Rafa Watch

[dww]

I think a lot of factors came into play - much of the football press hates things that are different or a challenge to their preconceptions. The easiest story to write is a mocking one in such situations. Rafa being from abroad made that easier but it was compounded by his obvious unwillingness to engage with the duller elements of the press. Wenger gives lots of his time to the press and his previous success in the league has shielded him from serious criticism in the press for years.

In a lot of ways you have to think of the press as bullies - they spy weakness in Wenger now and attack. As Rafa adjusted to the PL and didn't make friends with the likes of Fergie he was an easy target. After that a caricature of him was in a lot of the football publics mind and the stories wrote themselves.

[Shaggy]

I cant imagine Wenger goes in for all that 'old boys club' LMA **** either, and he's had his fueds with Ferguson over the years (albeit not recently) - but the media never went for him in anywhere near the same manner (or any manner really), as they did with Rafa.

Perhaps i'm searching for something which isnt there, and their 'reasons' for hating Rafa simply ARE as straightforward as has been suggested - but i dunno, it just sounds too simple. Surely there HAS to be something more to it

It is strange isn't it. I know a lad, a Scouser and a Red, who was football correspondent for the MEN for a while, covered Bolton all over and knows a lot of the press pack. I've said this on here before but he said he knew one lad, Merseyside correspondent for a national, whose number one objective was to get an exclusive Rafa interview. He never got close and sure enough subsequently destroyed Benitez in numerous columns/match reports. My mate reckons a lot of the press based in the NW had similar objectives and they all resented Rafa for his total lack of compliance (he granted one interview in six years with a national paper).

[Shaggy]

I think a lot of factors came into play - much of the football press hates things that are different or a challenge to their preconceptions. The easiest story to write is a mocking one in such situations. Rafa being from abroad made that easier but it was compounded by his obvious unwillingness to engage with the duller elements of the press. Wenger gives lots of his time to the press and his previous success in the league has shielded him from serious criticism in the press for years.

In a lot of ways you have to think of the press as bullies - they spy weakness in Wenger now and attack. As Rafa adjusted to the PL and didn't make friends with the likes of Fergie he was an easy target. After that a caricature of him was in a lot of the football publics mind and the stories wrote themselves.

This too

[little dave hedgehog]

ok, but how's chris bascombe doing these days?

[dww]

Had a debate with a Manc on Twitter this morning who said Rafa "bottled it at the end" in 2009.

Our record after the 'rant' was P18, W12, D5, L1, F42 A12.

"Bottled it"

There's so much received wisdom bull**** about Rafa that is readilly accepted as fact, it really does my head in. I was told today that I can't disassociate from my emotions when it comes to Rafa. Get to ****. I and others just see so much misinformation about him, so many lies and distortion of facts, that I feel I must correct them. But as soon as you do, you're labelled obsessed or whatever.

Still think our problem was too thin a squad due to a lack of consistent investment. At various periods in the season we looked tired and/or lacking in options.

To be fair a lot of people are just wrong though. Someone on a recent stag do said I knew nothing about football as I thought Lucas was a good player and he thought he 'could never win a tackle and always gives the ball away'. Some people hear something on Sky and believe it for the rest of their lives.

[Fredo]

perhaps it's because wenger won the league without losing, and has never been able to win in europe? doing it the right way round in the eyes of some? plus the whole invincibles thing. a bit hard to argue with, while the best rafa ever did domestically was finish 2nd in a season where draws cost us for not being aggressive enough to turn them into wins.

but i digress. he's quite a guy.

Don't go into that please, this is another total myth.

[Craig_H]

It is strange isn't it. I know a lad, a Scouser and a Red, who was football correspondent for the MEN for a while, covered Bolton all over and knows a lot of the press pack. I've said this on here before but he said he knew one lad, Merseyside correspondent for a national, whose number one objective was to get an exclusive Rafa interview. He never got close and sure enough subsequently destroyed Benitez in numerous columns/match reports. My mate reckons a lot of the press based in the NW had similar objectives and they all resented Rafa for his total lack of compliance (he granted one interview in six years with a national paper).

That kind of thing probably plays a fairly major part in it too actually. Real shame though.

[little dave hedgehog]

Don't go into that please, this is another total myth.

well ok, but i remember thinking so in january of that year, and that was before i was very hip to what was going on in the press. we didn't so much as get a post match interview over here. come to think of it i still haven't heard lots of players ever speak.

point is i watched those matches and i thought we were at times overly efficient until it was evident that it was a two horse race. then we started killing teams.

