Rafa Benitez Leaves Liverpool

[-V-]

Hiddink was 12/1 a few hours ago when SSN were discussing it and Mourinho was bizarrely 2nd fav at 2/1

[vonk]

Yeah but no manager could succeed with no budget and having his best players sold.

Top managers are good enough to know they can make demands to counter this - lesser managers arent. And that's what we'll get, a lesser manager.

Even one who might not be massively high profile, but is quite good, will struggle to do anything with a squad that will keep having it's best players cherry picked and no funds to replace them.

You've suddenly changed your tune.... Thought you wanted Rafa gone?

[EwarWoo]

Do you really think that is likely though. I don't.

Well, they're looking to sell at top dollar. The only way they can do that is invest.

I dunno if I'd go so far as to say likely, however it's just as likely as us selling half the squad.

[Zapater]

What an unappealing list of candidates.

Not only that but there are a pretty good selection of managerless clubs currently and we're probably the most unappealing of them. No CL football, no money and a squad which needs some fixing up. ****ing idiotic decision if it comes to fruition.

Wasn't too pessimistic about next season, but now it's seemingly over before it has begun.

[Exiled_red]

Only just seen this

WTF

[EwarWoo]

I'd take Kenny in a flash but I just think he's been out of the game for too long.

Nah, not on your life. As I've said before, I could see that turning into a Sounessesque nightmare. He needs to stay as one of our past heroes rather than becoming one of our current failures.

The man deserves better.

Too long out of the game to risk his status with us.

[Big-Red-Ed]

Look there are ways of sacking a manager and there are ways not to sack a manager and Rafa clearly has done enough to deserve an honourable parting.

However you guys are kidding yourselves. If he has lost the players and it sounds and looks like he has, then this decision was inevitable. The fact that we are financially ****ed is neither here nor there. If quality proper professionals like those named feel he has to go then he has to go.

Sorry but the truth hurts.

[Rishi73]

Boys it can only be the one and only Ian Dowie to take over the reigns. We are royally ****ed!

What is Dalglish's role at the club? He always seemed to have Rafa's back.

If all these rumours are true then I wish Rafa the best of luck. Although not perfect (but which manager is) I think he has taken the club forward even with the owners best efforts to screw it up.

He is a true gentleman and fan and I'm sure he'll be a sucess at his next club and prove his doubters wrong and show us what he can really do when he's not operating with one hand tied behind his back.

[Liverpel]

Also from the Mirror:

IF there was a defining moment that said it was time for Rafa Benitez to leave Liverpool, then it came at Birmingham in April.

In a game the Spanish coach’s side simply had to win to keep alive fast receding Champions League hopes, he replaced top scorer – some would say only scorer – Fernando Torres, with David Ngog, with almost half an hour remaining.

The look of sheer bewilderment on the face of Europe’s best striker was matched only by the shock that was etched all over the features of Reds skipper and talisman Steven Gerrard.

It was a moment that was captured by the tv cameras, and was the beginning of the end for Benitez, because in that split-second, it became *painfully obvious he had lost his senior players.

The talk today, as the manager’s Anfield tenure officially comes to an end, will be of the rift between Benitez and his board, in particular American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

But it is lower down the structure at the club that you must look for the reasons behind his sacking. When it came to it, some of the biggest stars in world football had decided they could simply no longer play for their coach. So Liverpool had a tricky *decision to make.

Keep the manager who had steered them to two Champions League finals but risk losing three or four world class players.

Or make a move now to bring desperately needed stability to the playing side of the club, and allow the likes of Gerrard, Torres, Javier Mascherano and Jamie Carragher to head off the World Cup in the knowledge that the positive moves they had demanded were being *implemented.

In the end, it was a no contest.

The idea of selling Torres and Gerrard and giving Benitez £80million or more was *untenable, given his disasters in the transfer market in recent seasons.

His last three £20m signings, Robbie Keane, Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson were in no way successful, with the former two proving downright *catastrophes.

Benitez has never been a manager who has found easy relationships with players, and his style is simply not conducive to fostering loyalty and trust or longevity in his squad.

Guillem Balague, the Mirror’s very own Spanish correspondent knows Benitez well, and in these pages only months ago, even he – someone close to the Reds boss – said that the manager’s style was to constantly sell players on.

“Many are blaming Benitez’s personality for the team’s demise and I have always had the *impression that for his methods to succeed he must constantly recycle new blood through the squad, even replacing key players with new ones eager to respond to him,” he wrote here.

It is an astute observation. Benitez’s cold style has led to many criticisms, and his *treatment in particular of the popular Xabi Alonso and Sami Hyypia led to much unrest.

Many of the players believe that Alonso was forced out because of the events of the previous summer, when Benitez had openly tried to replace the midfielder with Gareth Barry. And many wanted Hyypia to be given a new deal, instead of being allowed to leave.

This season, he has fallen out at various times with Ryan Babel, Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun, as well as Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano, and the atmosphere within the squad has been uneasy for some months.

There have also been massive reservations about the manager’s cautious nature and his *unattractive style of football. Liverpool scored just 19 goals away from home in the Premier League last season – four of them against Burnley – and won just five matches.

It was too negative for Torres, who dreamed of support from wingers and a target man to take the load from him, and that led to further unrest.

That was communicated forcefully to the board, with many of the biggest stars making it clear they couldn’t see a future at Anfield if he was still in charge.

In total, in his six years at the club, he has signed almost 100 players, including some of the youth team players he signed for big money over the years.

Now Liverpool are hoping for a period of stability, as they set about looking for the new owners who can bring with them the funds to build a new stadium that is the key to the future of the club.

With Gerrard and Torres still on board, that will be a marginally easier prospect.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/How-Kop-player-power-got-rid-of-Rafa-article446529.html

[EwarWoo]

What is Dalglish's role at the club? He always seemed to have Rafa's back.

He's something to do with the youth academy, can't remember exactly what but.

However he's also used as an ambassador.

[Tee]

A part of me will die if MON ever takes over.

[dww]

Well, they're looking to sell at top dollar. The only way they can do that is invest.

I dunno if I'd go so far as to say likely, however it's just as likely as us selling half the squad.

I don't think we will sell half the squad but I think that the model from here on in is closer to Everton than any of the big boys spending wise. They have never wanted to risk money investing in the club - hence the levels of debt.

I'm not convinced that they are necessarily even worried about selling for top dollar - they can take money out of the club so long as we can repay the interest on the debt. Lowering the wage bill would increase the leeway for doing that.

At a time when we need to strengthen in quality and depth of squad I don't expect us to spend more than we raise in transfer funds.

[Rishi73]

Look there are ways of sacking a manager and there are ways not to sack a manager and Rafa clearly has done enough to deserve an honourable parting.

However you guys are kidding yourselves. If he has lost the players and it sounds and looks like he has, then this decision was inevitable. The fact that we are financially ****ed is neither here nor there. If quality proper professionals like those named feel he has to go then he has to go.

Sorry but the truth hurts.

Absolute tripe! If this is the case then the players need to man the **** up and just get on with the job. If they don't believe in the manager then they can still take to the pitch and give 100% for the fans.

Like Carra said those who want to stay and fight, great, but the rest can **** off!

[darkstar]

Absolute tripe! If this is the case then the players need to man the **** up and just get on with the job. If they don't believe in the manager then they can still take to the pitch and give 100% for the fans.

Like Carra said those who want to stay and fight, great, but the rest can **** off!

[Kenneth]

Mirror article full of holes, scuch as 'disasters' in the transfer market, Hyypia not being offered a deal, etc, but the just is probably about right