Rafa Watch

[ronanm]

the thing that gets me is that im sure the likes of gerrard, carra and torres all underperformed in rafa's last season. i remember carra being woeful and gerrard being utterly disinterested. fair enough torres was injured half the time but when he was fit, he looked half arsed. rumours aside, what i saw with my eyes smacked of them undermining the manager who gave them the best years of their careers. that, unfortunately, is enough for me to discount them as 'legends' for our club. my opinion is that they actively undermined the manager and therefore they lose a huge amount of credit from me for that whatever they did on the pitch when they felt like it.

rafa's last season was better than the current season and he had to put up with what amounted to a mutiny from his leading players on top of the board room bollocks.

rafa's a complete legend. I'm mixed about him coming back but we massively shot ourselves in the foot with how he was treated. you back or sack a manager and we got that 50:50 wrong and we're paying for that now. if those around him, players and board alike, were half the bloke he is, we'd have won 2 or 3 leagues already.

None of that would ever stand up in court

[Angryred]

Not my intention to disrepect the current regime but I think the senior players are starting to feel that old adage: Don't know what you've had until it's gone!
In my opinion, we need the dream team at Anfield, Rafa & Kenny with Clarke & some of Rafa's backroom staff there.
I'm sure Rafa can teach Commoli a thing or two about scouting!

YWNA!

[Shaggy]

I imagine Rafa could teach Comolli all manner of things about football, in fairness.

[baitman]

I'm sure Rafa can teach Commoli a thing or two about scouting!

did rafa bring any players who were NOT spanish [or spanish based] ?

masher, lucas, and...
googled and found this; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...ers-reign.html
and this; http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/g...pool-transfers

[Reece]

Yes, loads. As your links show

[Shaggy]

Gotta love those ludicrous articles/assessments that include purchases for the youth team/academy - no other manager is subject to such scrutiny and no other manager has youth signings lumped in with senior signings. It's so transparent, so laughable

[Reece]

Gotta love those ludicrous articles/assessments that include purchases for the youth team/academy - no other manager is subject to such scrutiny and no other manager has youth signings lumped in with senior signings. It's so transparent, so laughable

Aye was just thinking that when I saw "Where is he now - in the reserves" next to Palsson (for example). He was bought as a young player with future potential (or not, as the case may have been ). As you say you don't see Ferguson getting so much scrutiny for the young players he buys - Tosic? Bebe?!

[red g]

Aye was just thinking that when I saw "Where is he now - in the reserves" next to Palsson (for example). He was bought as a young player with future potential (or not, as the case may have been ). As you say you don't see Ferguson getting so much scrutiny for the young players he buys - Tosic? Bebe?!

15million on them 2 alone

[Angryred]

15million on them 2 alone

Aye, well dodgy them deals!

[Rich]

did rafa bring any players who were NOT spanish [or spanish based] ?

masher, lucas, and...
googled and found this; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...ers-reign.html
and this; http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/g...pool-transfers

Are you for real?

[Shaggy]

[baitman]

Are you for real?

[Nick77]

Rafa unearthed world class players - Alonso, Reina, Mascherano, Agger, Lucas & Torres. We also saw Gerrard as the best midfielder in the world under Rafa.
If Rafa were still in charge who knows, we might have actually won another league title by now...

[Alex]

Rafa unearthed world class players - Alonso, Reina, Mascherano, Agger, Lucas & Torres. We also saw Gerrard as the best midfielder in the world under Rafa.
If Rafa were still in charge who knows, we might have actually won another league title by now...

I love Rafa, but to say if he was still here we might have a league title is a bit revisionist.

His last season we went backwards, then arguably we would have gotten worse still the next. Not until this season would we have possibly seen some improvement.

[Shaggy]

I'm not sure it can be "revisionist", it's just an opinion. I think we may well have done, and I also think we'd have qualified for the CL this season - under his management we qualified 5 times out of 6, only failing in his last season.

Just my opinion.