Rafa Benitez - the kingmaker

[Mostar]

I've never even heard that version before.

I was on holiday in July, and there was plenty of talk on Sneijder and Robben being swapped for Alonso.

I left early August and we'd signed Aquilani by then.

Sneijder has been one of the options considered by us fans but my understanding was that Rafa clearly indicated to Real Madrid we only wanted cash and not a player(s) + cash option.

[Phoenix07]

If I am not mistaken none of them were available for sale until after we purchased Aquilani + neither of them were like for like replacement for Alonso (not that Aquilani was).

The problem was that Rafa was still hoping that Xabi would stay and when finally Xabi broke that bubble and threw in the transfer request so late in the transfer window he had to scramble to find the reasonable replacement and unfortunately that backfired.

I've never even heard that version before.

I was on holiday in July, and there was plenty of talk on Sneijder and Robben being swapped for Alonso. Real Madrid wanted a mini-clearout at the time (which was talked about for months beforehand).

I left early August and we'd signed Aquilani by then (before the league season had kicked off).

[Mostar]

I don't think he should have bent over and begged Alonso to stay. He should just have bought an apt replacement.

FFS Sneijder (went on to become the European POTY) and Van der Vaart (did well in the Prem) were both available for less than the 18m we spent on Aquilani

If I am not mistaken none of them were available for sale until after we purchased Aquilani + neither of them were like for like replacement for Alonso (not that Aquilani was).

[destinydude]

I don't think he should have bent over and begged Alonso to stay. He should just have bought an apt replacement.

FFS Sneijder (went on to become the European POTY) and Van der Vaart (did well in the Prem) were both available for less than the 18m we spent on Aquilani

[peekay]

I always thought our play turned to **** when Alonso left. I know we had financial restrictions, but he failed to adequately replace the most important part of the team, using the tactics he liked to play with. He also had a agreement to sell Mascherano. I think he left knowing the team was ****ed.

I know there was a bit of a rift between him and Alonso, and he was not the sort of guy to get on his knees and beg the player to stay, but in hindsight, he should have done just that. I think his weakness was that distance from the players.

I still think it was best he left when he did, if only to preserve his own status. I think it would be wrong to go back to him now. He captured lightning in a bottle, and it would be sad to see him go the way of Dalglish if he could not recapture previous glories.

Also, I am not sure if things started to fall apart when Pako left. This draws a parallel to when Houllier lost Patrice Burgues. Sometimes being a great manager is more than just about the man himself.

I think there was a huge psychological blow of doing so well but having nothing to show for at the end of the season.

There was some superhuman performances from a number of players in the second half of that season to overcome various obstacles. So many fantastic games.

I think when it all came to nothing the players were psychologically hit and they found it tough to raise to that level again.

Ideally what we should have done is retained the core squad and added a Jovetic, Suarez type of player and a back up striker. I believe that squad could have dominated the PL and Europe for years.

Look at Ferguson did after loosing out on the PL last season. Bought in Van Persie and Kagawa which is a huge boost for them and to a certain extent helped them overcome the scars of final day.

[Buzzo]

He is unemployed you know

I wonder if he now extensively charts and records every episode of Jeremy Kyle and this morning? Cross referencing domestic disputes and bizarre occurrences amongst the chav populace?

His is a great coaching mind gone to waste?

[Buzzo]

Blimey Neil 2 conscutiveposts and not one dog pic or ounce of sarcasm

I agree with every word

[Charly]

I always thought our play turned to **** when Alonso left. I know we had financial restrictions, but he failed to adequately replace the most important part of the team, using the tactics he liked to play with. He also had a agreement to sell Mascherano. I think he left knowing the team was ****ed.

I know there was a bit of a rift between him and Alonso, and he was not the sort of guy to get on his knees and beg the player to stay, but in hindsight, he should have done just that. I think his weakness was that distance from the players.

I still think it was best he left when he did, if only to preserve his own status. I think it would be wrong to go back to him now. He captured lightning in a bottle, and it would be sad to see him go the way of Dalglish if he could not recapture previous glories.

Also, I am not sure if things started to fall apart when Pako left. This draws a parallel to when Houllier lost Patrice Burgues. Sometimes being a great manager is more than just about the man himself.

[Fredo]

He should never, ever have gone.

[Mostar]

He's still piling on the pounds though isn't he.

He is unemployed you know

[kop-al-74]

Best manager since Paisley....was treated wrongly by a bunch of self obsessed pricks

[RedReet]

At the end of his last season, Rafa stated that he had gone in to work expecting to outline the plans for the following season only to be told that he was not going to get a single penny to spend on players. This let to a short and frank exchange of views after which Benitez was sacked. The owners wanted him out. That's it. End of story. They didn't give half a ****e about any fans - even at that time Rafa had a huge amount of support from much of the fanbase.

Oh, didn’t realise it was as straightforward as that and speculation was now indeed fact.

No point in arguing on I guess…

[el matador]

I tend to agree with a lot of that. I just think that if people take it on purely aesthetic grounds the football was not bad a lot of the time when it is stated to be universally dismal. I think the collapse at the end of the season has a lot to do with it and my feeling is that it came from the same lack of control we agreed with earlier.

I can see the point about the end feeling like Kenny was helpless. I tend to feel that we had no on pitch general and that made it hard to alter the games. I would be very interested to know what he was planning to change if given another season. I still think choosing Adam as the fulcrum of the side was the biggest mistake he made.

its hard to be critical about such an icon like kenny but he did make some pretty catastrophic decisions. the biggest one was paying 35m for carroll followed closely by paying 20m for downing.

you cant really fault the quality of the football because at times we were breathtaking and really unlucky. However, when you hit the post 40plus times you start to think its not just being unlucky but there's something wrong with the attack. we see the legacy of that now with suarez.

I think defensively we werent bad but the central midfield was very weak especially with lucas missing. after he got injured we just had no one in who could do a job. adam was ok going forward but a liability when we didnt have the ball so i couldnt understand him being played in midfield. We then brought spearing in and he looked out of his depth from the start and finally henderson who was brought in as central midfield player only got a run of games in the middle when adam got injured. seems odd given that a decent run of games might have meant a different henderson to what were seeing presently.

i couldnt see how we were playing either and who was meant to be doing what on the pitch. ultimately, the poor transfer business, the results on the pitch and his own failings in dealing with media / the whole suarez affair cost kenny his job. its a massive shame because if you wanted someone to advise the owners on footballing matters relating specifically to liverpool he wouldnt have been a bad shout.

[Shaggy]

He's still piling on the pounds though isn't he.

[Shaggy]