Rafa Watch

[wavydavy]

400-1

Come on Mr Henry, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please make it happen.

This isn't true is it? 400/1 sounds liike bollocks to me. I'd have only been 400/1

[spud_gun]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/21/rafael-benitez-internazionale-massimo-moratti

Rafa's gone!!!!

[The Erectile Banana]

If it's in The Guardian that's good enough for me.

[vonk]

BBC usually never report anything until it's 100% fact.

Sky 'sources' could be Jim White's fervent imagination after a couple of glasses of wine in the Sky canteen.

[wavydavy]

Just give him a one year deal and get rid of the current turd. Gotta be worth a year just to see "what if?" and to piss off the rest of the country. C'mon JH you know it makes sense.

[Buzzo]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCUeBICTgL0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCUeBICTgL0[/ame]



Make it happen JWH.

Weirdly, I cannot find a single version of 'Roy Hodge, Roy Hodgson, Roy Hodge, Roy Hodgson, Roy Hodge, Roy Hodgson super Royston Hodgston' sung by the Kop.

[Baracus]

I was at a european champions league game with a manc friend (season ticket holder), cannot remember the season or the team we played except it was against a team in the final stage rounds and we had already got a 4-0? (vague memory) lead from the away game, I thought it would be a drap affair. It was his 1st time he had been to anfield. He absolutely loved it. Said the atmosphere pissed old toilets, as the crowd were full of songs, even thou we were winning 4-0? and in cruise control. Bamba Rafa non stop in 2nd half for a good 10mins. Quality

[Drago]

I was at a european champions league game with a manc friend (season ticket holder), cannot remember the season, or the team expect it was against in the final stage rounds and we had already had a 4-0? (vague memory) lead from the away game, I thought it would be a drap affair. It was his 1st time he had been to anfield. He absolutely loved it. Said the atmosphere pissed old toilets, as the crowd were full of songs, even thou we were winning 4-0? and in cruise control. Bamba Rafa non stop in 2nd half for a good 10mins. Quality

PSV in 07? It's the only time I can remember us taking a big lead in the away tie. It was 3-0 though. Had a few bob on Gerrard to open the scoring in the first leg and he duly obliged.

[Baracus]

Yep that was it. PSV. Its all coming back to me. We as a crowd were class and that song amongst us was just amazing. Good old times.

[alunevans]

Am I the only one who thinks that Rafa's done himself no favours here. He seems to have taken the "public row" mentality with him from his battles with Hicks and Gillett.

Also, I can't help thinking that on the substance of his public complaint that it shouldn't explain a drop from treble winners to 7th.

I don't follow Italian football so there's a good chance I've missed a trick so feel free to put me in the picture, but whether or not he got the players he was promised, hasn't he done a poor job given that he took over the treble winners and he's left with them in the position that they're in?

[Shaggy]

42 separate injuries this season. Not an excuse but a fact. That sounds like Arn doesn't it. Yes he should have done better but he inherited an ageing squad and they've had a ****ing nightmare with injuries, decimated at times. sorry i've been drinking

[Qantaga]

I can't wait to see Rafa at one of our home games soon

Rafa, Rafael, Rafa, Rafael...



\Q

[5europeancups]

Am I the only one who thinks that Rafa's done himself no favours here. He seems to have taken the "public row" mentality with him from his battles with Hicks and Gillett.

Also, I can't help thinking that on the substance of his public complaint that it shouldn't explain a drop from treble winners to 7th.

I don't follow Italian football so there's a good chance I've missed a trick so feel free to put me in the picture, but whether or not he got the players he was promised, hasn't he done a poor job given that he took over the treble winners and he's left with them in the position that they're in?

I think Rafa wanted out and thought he was onto a loser which is why he performed his traditional rant after a bit of success.

If I remember each time he had some success he had a rant. 2005, 2008 and now 2010.

For sure the guy has not been helped by some injureis but at the end of the day he was off the pace in an Italian league that is not that great. Napoli are above them I think.

