Rafa Watch

[Tee]

@paul_tomkins If people knew the truth about the departure of Alonso I think they would judge him differently. He'll be beck in PL soon.

Is that Alonso who will be back or Rafa?

If we had Alonso in our team right now..

[Fredo]

No, he was talking about Rafa.

[Red_Polo]

What was sort of funny, was Kelly explaining that his use of the word 'nonce' was him trying to shorten his intended meaning of 'nonsensical', which is two sylables beyond his comfort zone.

As for the Football Focus interview, I was sort of uncomfortable with it. Kenny is clearly the right man for the moment, in all aspects of the position. He's far more able with the media than Rafa ever was/is.

In Kenny's book, he rates Rafa for his team briefings as being second to absolutely none. When you consider the old boot room philosophy, somehow, in some way, I'd like to see Rafa in there one day. That obviously means Rafa taking a step back in career, but funnily enough, I think that's within him. I'm sure a lot of you will disagree, too big an ego etc.

What ever you think of him, the man's an aspergers football genius, somehow, I'd like to think we could still harness that quality.

What an interesting way of trying to bull**** your way out of it.

Honestly guv', I was trying to say 'what a nonsensical'!

[Kenneth]

What an interesting way of trying to bull**** your way out of it.

Honestly guv', I was trying to say 'what a nonsensical'!

I know. Almost as bad as that Italian politian looking a prossies on his iPad.

[Arn]

Is that Alonso who will be back or Rafa?

If we had Alonso in our team right now..

Xabi isn't the angel most of the fans think he is. He is very good at PR.

Rafa wanted Xabi to stay but it is difficult when Real is interested. The way Xabi ****ed that one up and then some fans defends his actions and slate Torres is totally laughable.

He did the same thing as Torres. Very late transfer request when he already decided a long time before to join Real. Several months before.

Both of them let the club down. I don't see any difference between what Xabi and Torres did.

Torres could easily have stayed and you could say the same thing about Xabi. You could even say that Xabi left in a worse way because more or less everyone knew that the money would be used to pay the debt and not on a replacement and he left us after we finished second in the league.

Nothing about broken promises he just left because he wanted to join Real. He left a top club that had every chance to win the league and challenge for everything.

Torres left a club that more or less have no chance to challenge for the title.

[Kronenburg1892]

Xabi isn't the angel most of the fans think he is. He is very good at PR.

Rafa wanted Xabi to stay but it is difficult when Real is interested. The way Xabi ****ed that one up and then some fans defends his actions and slate Torres is totally laughable.....

I'd like to see your quotes. I have my own opinions, so I'd like to see where you get this conclusion from.

[Kronenburg1892]

Xabi isn't the angel most of the fans think he is. He is very good at PR.

Rafa wanted Xabi to stay but it is difficult when Real is interested. The way Xabi ****ed that one up and then some fans defends his actions and slate Torres is totally laughable.....

What are you basing this on?

[McDermotX]

TBH, I think in most disputed stories like this there are usually three sides to it.....his version of events, the other fella's story and what really happened.
Most of the Xabi thing has been done to death, but I still always have a feeling that at that point in his life Xabi might well have fancied moving back home (number of years he was at Liverpool, new family to raise etc....)......only he knows for sure I suppose, so its just IMO.

[kris90210]

Xabi isn't the angel most of the fans think he is. He is very good at PR.

Rafa wanted Xabi to stay but it is difficult when Real is interested. The way Xabi ****ed that one up and then some fans defends his actions and slate Torres is totally laughable.

He did the same thing as Torres. Very late transfer request when he already decided a long time before to join Real. Several months before.

Both of them let the club down. I don't see any difference between what Xabi and Torres did.

Torres could easily have stayed and you could say the same thing about Xabi. You could even say that Xabi left in a worse way because more or less everyone knew that the money would be used to pay the debt and not on a replacement and he left us after we finished second in the league.

Nothing about broken promises he just left because he wanted to join Real. He left a top club that had every chance to win the league and challenge for everything.

Torres left a club that more or less have no chance to challenge for the title.

That's a frigging dreadful post Arn. One of your worst. First of all, where do you get your facts from? I suspect all your ranting is based on pure speculation. You're so happy and eagre to discredit Liverpool legends, aren't you. Shame.

The club was actively seeking Alonso's replacement the Summer before he left. I think most reasonable fans could appreciate the fact that perhaps Xabi had decided it was time to go. Despite this, he never bad mouthed us, and never has. He was 100% professional and gave us everything in his last season, despite him not being happy. He's even been back to support us at a couple of matches.

