Rafa Watch

[peekay]

Which goes back to my point about what level of club his apparent stock currently attracts.

If rumors are to be believed, Real Madrid.

I was reading an article which had an interview with his agent. Rafa was apparently offered the Madrid job twice when he was with us and he rejected them two times. And I am reasonably confident that even if he is in the frame for the Madrid job, if FSG make a strong push, he will come back to us.

Whatever you think about Rafa, I think he is the only manager who is bat**** crazy enough to potentially reject Madrid three times for us.

[Bender]

[Doc_Piptorious]

If rumors are to be believed, Real Madrid.

I was reading an article which had an interview with his agent. Rafa was apparently offered the Madrid job twice when he was with us and he rejected them two times. And I am reasonably confident that even if he is in the frame for the Madrid job, if FSG make a strong push, he will come back to us.

Whatever you think about Rafa, I think he is the only manager who is bat**** crazy enough to potentially reject Madrid three times for us.

I think he is a better manager than most of the roles he has been linked with. I do think that his stock/reputation is currently lower than his actual ability should warrant, hence me saying rightly or wrongly in an earlier post in this thread when referring to his apparent stock.

But I don't think he would be the right man for Liverpool if Rodgers was pushed out this summer.

My biggest worry with a returning Rafa would be that he would have the ability to split the fanbase very quickly if things did not go to plan early on, and I think that he would not be shown the same level of patience that a manager with a clean slate might get.

I don't think he has excelled anywhere since he left Liverpool FC, but he would be a good bet to, and I am talking league here, get us back to where we were before under him, but I would question if he is the man to take us a step further up to where he had us on a regular basis and again I am talking league here.

I think that by his second season he would have us as a solid top four contender and a challenger for cups, but I am not sure if he is the man that can turn regular top four contender status into regular or semi regular title challenger status.

All that said, he would still be on my shortlist to interview if Rodgers was getting the boot, but maybe the third or fourth name on that shortlist.

[baitman]

I don't think he has excelled anywhere since he left Liverpool FC...

interim at the chav cunts.

cant remember the details exactly but where were they in the league before he came in and gave them some stability, got some bit part players to turn in a shift, etc.

[Norbs]

I wonder if he looked old even as a child

[Doc_Piptorious]

interim at the chav cunts.

cant remember the details exactly but where were they in the league before he came in and gave them some stability, got some bit part players to turn in a shift, etc.

Don't know if I would call it an example of him excelling though. He was in charge of one of the best first team and squad combos in the country. I think he


He had a good Europa league win with them (which funnily enough is often used as an example of how good Rafa is, but then becomes a competition that our own supporters like to call a joke competition to play the kids in


He managed Chelsea for 48 games in all comps, had a win % of 58.33% and led them to winning the Europa league.

The man he replaced, Roberto Di Matteo, managed Chelsea for 42 games, had a win % of 57.14% and won the Champions league and the FA cup in that time.

Another interim Chelsea manager in Guus Hiddink had a win % of 73.91% from his 23 games there

Ancelloti at Chelsea had a win % of 61.47% after his 109 games as manager for them.

Avram Grant got 66.67% from 54 games

Jose is sitting on 65.34% after 285 games.

Scholari was 56% from 36 games.

And the worst of them all in recent times was AVB with 47.5% after 40 games.


So do not really see him as having had excelled there. I think he did well there, especially giving the rubbish he had to put up with from the numbnut element of the supporters of that club, but given the quality players he had available to him I think he did what would be expected from a good manager when they have such players available.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I know it might seem like I am ragging on him, but if we got him back it would in many ways be like what he was trying to do at Napoli except over there he had less clubs ahead of him in terms of financial clout etc than he would if he was back at Liverpool.

So basically we would be looking for him to overcome at least four clubs despite having less resources than them.


Now I do think he would be better than Rodgers in that he would get the team finishing higher on average over the period of three or four seasons, but I have my doubts if he would do better in the league second time around than what he achieved first time around.

Basically I want a manager that makes us regular to semi regular title challengers again or who at the very least makes me think that he will. Rafa I think is the guy to make us a regular top four challenger and as good as that sounds right now thanks to the season we have just seen, I kinda want to be greedy and have someone that makes me think he can take the club a step further than what everyone else has failed to do since Kenny's first spell as gaffer.

[JudgeRed]

Rafa with the money FSG gave to Kenny and Rodgers would make us title challengers IMO.

[fidget]

Rafa with the money FSG gave to Kenny and Rodgers would make us title challengers IMO.

[Shaggy]

Loads of reports that Rafa is going to Real Madrid

[EwarWoo]

If he does good on him. Reckon he'll do a great job.

[-V-]

Was it not Florentino Perez who offered Rafa the job back when he was with us

[wiw]

I hope he gets it, he must've been waiting for this for years. Can't see him lasting like, I dunno, he will rub a few people up the wrong way surely

[Keyser Soze]

I hope he gets it, he must've been waiting for this for years. Can't see him lasting like, I dunno, he will rub a few people up the wrong way surely

He's a Real Madrid guy though isn't he, he'll know the politics and some of the people.

Its a poison chalice though - you've got to win the league or CL too survive

Good luck to him though i hope he smashes it (if the rumour is true).

[Vermilion]

Rafa will go to Madrid, win only the league, get sacked, and be ready and waiting if BR fails to put things right.

Back up plan sorted, winning the league there will be enough to sway fsg into thinking he can work under any conditions and with any structure that's in place.