Rafa Watch

[Tee]

I wonder is Rafa reading this, thinking, **** i wanted to go to a top club, but if Leeroy thinks like that, I'll take the job at Wolves.

I bet he does read stuff on some forums when he is bored though.

[barnes10]

Didnt rafa dig his own grave by going to Broughton and saying its me or Purslow?

At which point that effectively meant keeping H&G as owners or letting Rafa go...

If that was the choice that Rafa forced upon Broughton then I don't think any of us could say he should have kept Rafa. Can you?

[barnes10]

But yes, backing Rafa properly in the transfer market seems by far the best chance we've had since Kenny left of winning the title. Could have brought us a dynasty again. We'd have 19 or 20 titles by now I'm sure of it.

ffs

[Dhav]

but... that doesnt mean he, or anyone else, has a god given right to use our memory of our CL win or other past glories to cloud our judgement as to what is best for the future development of OUR club.

Oh absolutely. I won't deny that I hope he will be our next manager, and I won't pretend the reason for that is partly borne out of sentiment and the memories of #5 and competing regularly in the latter stages at the highest level in the club game. But I also beleive that in our current predicament, and just from comparing CVs and accomplishments, he is about the best that we could get to take charge.

The likes of Mourinho are pie-in-the-sky, people like that will not want to tarnish their CV by taking on such a high risk role, in fact I think they are scared and frightened by the challenge it represents. I wouldn't want him in any event because of the gob****tery of his antics. Rafa with stable owners and a reasonable transfer budget could work wonders. As much as I love King Kenny, he has misspent the fortunes he has been given, and I would have loved to have seen what Rafa could have built on the £110m Kenny was given.

In an ideal world, Kenny would turn it around and lead us to the promised land, there are few more joyous moments in the game than seeing Kenny celebrate a Liverpool goal. But unfortunately what he has spent he has done so poorly, gambling on expensive British players with Premiership experience being able to drive us forward as opposed to cheaper and unproven (in the Premier League at least) foreign alternatives. He has gambled the club's success over the next few years on these players being able to produce, and sadly, it has backfired badly and there are few indications that he will be able to get us back on track. The league performances and results have been truly woeful, and to be behind the likes of Newcastle given that they have invested comparatively little is, to be frank, just not good enough. It's depressing but I think we really need to consider the possibility of Kenny being moved upstairs and someone coming in to replace him. For me there are few more suitable candidates than Rafa.

[Dhav]

Didnt rafa dig his own grave by going to Broughton and saying its me or Purslow?

At which point that effectively meant keeping H&G as owners or letting Rafa go...

If that was the choice that Rafa forced upon Broughton then I don't think any of us could say he should have kept Rafa. Can you?

Did this happen? First I've heard of it. I do remember Rafa compaining bitterly that he was frustrated at wanting to meet Broughton but for some reason Broughton was reluctant to meet with him. If he did say that then surely he would have just resigned rather than being sacked? I'm pretty sure Rafa's sacking was driven by Purslow in an act of ego-driven megalomania.

[Helios Creed]

The biggest mistake we made was getting rid of Rafa when we did. At a time when the club was going through a sale process and a lot of upheavel and instability, we chose to disrupt and unsettle the playing side of the club by getting rid of the manager when what we really should have been looking to do was maintain stability and continuity on the footballing side in the hope that it would bring some much needed calm to the board room. No doubt Purslow thought if he could bring in a puppet and a yes man like Hodgson who would not rock the boat, he would make the club more attractive to prospective purchasers. However he ****ed it up royally by getting rid of a Champions League winning manager and replacing him with someone incompetent like Hodgson, and as a result the board room unrest began tranmitting itself to the dressing room and the pitch, and we were under a very real threat of being dragged into a relegation dogfight. Time has shown what an outstanding job Rafa did on a shoestring budget, and why there is such a negative perception of him in the media and by fans of other clubs I do not know. Well I do know actually - its because he didnt play the press, media and Sky's game, so they turned on him.

It's a crying shame to see such a talented and dedicated man having to tout himself for a job and having to defend his reputation and CV when the reality is the top clubs should be beating a path to his door to offer him work.

One day I hope he comes home.

G&H couldn't wait to get rid of him and when our form dipped saw their chance - I think it's possible the board had to go along with it, otherwise their planned coup might have been jeopardised by revealing their mutinous stance too early (although it appears Purslow wanted him out becasue of persoanl clashes - I've never been sure of how much he needed to be convinced to side against G&H either - I think he may have joined the revolution quite late...)

[Dhav]

G&H couldn't wait to get rid of him and when our form dipped saw their chance - I think it's possible the board had to go along with it, otherwise their planned coup might have been jeopardised by revealing their mutinous stance too early (although it appears Purslow wanted him out becasue of persoanl clashes - I've never been sure of how much he needed to be convinced to side against G&H either - I think he may have joined the revolution quite late...)

Obviously the two leaches wanted him out, but they aslo realised they would never have a mandate from the fans to do that, as the fans would always line up behind Rafa against the owners, irrespective of how badly we may have been doing on the pitch at the time. I'm pretty sure the driving force behind the sacking was Purslow, and its clear from his subsequent public comments that Broughton went along with it. Ayres I am not sure about, but it would only take those three to pass a board resolution, the input of Gillett and Hicks would not have been strictly necessary. I also think it was clear that at that time the owners had very little involvement in the day to day running of the club, so I wouldn't be surprised if the owners' role in Rafa's sacking was very minimal. In fact I suspect it was.

[Shaggy]

Rafa v Roy, from the Anfield Wrap:

Rafa walks up to the table, Roy stands up and sticks his hand out:

“How are you Rafa?”

Rafa: “You are a liar. You lied about my squad, you lied about my team, you lied about morale, you lied about Kenny’s role and that he was banned from Melwood. You are a liar and I am not going to shake your hand.”

Roy: “How was the traffic?”

[Tee]

I so wish that is true!!!

[Tee]

"How are you Wafa"

[Lee]

Rafa v Roy, from the Anfield Wrap:

Rafa walks up to the table, Roy stands up and sticks his hand out:

“How are you Rafa?”

Rafa: “You are a liar. You lied about my squad, you lied about my team, you lied about morale, you lied about Kenny’s role and that he was banned from Melwood. You are a liar and I am not going to shake your hand.”

Roy: “How was the traffic?”

Real?

[Shaggy]

"How was the twaffic?"

[Tee]

"Smint Wafa?"

[Dhav]

Rafa v Roy, from the Anfield Wrap:

Rafa walks up to the table, Roy stands up and sticks his hand out:

“How are you Rafa?”

Rafa: “You are a liar. You lied about my squad, you lied about my team, you lied about morale, you lied about Kenny’s role and that he was banned from Melwood. You are a liar and I am not going to shake your hand.”

Roy: “How was the traffic?”

Rafa

[Shaggy]

Real?

According to the Anfield Wrap lads, obviously it's come from Peter Hooton who wasn't on the podcast this week, so the tale was quickly told in the last 30 seconds or so of this week's.