I have a horrible feeling though that based on his scientific approach however that he may just be coming back to Liverpool and that he engineered his own Inter exit.

[SB]

Sacked Rafa Benitez set to pocket big Inter Milan pay-off to go with his £4m from Liverpool

By John Edwards
Last updated at 12:42 AM on 22nd December 2010

Rafa Benitez's sacking by Inter Milan will be confirmed on Wednesday, and the former Liverpool manager faces further humiliation after it emerged that failed AC Milan coach Leonardo has been lined up to replace him.

Sportsmail revealed on Monday how Benitez had talked himself out of a job by turning on owner Massimo Moratti in the wake of Inter's Club World Cup triumph in Abu Dhabi, and the San Siro chief ended the Spaniard's reign in a phone call on Tuesday night, six months into a two-year contract.

The news was relayed to Benitez at the home he has kept near Liverpool and will be ratified in an official statement this morning.

Benitez was frequently at odds with owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett during his time at Anfield and must have known what was at stake when he challenged Moratti's authority on Sunday, effectively calling on the owner to back him with transfer funds or sack him.

Benitez said: 'Last year, Moratti spent 80million euros on five players, but this year he has spent nothing for me. It has left me 100 per cent disappointed.

'It seems to me there are three options now for the club. One, 100 per cent support for the coach and four or five new players to build a stronger team. Two, carry on like this, without a project or any planning and go ahead with one person to blame. Three, speak to my agent and reach an agreement. Simple.'

Unsurprisingly, the all-powerful Moratti chose the latter option and delayed implementing his decision only for fear of handing Benitez the initiative in any dispute over a pay-off.

He was still choosing his words from the club's offices in Milan and, asked whether Benitez was still in charge, said: 'At this precise moment, he is, yes.'

The phone call soon followed and, as Benitez reflected on a brief stay at the European champions, his mood will not have been helped by a clear signal that Leonardo is heading back to the San Siro to fill his boots, despite his time as AC Milan boss ending with Silvio Berlusconi firing him.

Moratti was eager to take former Roma coach Luciano Spalletti back to Serie A but a £5m compensation payment to Zenit St Petersburg, on top of personal terms, was prohibitive.

Instead, he will turn to Leonardo, and his motives say much about a personality that was always likely to put him at odds with Benitez, given the former Liverpool manager's craving for control.


A San Siro source said: 'Leonardo was just behind Spalletti on Moratti's list of candidates, but he is available and he knows the club after his time at Milan. Also, Moratti grew to like and admire Leonardo for the work he did here. He felt he conducted himself extremely well under difficult circumstances and was harshly treated when Milan got rid of him.

'But there is more to it than that. Berlusconi is more than just a local rival. Moratti does not like him as a political figure, and the thought of taking on a coach Milan sacked and turning him into a great success with Inter is too good to resist. If he can pull it off, he would see it as a double victory.

'He likes to be in control, and Benitez never had a chance of surviving once he took him on and gave him an ultimatum. There was only ever going to be one outcome.'

With Benitez choosing to keep his home on Merseyside and making no secret of his wish to manage Liverpool for a second time, rumours were rife that Roy Hodgson may have to make way for a homecoming that would divide opinion among the club's vast support.

New owner John Henry, who bought out Hicks and Gillett in an acrimonious power struggle earlier this season, would surely be wary of taking on a coach with a track record for picking fights behind the scenes.

Benitez has had a torrid time since taking over at Inter from Jose Mourinho, whose side won the Champions League, the Serie A title and the Coppa Italia last season.

Inter have struggled to show such dominance this season and are 13 points behind leaders AC Milan.

They are through to the last 16 of the Champions League but only after finishing runners-up to Tottenham, who soundly beat them 3-1 in the group stage at White Hart Lane.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz18oW2s5Vs

[Trippendicular]

I can't wait to see Rafa at one of our home games soon

Rafa, Rafael, Rafa, Rafael...



\Q

I think someone said it awhile ago, but now that he'll probably have a lot of free time, I can definitely imagine Rafa as a David Brent-esque nuisance who hangs around the club like a bad smell