who was the one who started our decline.

[Guest]

Another one of those so called 'legends'. They've got the right to say what they want, no matter how **** their opinions are. He's had his chance but monumentally blew it; he arguably built the worst Liverpool team in our history and he thinks he can offer an informed opinion?

[Maxiedge]

Souness view


“He was there six years and made a net spend of around £140m but only signed two players who I would regard as truly world class – Fernando Torres and Jose Reina."

So there you have it, Rafa clearly had megabucks to spend! What a pillock

No Souness is right. We should have signed George Weah's cousin