[Craig_H]

Still think our problem was too thin a squad due to a lack of consistent investment. At various periods in the season we looked tired and/or lacking in options.

To be fair a lot of people are just wrong though. Someone on a recent stag do said I knew nothing about football as I thought Lucas was a good player and he thought he 'could never win a tackle and always gives the ball away'. Some people hear something on Sky and believe it for the rest of their lives.

I can barely think of any football-supporter mates of mine, who rate Lucas. It really does show the benefit of watching full games, as opposed to MOTD or just highlights (obvious point, i suppose). The funny thing is, Lucas isnt JUST a decent/good player - he's excellent for us. Yet, no non-LFC fan would probably name him as a key Liverpool player - Suarez and Gerrard will naturally get picked for that. Never in a million years would someone, who isnt a Red and doesnt watch our games in full, pick Lucas.

[dww]

It is strange isn't it. I know a lad, a Scouser and a Red, who was football correspondent for the MEN for a while, covered Bolton all over and knows a lot of the press pack. I've said this on here before but he said he knew one lad, Merseyside correspondent for a national, whose number one objective was to get an exclusive Rafa interview. He never got close and sure enough subsequently destroyed Benitez in numerous columns/match reports. My mate reckons a lot of the press based in the NW had similar objectives and they all resented Rafa for his total lack of compliance (he granted one interview in six years with a national paper).

I never really get why such interviews are so prized. They nearly always just say either how great their team is or how much of a cunt the referee was in the last game. Most of the questions asked by the press to Fergie are the journalistic equivalent of 'Whats your favourite colour?'.

[Shaggy]

I never really get why such interviews are so prized. They nearly always just say either how great their team is or how much of a cunt the referee was in the last game. Most of the questions asked by the press to Fergie are the journalistic equivalent of 'Whats your favourite colour?'.

So true.

"What will it mean to win the title?"

"How excited are you to be here?"

So damn tiresome.

[Fredo]

well ok, but i remember thinking so in january of that year, and that was before i was very hip to what was going on in the press. we didn't so much as get a post match interview over here. come to think of it i still haven't heard lots of players ever speak.

point is i watched those matches and i thought we were at times overly efficient until it was evident that it was a two horse race. then we started killing teams.

I think it wasn't because Rafa set his teams to be conservative, it was maybe just a mixture of tiredness (fact that our squad wasn't as deep as it should) out of playing too many games - remember we were competitive in the CL year in year out back then - and pure bad luck.

[Shaggy]

For what it's worth my mate from the papers really disliked Rafa, but that was for what he perceived as negative football, bad buys, Lucas etc. The usual ****. But even he could see his treatment from the press went way beyond perceived football inadequacies.

[Arn]

Had a debate with a Manc on Twitter this morning who said Rafa "bottled it at the end" in 2009.

Our record after the 'rant' was P18, W12, D5, L1, F42 A12.

"Bottled it"

There's so much received wisdom bull**** about Rafa that is readilly accepted as fact, it really does my head in. I was told today that I can't disassociate from my emotions when it comes to Rafa. Get to ****. I and others just see so much misinformation about him, so many lies and distortion of facts, that I feel I must correct them. But as soon as you do, you're labelled obsessed or whatever.

I even got banned from the Liverpool Swedish supporter club for two years trying to protect Rafa from all the lies about him

It is like stone age in there. One member invented lie after lie about him. I of course corrected him presenting links from excellent sources etc. They got tired of it and banned both of us. They got tired of it because he imagined up so many things that had to be corrected that it was a real mess in there.

He imagined up things like that Rafa mobbed players. That Rafa is the reason that we almost went bankrupt. He is the reason to why Xabi, Mascherano and Torres left. He is the reason to why we signed Keane. He sit on the bench the whole games and look at his watch doing nothing. We played **** football every season including when we finished second. He moaned in the media the whole time. He didn't smile when they showed him in the stands in the Valencia game. The list could be made much longer

He is one of the reasons to why Rafa is almost a hated man by a lot of Swedish Liverpool fans. People believed his lies and he wasn't banned quickly enough because no one cared that he spread his lies almost every day.

I will never understand why I got banned and they don't answer my mails so I will probably never find out why.

They only have one big guestbook and only one moderator that don't give a ****. A very weak one. As I said, it is like the stone age in there.

Rafa will always be a Liverpool legend but try to explain that to a Swedish Liverpool fan and he will most probably laugh at you.

[Craig_H]

To be fair Arn, i'd need to hear their side of the story first, before deciding that you were wronged against