Alonso handed in a transfer request some time in July. We had over a month to identify a replacement and negotiate a price. Now please explain to me how that is the same - or ****ing worse ffs - than Torres leaving us with 4 days.

The guy is a bona fide LFC legend, and to be frank, I'm sick and tired of reading your conspiracy theory **** on here.

[Craig_H]

What are you basing this on?

The myopic theory that Rafa couldnt possibly have been in the wrong.

[IN_RAFA_WE_TRUST]

Cabin also will never have more success than he did at Liverpool.

[IN_RAFA_WE_TRUST]

Wtf xabi alonso.not whatever I typed above.

[Arn]

That's a frigging dreadful post Arn. One of your worst. First of all, where do you get your facts from? I suspect all your ranting is based on pure speculation. You're so happy and eagre to discredit Liverpool legends, aren't you. Shame.

The club was actively seeking Alonso's replacement the Summer before he left. I think most reasonable fans could appreciate the fact that perhaps Xabi had decided it was time to go. Despite this, he never bad mouthed us, and never has. He was 100% professional and gave us everything in his last season, despite him not being happy. He's even been back to support us at a couple of matches.

Alonso handed in a transfer request some time in July. We had over a month to identify a replacement and negotiate a price. Now please explain to me how that is the same - or ****ing worse ffs - than Torres leaving us with 4 days.

The guy is a bona fide LFC legend, and to be frank, I'm sick and tired of reading your conspiracy theory **** on here.

Xabi put in his transfer request the day before he was sold. That means that we had around 25 days or so to find a replacement. Not sometime in July.

One question. Why didn't he put in a transfer request the first week of the window? The only logical answer is....money. He wanted his share. He didn't care a bit if it had been easier to sell him and more time to find a replacement.

Real used Xabi and told him to put pressure on the club to sell him on the cheap. First they made a bid of around £23m, then they put in a lower bid and at the same time Xabi allegedly pressured the club to sell him.

Rafa wanted £30m or it wouldn't be a deal so in the end Xabi was forced to put in a transfer request or else he wouldn't been sold so we could get our £30m. Less than a month to find a replacement and only very little money that we could use of the £30m.

How many realistic replacements left with 25 days left of the window? We had something like £6m in the bank by the look of it to sign a replacement with. We signed Aquilani in instalments, the first being £4.5m and then we signed Kyrgiakos for £1.5m. The rest of the money? We had to pay the interest on our loan.

Say two or three realistic replacements. If we had sold Xabi at the start of the window then it would probably been at least 10 realistic replacements. Now some of them had already been sold etc.

So because of Xabi's greed we ended up with very few realistic options. The angel Xabi can't be greedy can he Surely he can't

So why didn't Xabi put in a transfer request the first week of June?

[Red_Polo]

Xabi left the club when we had horrendous owners and a boss who he'd had running disagreement with. Torres has left the club as it is finally getting back on its feet and filled with optimism, and broke his word by joining a rival despite the new owners. Massive difference. I don't think he deserved the vitriol some do, but he is a bit of a tosser for the way this has come about.

[Arn]

Xabi left the club when we had horrendous owners and a boss who he'd had running disagreement with. Torres has left the club as it is finally getting back on its feet and filled with optimism, and broke his word by joining a rival despite the new owners. Massive difference. I don't think he deserved the vitriol some do, but he is a bit of a tosser for the way this has come about.

As I said. It isn't any big difference between Xabi and Torres. Both of them pro players that put personal ambition before the club. That is why they left.

I would be called mad if I claimed that it was our owners that pimped him around to get in money to pay the interest and not Rafa.

It is easy to forget that we had to make a big profit in the transfer market to pay the interest. Xabi was probably not the only player pimped around by our owners so they could get in money to pay the interest.

First Keane was sold to pay the interest and then Xabi.

That is the way the club was run. Owners that pimped around players to be able to pay the interest. To blame Rafa for that is laughable. He only told the CEO what players he wanted to be sold. He don't pimp the players around.

Rafa had a team to build and very little money to do it. Xabi was one of very few players he could sell to get in some money. Gerrard and Torres the two other options. He wanted to take another step and he needed money so one of our three big stars had to be sold. Gerrard, Torres or Xabi. He made the right choice IMO when he picked Xabi.

Xabi stayed and we finished second. I wonder why Xabi suddenly started to perform that season? Could the reason be that Real wasn't interested 2008?

IMO he started to perform to get Real interested just like Torres did to get Chelsea interested.